Reprinted from Nancy Churchill, Dangerous Rhetoric.  Consider subscribing to this substack for excellent analysis and writing!

One-Size-Fits-All Wildfire Failure

How the Roadless Rule Left Washington Forests Ready to Burn

Eastern Washington is burning again. The Little Giant Fire has scorched 136,000 acres across two roadless areas. The Spokane Complex fires destroyed 700 homes and forced 65,000 people to evacuate. Tribal communities in Nespelem and Inchelium faced close calls as the Kaiser Canyon and Modrite fires burned a combined 195,878 acres on the Colville Reservation. Smoke from these fires drifted all the way to Washington, D.C.

This is not random misfortune. It is the predictable result of a policy that stopped us from managing our federal forests. Crowded timber stands choked with deadfall sit like dry cheatgrass after a long summer. Once a spark hits, the whole hillside explodes into a ferocious firestorm.

A Rule That Tied Local Hands

For 25 years the 2001 Roadless Rule has locked up nearly 45 million acres of National Forest land. It banned new roads and severely limited timber harvest in inventoried roadless areas. Local forest managers who know the ground best could not thin overcrowded stands, remove beetle-killed trees, or build the access routes firefighters need.

Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins put it plainly: the failed one-size-fits-all Roadless Rule tied the hands of local managers and left more than 44 million acres vulnerable to overgrowth, disease, and catastrophic wildfire. The Forest Service is finally moving to rescind that rule and restore authority to the people who live closest to the land.

Todd Myers of the Washington Policy Center has watched the same pattern for years. “Since we stopped managing federal forests they became dead and fire-prone,” he wrote. “Fires that start elsewhere quickly rip through the dead timber. Tribes have repeatedly asked the federal government to harvest in these areas specifically to stop catastrophic spread.”

Roadless Does Not Mean Safer

Critics claim most fires start near roads. That may be true, but it’s also true those fires are usually stopped quickly because firefighters can reach them. The Little Giant Fire tells a different story. It is already 136,000 acres and sits inside two roadless areas. Many of these locked-up stands are completely unhealthy. When fire races through them it destroys the wildlife habitat, the streams, and the water quality the rule was supposed to protect.

We cannot keep pretending that leaving dead forests untouched is conservation. It is negligence dressed up as virtue.

What Common Sense Looks Like

Rescinding the Roadless Rule does not order clear-cuts or force new roads onto every ridge. It simply ends the national prohibition and returns decisions to local Forest Service districts. Those managers can then decide, with public input and tribal consultation, where mechanical thinning, beetle-kill removal, and limited access roads make sense.

The practical benefits are obvious. Access lets crews thin dense stands before they become tinderboxes. It creates ingress and egress routes so firefighters can attack fires early instead of watching them explode. These roads also can act as fire brakes.

Allowing strategic forest management lowers the enormous cost of fighting the next megafire that threatens homes and communities. Concerns about wildlife or accidental human starts can be handled the same way good ranchers manage their own land: gated seasonal closures, targeted work, and modern standards.

Western senators are pushing a bipartisan bill, the “Fix Our Forests Act,” that expands forest thinning, prescribed burns, and streamlined reviews. Where prescribed burns have already been used, the fire stops. Where the forest remains overgrown, it does not. The White House has signaled support for this practical approach.

The Real Cost to Rural Washington

Every summer the same story plays out. Families lose homes. Insurance companies facing catastrophic losses cancel property insurance policies, or raise rates. Ranchers watch barns, fences and pastures burn. Livestock and wildlife alike are burned alive. Tribal communities scramble to protect their land. Taxpayers foot the bill for suppression that could have been prevented by simple, timely work. Clean water and wildlife habitat suffer the worst damage when high-intensity fire rips through unmanaged stands.

This is not abstract policy. It is the difference between a working landscape that can be stewarded and a locked museum of dead trees waiting for the next lightning strike or careless spark.

Modern forest managers how to manage the forests, and Washington’s communities shouldn’t have to continue to live in fear all summer long.

Time to Act: Comment Today

The Forest Service has opened a 30-day comment period on the proposed rescission of the Roadless Rule. Comments must be received by midnight on Sept. 21, 2026. You can read the documents at Regulations.gov under docket FS-2025-0001. You can submit your comments via the Federal Register page.

The Forest Service Roadless Areas webpage also has maps and supporting material.

Public comments matter. Make your comment today because local knowledge matters. The people who live, work, and raise families next to these forests understand that healthy timber stands, limited access for management, and active stewardship are not the enemies of conservation. They are its foundation.

Washington’s forests do not need another decade of distant rules written by people who will never smell the smoke and never lose their homes. We need the authority returned to those who know the ridges, the draws, and the dry cheatgrass that can turn a spark into a hillside of flame.

Common sense is finally back on the table. It is time to use it.

Nancy Churchill is a writer and educator in rural eastern Washington State, and the chair of the Ferry County Republican Party. She may be reached at DangerousRhetoric@pm.me. The opinions expressed in Dangerous Rhetoric are her own. Dangerous Rhetoric is available on Substack, X, and occasionally Rumble.

SOURCES:

1) Since we stopped managing federal forests they became dead and fire-prone, Todd Myers, X post, August 20, 2026 https://bit.ly/3UzhUhY

2) For 25 YEARS, Washington’s failed one-size-fits-all Roadless Rule has tied the hands of local forest managers, Secretary Brooke Rollins, X post, August 20, 2026. https://bit.ly/4ioCXxA

3) USDA press release, “USDA acts to remove roadless rule restrictions that exacerbate rising wildfire risk,” August 18, 2026. https://bit.ly/4gaNMly

4) 2001 Roadless Rule Rescission, Regulations.gov docket FS-2025-0001. https://bit.ly/4d0dze3

5) Proposed Rule - USFS Special Areas; Roadless Area Conservation, Federal Register. https://bit.ly/46fbNlA

6) Forest Service Roadless Areas webpage, https://bit.ly/45Fwc34

7) Todd Myers, X post responding to Governor Ferguson, August 22, 2026. https://bit.ly/4wN5gcN

8) Roll Call, “Wildland firefighting bill gains steam as smoke reaches Congress,” August 19, 2026. https://bit.ly/4gB43iO

9) MyNorthwest, “Spokane Complex Fires: 700 homes destroyed, 65K evacuated,” August 4, 2026. https://bit.ly/4cCbDZ4