I 

117TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION H. R. 279 

To provide lasting protection for inventoried roadless areas within the 

National Forest System. 

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

JANUARY 12, 2021 

Mr. GALLEGO (for himself, Ms. DEGETTE, Mr. LOWENTHAL, Mr. WELCH, 

Mr. GRIJALVA, Ms. MOORE of Wisconsin, Mr. HUFFMAN, Ms. BONAMICI, 

Ms. BARRAGA ́N, Mr. KILMER, Mr. THOMPSON of Mississippi, Mr. PANETTA, Mr. SMITH of Washington, Ms. SCHAKOWSKY, Mr. KHANNA, Mr. 

CARTWRIGHT, Ms. STEVENS, Ms. VELA ́ZQUEZ, Mr. COHEN, Mr. SIRES, 

Ms. BROWNLEY, Ms. JAYAPAL, Mrs. CAROLYN B. MALONEY of New 

York, Mr. CASTEN, Mr. CLEAVER, Ms. CASTOR of Florida, Ms. 

DELBENE, Mr. KRISHNAMOORTHI, Mr. HASTINGS, Ms. PINGREE, Mr. 

CONNOLLY, Ms. CLARKE of New York, Mrs. BEATTY, Mr. CASE, Ms. 

ESCOBAR, Mr. BLUMENAUER, Mr. KIM of New Jersey, Mr. SCHIFF, Mrs. 

WATSON COLEMAN, Mr. PALLONE, Ms. ESHOO, Ms. ROYBAL-ALLARD, 

Mr. BRENDAN F. BOYLE of Pennsylvania, Mr. CARBAJAL, Mr. QUIGLEY, 

Mrs. TRAHAN, Mr. TONKO, Ms. TLAIB, Ms. MCCOLLUM, Mr. MCGOVERN, Mr. FOSTER, Mr. BEYER, Mr. POCAN, Mr. EVANS, Mr. GARCI ́A of 

Illinois, Mrs. NAPOLITANO, Mr. TAKANO, Ms. SCHRIER, Ms. CHU, Mr. 

SUOZZI, Mrs. DINGELL, Mr. MALINOWSKI, Mr. LARSEN of Washington, 

Mr. NADLER, and Mrs. KIRKPATRICK) 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. 


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•HR 279 IH

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

3 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 

4 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Roadless Area Con5 servation Act of 2021’’. 

6 SEC. 2. FINDINGS AND PURPOSE. 

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

8 (1) there is a compelling need to establish na9 tional protection for inventoried roadless areas of the 

10 National Forest System in order to protect the 

11 unique social and ecological values of those irreplace12 able resources; 

13 (2) roadless areas protect healthy watersheds 

14 and the numerous benefits of healthy watersheds, 

15 which include— 

16 (A) providing the setting for many forms 

17 of outdoor recreation; 

18 (B) ensuring a supply of clean water for 

19 domestic, agricultural, and industrial uses; 

20 (C) providing drinking water to tens of 

21 millions of citizens of the United States; and 

22 (D) helping maintain abundant and 

23 healthy fish and wildlife populations and habi24 tats; 


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1 (3) maintaining roadless areas in a relatively 

2 undisturbed condition— 

3 (A) saves downstream communities mil4 lions of dollars in water filtration costs; and 

5 (B) is crucial to preserve the flow of af6 fordable, clean water to a growing population; 

7 (4) the protection of roadless areas can main8 tain biological strongholds and refuges for many im9 periled species by halting the ongoing fragmentation 

10 of the landscape into smaller and smaller parcels of 

11 land divided by road corridors; 

12 (5) roadless areas conserve native biodiversity 

13 by serving as a bulwark against the spread of non14 native invasive species; 

15 (6) roadless areas provide important backcoun16 try fish and game habitat, creating opportunities for 

17 hunting and commercial and sport fishing; 

18 (7) roadless areas provide unparalleled opportu19 nities for outdoor recreation, including hiking, camp20 ing, picnicking, wildlife viewing, hunting, fishing, 

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

22 similar activities; 

23 (8) while roadless areas may have many wilder24 ness-like attributes, unlike wilderness areas, the use 


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•HR 279 IH

1 of mechanized means of travel is allowed in many 

2 roadless areas; 

3 (9) roadless areas contain many sites sacred to 

4 Native Americans, Alaska Natives, and other groups 

5 that use roadless areas for spiritual and religious 

6 practices and access, including customary and tradi7 tional uses and activities; 

8 (10) from the inception of Federal land man9 agement, the mission of the Forest Service has been 

10 to manage the National Forest System for multiple 

11 uses, including resource utilization, conservation, 

12 and other uses; 

13 (11) consistent with the multiple-use mission 

14 described in paragraph (10), this Act— 

15 (A) ensures the continued protection of so16 cial and ecological values, while allowing for 

17 many multiple uses of inventoried roadless 

18 areas; and 

19 (B) does not impose any new limitations 

20 on— 

21 (i) inventoried roadless areas; or 

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

23 Forest System, State, or private land out24 side inventoried roadless areas; 


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1 (12) enacting a law for the protection of inven2 toried roadless areas— 

3 (A) provides additional reliability to areas 

4 with recreation-based economies that depend on 

5 public land without roads for jobs, revenue, and 

6 consumer spending; and 

7 (B) encourages forest managers to con8 tinue giving priority to conducting fuel reduc9 tion treatments in the areas in which the treat10 ments will have the most impact; 

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

12 in roaded areas as in roadless areas, because road13 less areas are generally located further away from 

14 communities and are harder to access; 

15 (14) the Forest Service has an enormous back16 log of maintenance needs for the existing 371,581- 

17 mile road system of the Forest Service that will cost 

18 $3,200,000,000 to eliminate; and 

19 (15) continued protection of roadless areas will 

20 continue to allow for the development of hydropower 

21 projects. 

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

23 within the context of multiple-use management, lasting 

24 protection for inventoried roadless areas within the Na25 tional Forest System. 


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1 SEC. 3. DEFINITIONS. 

2 In this Act: 

3 (1) INVENTORIED ROADLESS AREA.—The term 

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

5 road construction, road reconstruction, or logging is 

6 subject to regulation under the Roadless Rule. 

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

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

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

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

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

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

13 the Secretary of Agriculture, acting through the 

14 Chief of the Forest Service. 

15 SEC. 4. PROTECTION OF INVENTORIED ROADLESS AREAS. 

16 The Secretary shall not allow road construction, road 

17 reconstruction, or logging in an inventoried roadless area 

18 where those activities are prohibited by the Roadless Rule. 

Æ 


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