It was in the South Mills River that Will Harlan’s son first saw an eastern hellbender. The largest salamander in the Americas, the hellbender — known colloquially as “mud puppy,” “water dog” or “snot otter” — can reach up to two feet in length.
Although this species has been around for about 150 million years, its population is in significant decline due to habitat loss, climate change and water pollution, bringing the threat of extinction within a far shorter timeline. However, for now, the pristine South Mills River remains “one of the best hellbender hotspots in the world,” said Harlan, who works as southeast director and senior scientist at the Center for Biological Diversity. That’s because it is part of a network of public lands protected by the 2001 Roadless Rule, which prohibits roadbuilding and timber harvest.
But after the Trump administration released an Aug. 19 Draft Environmental Impact Statement in pursuit of the rule’s recission, 44.7 million acres of roadless area like the South Mills River — vulnerable species’ habitat, tourist destinations, sacred Indigenous sites, drinking water reservoirs, wildfire mitigators — are now one step away from losing that protection, which has been in place for a quarter-century.
Context and precedent
According to Southern Environmental Law Center Associate Attorney Abigail Hunt, the recission does not exist in isolation.
Crucially, Trump’s U.S. Department of Agriculture in April 2026 released a final rule revising the National Environmental Policy Act, a 1970 statute mandating the federal government to comprehensively assess environmental impacts of proposed actions. Hunt said while NEPA is still “alive and well,” amendments to U.S. Forest Service regulations under the act have essentially stripped public feedback from the decision-making process.
“[The Forest Service is] removing all the formal ways that the agency would let communities know what kind of projects are happening on the landscape. So, it is important to think about this recission in the context of all of these other major changes,” she told The Smoky Mountain News.
The public has only 30 days to comment on the DEIS and proposal of rulemaking, an unprecedented timeline for an action taken six months behind schedule. The government was required to release a DEIS alongside at least 45 days of public comment under the original statute. Now, the public comment period “may be undertaken at any time that is determined reasonable by the responsible official.” Prior to the Roadless Rule’s passage, federal officials held more than 400 public hearings and received 1.6 million public comments, 90% of which supported the policy.
To Harlan, these facts alone — along with the NEPA revisions that preceded them — are reason to believe the federal government seeks to circumvent transparency and minimize feedback.
“We’ve been in the dark, and I think that’s been intentional to keep the public unaware of the timeline to release this in the middle of summer, when folks are distracted and traveling and not engaging as much,” he said.
Harlan described the reasoning behind the strategy: the administration knows “how popular public lands are across the political spectrum.”
Hunt credited this popularity to the unique spiritual and recreational values of roadless areas. What’s more, protected forests provide drinking water for 354 municipal watersheds — and 60 million people — across the nation. Locally, that number is still statistically significant: The Town of Weaverville gets its water from the roadless Big Ivy section of Pisgah National Forest.
“If [Big Ivy] is open to industrial extraction, that’s going to cost the town of Weaverville and their residents millions in upgrades to handle the increased sediment,” Harlan said, adding that there are also profound health consequences to eliminating these protections. Consequently, hundreds of thousands have shown up to defend protected public lands — writing letters, signing petitions and posting comments to the federal registry.
The 2025 Notice of Intent to repeal the policy generated 99% opposition among a total of more than 600,000 online and written messages, despite a short 21-day public comment window.
The North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission in a fall 2025 agency note declined to take a strong stance on roadless protections, though it stated that “the lack of management within [inventoried roadless areas] can have undesirable consequences,” particularly in the eastern United States.
“We are monitoring the proposed rule, and, regardless of whether the US Forest Service approves the recission, we will continue to work with U.S. Forest Service leadership in N.C. on wildlife and wildlife habitat issues,” NCWRC Public Relations Manager Anna Gurney told SMN.
Meanwhile, last year, 41 federally recognized tribes wrote or signed letters countering the recission. Forty-one N.C. General Assembly legislators — 31 representatives and 10 senators, including Rep. Eric Ager (D-Buncombe) and Rep. Lindsey Prather (D-Buncombe) — listed their names on a joint opposition statement. Even federal departments like the San Francisco branch of the Environmental Protection Agency urged the USFS to proceed with caution and solicit tribal consultation in culturally sensitive areas.
“I think maybe the most salient point here is that what a common-sense agency and administration would do in response to just the feedback that was communicated at the notice of intent level,” Hunt said.
Throughout history, federal departments have reversed course amid nearly unanimous negative feedback. For example, in 2018 , the Environmental Protection Agency, citing public opinion, chose not to withdraw Clean Water Act restrictions of mining-related dredged or fill material in Alaska. Yet Hunt said the USFS and USDA, admitting that the NOI generated vast opposition, is “keeping the foot on the gas.”
In its Aug 20 tribal summary impact statement, the Forest Service — noting tribes had criticized a “lack of meaningful consultation”, engagement that did not reflect “sovereignty and consent” and “limited alternatives” to the recission — framed the rule-making process as “an opportunity to strengthen co-stewardship efforts and create formal agreements that ensure Tribal input remains central to local forest management decisions.”
“There’s perhaps a dark metaphor there about ‘foot on the gas’ and roads — and just being so reckless,” said Hunt.
Indeed, officials charged ahead with a DEIS, the second stage of NEPA’s rule-making process. That document appears to reveal the true scope of an action. While the USDA had claimed a rescission would mitigate wildfire ignition and proliferation, a DEIS is mandated only if the proposed notice “has a reasonably foreseeable significant effect on the quality of the human environment.”
All other instances warrant a less comprehensive Environmental Assessment.
Harlan, calling the wildfire reasoning a “smokescreen,” said roads increase ignitions. In fact, the DEIS makes this concession.
“Currently, the number, frequency and density of wildfire ignitions are lower in designated wilderness and potentially affected IRAs compared to other NFS lands … there could be increase the number and frequency of wildfires as human-ignitions are more likely near roads,” it reads.
But wildfires wouldn’t be the only natural disasters to possibly become worse amid a roadless rule rollback. There’s also the risk of landslides, which many in Western North Carolina have personally experienced.
“What we found post-Helene is that a majority of the landslides that occurred, the 2,000-plus landslides that occurred during Helene, occurred near or exactly on areas with roads on steep slopes,” said Harlan.
In addition to what Hunt called the “smoke and mirrors” aspect of the 300-page document, she said it is peppered with “false assurances” about anticipated impacts, which are exacerbated by other harmful USFS developments, like staffing reorganization — and an Aug. 21 announcement of its plans to amend the Travel Management Rule. The USFS is not only relocating employees but also shuttering two-thirds of its research labs, many of which study fire response and mitigation.
“It’s really destabilizing folks and creating a lot of turmoil within the agency, losing expertise in important areas like biology and botany and ecology,” she said.
As for the Travel Management Rule, conservationists maintain it has long served a vital purpose. Defenders of Wildlife National Forests and Public Lands Program Director Vera Smith explained the policy “states simply that motorized vehicles must stay on routes and areas designated locally for that use.” The planned revisions appear to increase off-road access for motorized vehicles and E-bikes, a move that could worsen wildfire, endanger wildlife and undermine conservation.
“The Forest Service has a $9 billion maintenance backlog across its road system already, and travel management and the Roadless Rule have really been two of the primary ways the agency has kept some places safe from that and made responsible decisions,” explained Hunt.
This deferred maintenance is relevant also because a Roadless Rule recission would mainly facilitate roadbuilding as a means of timber harvest and collection.
“These roads are not for recreation. In fact, only 25% of the Forest Service’s whole road network is available to the public, and in the DEIS itself, the Forest Service discusses keeping a lot of these new roads and roadless areas closed to the public,” said Hunt, adding that the recission’s primary purpose is to serve industry interests.
It’s not only roadbuilding but also logging that contributes to heightened ignition, what Harlan called a “double whammy” of impacts.
“The way logging is conducted, especially in the Southern Appalachians, it makes wildfires worse by Increasing the concentration of kindling and tinder, taking out the fire-resistant trees,” he said.
Harlan noted that logging can be a practical decision along the wild land-urban interface, within a couple hundred feet of structures, but he said it only causes harm in remote places like roadless areas.
Even at the Ruffed Grouse Society, which takes a more favorable approach to logging and uses clear-cutting as one of several forest management methods, Regional Engagement Coordinator Grand Erhard hasn’t come across anyone in support of rolling back protections. Like many RGS staff, Erhard is a public lands user, a hunter and a conservationist — identities he said inform his opposition.
“There’s a lot of things that have been happening just absolutely contradict the American model of conservation,” he explained.
To Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians Tribal Council member Shannon Swimmer, that’s because no land-based policy implemented by the Trump administration has been conservation-minded, let alone considerate of impacted locations.
For example, the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation on July 24 voted to advance sweeping proposed changes to Section 106 of the 1996 National Historic Preservation Act that would weaken cultural and historic site preservation mandates and processes in favor of streamlined development.
ACHP seeks revisions such as removing the requirement that federal agencies consult with tribal communities when cultural resources will be impacted, excluding certain activities from Section 106 obligations, narrowing the definition of historic property and eliminating all references to unique Indigenous expertise, tribal sovereignty and government-to-government relationships.
“There’s no respect for the environment. There’s no respect for the history. There’s no respect for places that are considered sacred,” said Swimmer.
What’s more, while the USFS pledge to dismantle the Roadless Rule seems un-American to many, she noted that it is tied to the Indigenous land theft fundamental to the history of this nation.
“This is just a continuation of stealing land, but this time it’s not just stealing land from Native people. It’s stealing public land from everybody,” she said.
Contemporary politics
There’s still nearly a month to submit comments, but the Trump Administration’s amendments to NEPA allow the USDA to combine its Final Environmental Impact Statement and Release of Decision, meaning the public may not have another chance to be heard after this window closes on Sept. 21.
USFS logging has increased regardless. Without a word to any organization or resident, said Harlan, the agency has begun a timber harvest in the Nolichucky River watershed, a “world-class whitewater destination” that has been nominated for wild and scenic river status.
“They were logging on steep slopes adjacent to this beautiful river and claiming it was salvage logging and that they were exempt under emergency orders. But that wasn’t actually the case,” he said.
CBD eventually went to court, and the USFS project was halted. But that order only staved off future harm, he said. It couldn’t reverse the clock.
“What we’re seeing now under this administration is the Forest Service thinks they can log whenever they want, wherever they want, without telling anyone,” Harlan said, noting that in this instance, local communities discovered what was happening and sounded the alarm.
“But we won’t always have those eyes on the ground, and it was almost too late,” he added.
According to Harlan, the USFS and CBD enjoyed a stronger relationship when the federal agency was more accountable to impacted stakeholders. While policy disagreements sometimes occurred, the Forest Service maintained clear communication, he said.
“We were able to find common ground and have productive conversations for many years.” But things have changed under the second Trump administration, he claimed. Local employees are directed to not correspond with external groups — especially conservation-focused nonprofits. Alternatively, SELC, said Hunt, still works closely with “certain Forest Service units.”
“It’s one of the most valuable relationships that we have as an organization,” she said, explaining that she’s always excited about collaborating with the agency on responsible and practical land management projects.
Hunt’s perspective differed from some of the trickle-down effects described by Harlan.
“I think there’s a big difference between the folks in the Forest Service that are out on the ground every day who understand the value of roadless areas and the folks up in D.C. who are pushing this recission down,” she told SMN.
She described legal action as a last-resort strategy, clarifying that it’s usually unnecessary because of safeguards like travel management and roadless areas.
But both are on the chopping block. According to Harlan, were the Roadless Rule rescinded, a lawsuit would be on the table — especially since over 400 species nationwide are affected, and the full extent of that impact hasn’t yet been fully evaluated.
One thing’s for sure: without a roadless designation, the South Mills River will be a paradise for neither eastern hellbenders nor father-son adventures. Hunt described roadbuilding and logging as a “a scar on the landscape that can’t be mended.”
“It’s something that will transform the sense of place for the species that live there and the humans who like to visit there for a really, really long time,” she said.