WASHINGTON – Conservation groups are criticizing a federal proposal to rescind the 2001 Roadless Area Conservation Rule on federal lands, but a member of North Dakota’s congressional delegation says the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s plan to repeal the rule will ensure North Dakota ranchers and energy producers have better access to USDA-managed lands.

The proposal would impact about 45 million acres of national forest land across 37 states, including the Little Missouri National Grasslands in western North Dakota.

Implemented in January 2001 near the end of the Clinton administration, the Roadless Rule is a U.S. Forest Service (USFS) regulation that prohibits road construction or improvements, and most timber harvesting, in designated “Inventoried Roadless Areas” on national forest la

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