119-s2042

[Congressional Bills 119th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 2042 Introduced in Senate

    (IS) ]

<DOC>

119th CONGRESS
 1st Session
 S. 2042

To provide lasting protection for inventoried roadless areas within the 
 National Forest System.

_______________________________________________________________________

 IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

 June 11, 2025

 Ms. Cantwell (for herself, Mr. Gallego, Mr. Padilla, Mr. Booker, Ms. 
Smith, Mr. Wyden, Mr. Durbin, Mr. Sanders, Mr. Welch, Mr. Merkley, Mrs. 
Murray, Ms. Hirono, and Mr. Blumenthal) introduced the following bill; 
 which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Energy and 
 Natural Resources

_______________________________________________________________________

 A BILL

To provide lasting protection for inventoried roadless areas within the 
 National Forest System.

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

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

 This Act may be cited as the ``Roadless Area Conservation Act of 
2025''.

SEC. 2. FINDINGS AND PURPOSE.

    (a) In General.--Congress finds that--

    (1) there is a compelling need to establish national 
 protection for inventoried roadless areas of the National 
 Forest System in order to protect the unique social and 
 ecological values of those irreplaceable 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 habitats;

    (3) maintaining roadless areas in a relatively undisturbed 
 condition--
        (A) saves downstream communities millions of 
 dollars in water filtration costs; and
        (B) is crucial to preserve the flow of affordable, 
 clean water to a growing population;

    (4) the protection of roadless areas can maintain 
 biological strongholds and refuges for many imperiled 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 nonnative invasive species;

    (6) roadless areas provide important backcountry fish and 
 game habitat, creating opportunities for hunting and commercial 
 and sport fishing;

    (7) roadless areas provide unparalleled opportunities for 
 outdoor recreation, including hiking, camping, picnicking, 
 wildlife viewing, hunting, fishing, cross-country skiing, 
 canoeing, mountain biking, and similar activities;

    (8) while roadless areas may have many wilderness-like 
 attributes, unlike wilderness areas, the use 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 traditional uses and activities;

    (10) from the inception of Federal land management, 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 social 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 outside 
 inventoried roadless areas;

    (12) enacting a law for the protection of inventoried 
 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 continue giving 
 priority to conducting fuel reduction treatments in the 
 areas in which the treatments will have the most 
 impact;

    (13) wildfires are almost twice as likely to occur in 
 roaded areas as in roadless areas, because roadless areas are 
 generally located further away from communities and are harder 
 to access;

    (14) the Forest Service has an enormous backlog of 
 maintenance needs for the existing 368,102-mile road system of 
 the Forest Service that will cost $5,980,000,000 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 National Forest System.

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.
 <all>