# Roadless Rule The **Roadless Area Conservation Rule**, promulgated by the [[United States Forest Service]] in January 2001 and codified at **36 CFR Part 294, Subpart B**. It bars most road construction, road reconstruction and commercial timber harvest across **inventoried roadless areas of the National Forest System — 58.5 million acres**, roughly a quarter of the agency's holding and an area larger than any single national forest system unit. It is the clearest example in the federal land system of a **regulatory overlay**: it moves no acre out of federal ownership and changes no agency's title, but it decides what may physically be done on a quarter of the National Forest System. Because its instrument is a rule rather than a statute, it is reversible by the same notice-and-comment machinery that created it — and it has been contested in both directions almost continuously since 2001, including state-specific exemptions and reinstatements. **Live as of 2026-09-26:** on 2026-08-20 the Forest Service proposed rescinding Subpart B **in its entirety** (RIN 0596-AD66, Docket FS-2025-0001), citing wildfire risk. The comment period was extended 15 days to **2026-10-06**. No final rule has published. ## See also - [[Federal Land Management Crosswalk]] - [[United States Forest Service]] - [[Public Lands Rule]] - [[Tom Schultz]]