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. PA-
NETTA, 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. MCGOV-
ERN, 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 de-
termined 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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Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Roadless Area Con-
servation Act of 2021’’. 
SEC. 2. FINDINGS AND PURPOSE. 
(a) IN GENERAL.—Congress finds that— 
(1) there is a compelling need to establish na-
tional protection for inventoried roadless areas of the 
National Forest System in order to protect the 
unique social and ecological values of those irreplace-
able resources; 
(2) roadless areas protect healthy watersheds 
and the numerous benefits of healthy watersheds, 
which include— 
(A) providing the setting for many forms 
of outdoor recreation; 
(B) ensuring a supply of clean water for 
domestic, agricultural, and industrial uses; 
(C) providing drinking water to tens of 
millions of citizens of the United States; and 
(D) 
helping 
maintain 
abundant 
and 
healthy fish and wildlife populations and habi-
tats; 
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(3) maintaining roadless areas in a relatively 
undisturbed condition— 
(A) saves downstream communities mil-
lions of dollars in water filtration costs; and 
(B) is crucial to preserve the flow of af-
fordable, clean water to a growing population; 
(4) the protection of roadless areas can main-
tain biological strongholds and refuges for many im-
periled species by halting the ongoing fragmentation 
of the landscape into smaller and smaller parcels of 
land divided by road corridors; 
(5) roadless areas conserve native biodiversity 
by serving as a bulwark against the spread of non-
native invasive species; 
(6) roadless areas provide important backcoun-
try fish and game habitat, creating opportunities for 
hunting and commercial and sport fishing; 
(7) roadless areas provide unparalleled opportu-
nities for outdoor recreation, including hiking, camp-
ing, picnicking, wildlife viewing, hunting, fishing, 
cross-country skiing, canoeing, mountain biking, and 
similar activities; 
(8) while roadless areas may have many wilder-
ness-like attributes, unlike wilderness areas, the use 
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of mechanized means of travel is allowed in many 
roadless areas; 
(9) roadless areas contain many sites sacred to 
Native Americans, Alaska Natives, and other groups 
that use roadless areas for spiritual and religious 
practices and access, including customary and tradi-
tional uses and activities; 
(10) from the inception of Federal land man-
agement, the mission of the Forest Service has been 
to manage the National Forest System for multiple 
uses, including resource utilization, conservation, 
and other uses; 
(11) consistent with the multiple-use mission 
described in paragraph (10), this Act— 
(A) ensures the continued protection of so-
cial and ecological values, while allowing for 
many multiple uses of inventoried roadless 
areas; and 
(B) does not impose any new limitations 
on— 
(i) inventoried roadless areas; or 
(ii) the use of, or access to, National 
Forest System, State, or private land out-
side inventoried roadless areas; 
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(12) enacting a law for the protection of inven-
toried roadless areas— 
(A) provides additional reliability to areas 
with recreation-based economies that depend on 
public land without roads for jobs, revenue, and 
consumer spending; and 
(B) encourages forest managers to con-
tinue giving priority to conducting fuel reduc-
tion treatments in the areas in which the treat-
ments will have the most impact; 
(13) wildfires are almost twice as likely to occur 
in roaded areas as in roadless areas, because road-
less areas are generally located further away from 
communities and are harder to access; 
(14) the Forest Service has an enormous back-
log of maintenance needs for the existing 371,581- 
mile road system of the Forest Service that will cost 
$3,200,000,000 to eliminate; and 
(15) continued protection of roadless areas will 
continue to allow for the development of hydropower 
projects. 
(b) PURPOSE.—The purpose of this Act is to provide, 
within the context of multiple-use management, lasting 
protection for inventoried roadless areas within the Na-
tional Forest System. 
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SEC. 3. DEFINITIONS. 
In this Act: 
(1) INVENTORIED ROADLESS AREA.—The term 
‘‘inventoried roadless area’’ means any area in which 
road construction, road reconstruction, or logging is 
subject to regulation under the Roadless Rule. 
(2) ROADLESS
RULE.—The term ‘‘Roadless 
Rule’’ means part 294 of title 36, Code of Federal 
Regulations, as adopted on January 12, 2001, and 
modified for Idaho on October 16, 2008, and for 
Colorado on July 3, 2012, and December 19, 2016. 
(3) SECRETARY.—The term ‘‘Secretary’’ means 
the Secretary of Agriculture, acting through the 
Chief of the Forest Service. 
SEC. 4. PROTECTION OF INVENTORIED ROADLESS AREAS. 
The Secretary shall not allow road construction, road 
reconstruction, or logging in an inventoried roadless area 
where those activities are prohibited by the Roadless Rule. 
Æ 
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