I 

116TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION H. R. 2491 

To provide lasting protection for inventoried roadless areas within the 

National Forest System. 

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

MAY 2, 2019 

Mr. GALLEGO (for himself, Ms. HAALAND, Ms. GABBARD, Ms. MOORE, Ms. 

SCHAKOWSKY, Ms. JAYAPAL, Mr. KRISHNAMOORTHI, Mr. HUFFMAN, Mr. 

RASKIN, Mr. PAPPAS, Ms. ESHOO, Mr. SOTO, Mr. BISHOP of Georgia, 

Mr. SCHIFF, Ms. OCASIO-CORTEZ, Ms. DELBENE, Mr. COHEN, Mrs. 

KIRKPATRICK, Mr. BLUMENAUER, Mr. TONKO, Mr. SIRES, Mr. MCGOVERN, Ms. VELA ́ZQUEZ, Mr. CASTEN of Illinois, Mr. PRICE of North Carolina, Ms. ROYBAL-ALLARD, Mr. KHANNA, Mr. FOSTER, Mr. POCAN, Mr. 

LOWENTHAL, Mr. NEGUSE, Ms. BROWNLEY of California, Mr. GRIJALVA, 

Mr. CARBAJAL, Mrs. DINGELL, Ms. DEGETTE, and Mr. CASE) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Agriculture, and in addition to the Committee on Natural Resources, for a 

period to be subsequently determined by the Speaker, in each case for 

consideration of such provisions as fall within the jurisdiction of the committee concerned 

A BILL 

To provide lasting protection for inventoried roadless areas 

within the National Forest System. 

1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 


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1 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 

2 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Roadless Area Con3 servation Act of 2019’’. 

4 SEC. 2. FINDINGS AND PURPOSE. 

5 (a) IN GENERAL.—Congress finds that— 

6 (1) there is a compelling need to establish na7 tional protection for inventoried roadless areas of the 

8 National Forest System in order to protect the 

9 unique social and ecological values of those irreplace10 able resources; 

11 (2) roadless areas protect healthy watersheds 

12 and the numerous benefits of healthy watersheds, 

13 which include— 

14 (A) providing the setting for many forms 

15 of outdoor recreation; 

16 (B) ensuring a supply of clean water for 

17 domestic, agricultural, and industrial uses; 

18 (C) providing drinking water to tens of 

19 millions of citizens of the United States; and 

20 (D) helping maintain abundant and 

21 healthy fish and wildlife populations and habi22 tats; 

23 (3) maintaining roadless areas in a relatively 

24 undisturbed condition— 

25 (A) saves downstream communities mil26 lions of dollars in water filtration costs; and 


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1 (B) is crucial to preserve the flow of af2 fordable, clean water to a growing population; 

3 (4) the protection of roadless areas can main4 tain biological strongholds and refuges for many im5 periled species by halting the ongoing fragmentation 

6 of the landscape into smaller and smaller parcels of 

7 land divided by road corridors; 

8 (5) roadless areas conserve native biodiversity 

9 by serving as a bulwark against the spread of non10 native invasive species; 

11 (6) roadless areas provide important backcoun12 try fish and game habitat, creating opportunities for 

13 hunting and commercial and sport fishing; 

14 (7) roadless areas provide unparalleled opportu15 nities for outdoor recreation, including hiking, camp16 ing, picnicking, wildlife viewing, hunting, fishing, 

17 cross-country skiing, canoeing, mountain-biking, and 

18 similar activities; 

19 (8) while roadless areas may have many wilder20 ness-like attributes, unlike wilderness areas, the use 

21 of mechanized means of travel is allowed in many 

22 roadless areas; 

23 (9) roadless areas contain many sites sacred to 

24 Native Americans, Alaska Natives, and other groups 

25 that use roadless areas for spiritual and religious 


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1 practices and access, including customary and tradi2 tional uses and activities; 

3 (10) from the inception of Federal land man4 agement, the mission of the Forest Service has been 

5 to manage the National Forest System for multiple 

6 uses, including resource utilization, conservation, 

7 and other uses; 

8 (11) consistent with the multiple-use mission 

9 described in paragraph (10), this Act— 

10 (A) ensures the continued protection of so11 cial and ecological values, while allowing for 

12 many multiple uses of inventoried roadless 

13 areas; and 

14 (B) does not impose any new limitations 

15 on— 

16 (i) inventoried roadless areas; or 

17 (ii) the use of, or access to, National 

18 Forest System, State, or private land out19 side inventoried roadless areas; 

20 (12) enacting a law for the protection of inven21 toried roadless areas— 

22 (A) provides additional reliability to areas 

23 with recreation-based economies that depend on 

24 public land without roads for jobs, revenue, and 

25 consumer spending; and 


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1 (B) encourages forest managers to con2 tinue giving priority to conducting fuel reduc3 tion treatments in the areas in which the treat4 ments will have the most impact; 

5 (13) wildfires are almost twice as likely to occur 

6 in roaded areas as in roadless areas, because road7 less areas are generally located further away from 

8 communities and are harder to access; 

9 (14) the Forest Service has an enormous back10 log of maintenance needs for the existing 371,581- 

11 mile road system of the Forest Service that will cost 

12 $3,200,000,000 to eliminate; and 

13 (15) continued protection of roadless areas will 

14 continue to allow for the development of hydropower 

15 projects. 

16 (b) PURPOSE.—The purpose of this Act is to provide, 

17 within the context of multiple-use management, lasting 

18 protection for inventoried roadless areas within the Na19 tional Forest System. 

20 SEC. 3. DEFINITIONS. 

21 In this Act: 

22 (1) INVENTORIED ROADLESS AREA.—The term 

23 ‘‘inventoried roadless area’’ means any area in which 

24 road construction, road reconstruction, or logging is 

25 subject to regulation under the Roadless Rule. 


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1 (2) ROADLESS RULE.—The term ‘‘Roadless 

2 Rule’’ means part 294 of title 36, Code of Federal 

3 Regulations, as adopted on January 12, 2001, and 

4 modified for Idaho on October 16, 2008, and for 

5 Colorado on July 3, 2012, and December 19, 2016. 

6 (3) SECRETARY.—The term ‘‘Secretary’’ means 

7 the Secretary of Agriculture, acting through the 

8 Chief of the Forest Service. 

9 SEC. 4. PROTECTION OF INVENTORIED ROADLESS AREAS. 

10 The Secretary shall not allow road construction, road 

11 reconstruction, or logging in an inventoried roadless area 

12 where those activities are prohibited by the Roadless Rule. 

Æ 


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