Virginians need to push back against President Donald Trump’s proposal to rescind one of the most important regulations protecting wilderness areas, Sen. Tim Kaine and Rep. Jennifer McClellan, D-4th, said Monday.But even as the Trump administration started the regulatory process to do away with the 25-year-old “roadless rule” that designates areas within national forests that can’t be exploited for timber, minerals or oil, Kaine and Sen. Mark Warner have moved measures that would add nearly 100,000 acres to the George Washington National Forest’s protected areas — this time backed by federal law, not just a regulation.Those bills won unanimous, bipartisan support in the Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry in a vote four months after the Trump administration announced its intention to rescind the roadless rule.“One of the big champions of the roadless rule was (former Republican Sen.) John Warner … who immediately put himself contrary to the administration that was trying to undo it” when George W. Bush was president, Kaine told a Richmond audience of environmentalists marking the 25th anniversary of the rule.“In Virginia, it’s an amazing success story, and I will say it is incredibly popular,” Kaine said. “I learned during the time I was governor with two Republican houses that there were few things that were completely bipartisan, but support for public lands in the General Assembly was very bipartisan, very bipartisan at the federal level.”The Trump administration says the roadless rule gets in the way of managing forests to prevent the oversupply of aging trees that leaves them vulnerable to drought, insect infestations and wildfires. Environmentalists say most fires in national forests start short distances from roads, while invasive species follow roadways into the woods.Virginia has more roadless areas — nearly 400,000 acres — than any other state east of the Mississippi River.Some are protected by acts of Congress, like the ones Kaine is pushing for a 92,562-acre area on Shenandoah Mountain in Augusta, Highland and Rockingham counties, and to add 5,600 acres to the Rough Mountain and Rich Hole wilderness areas in Bath County.But the only protection for nearly 394,000 more acres is the roadless rule.Kaine said he thinks the Shenandoah Mountain Act is in particularly good shape because it’s linked to an effort by retiring Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., to bring wilderness areas in North Carolina under congressional protection, the kind of swan song legislation that other senators are usually happy to pass.But there are other steps to take as well, said McClellan.“The public comment period is not over,” she said, referring to the requirement that people have a chance to tell federal agencies their views on regulatory changes, comments that agencies are supposed to take into account before changing rules.“We have legislation in Congress that would codify the rule,” she said.“We cannot take our foot off the gas, and I use that, that analogy purposefully, because if we take our foot off the gas to protect these lands, the gas will be used more. Our planet will be put at risk. Our drinking water will be put at risk, our ecosystems that protect public health will be put at risk, and future generations will wonder, what do we do to stop it?” she said.
