Federal policy plays a critical role in shaping the future of the Wasatch Mountains. From recreation access and watershed protection to wildfire management and wildlife habitat, decisions made in Washington, D.C. have direct, lasting impacts on the Wasatch Range and the people who love it. The U.S. Forest Service (USFS), a federal land management agency within the U.S. Department of Agriculture, is responsible for overseeing the Uinta–Wasatch–Cache National Forest—home to some of the most iconic and ecologically valuable landscapes in Utah. Tasked with balancing conservation, recreation, and development, the USFS implements federal laws and policies that affect everything from trail maintenance to ski resort expansion.
Since President Trump’s second term began, the threats to our public lands—and the ways we manage them—have been nonstop. Here in the Wasatch, our national forests are already pushed to the brink of what they can accommodate. While we are actively working to mitigate the growing strain on our wild spaces and critical watershed, Save Our Canyons remains deeply concerned about what lies ahead under the current administration. Explore some of the biggest federal threats below, and when applicable, learn how you can take action to help protect the Wasatch Range and public lands across the West.
Roadless Rule Rescission
Click here to learn more and take action on the proposed Roadless Rule rescission.
On June 23 2025, U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Brooke L. Rollins announced plans by the Trump administration to rescind the 2001 Roadless Area Conservation Rule (RACR). The rule, signed by President Clinton, protected 58 million acres of undeveloped National Forest land from new roads, along with commercial logging and mining. These Inventoried Roadless Areas (IRAs) continue to permit fire mitigation projects and suppression efforts, along with trails for hiking, equestrian use, and cycling. The Wasatch Range contains around 320,000 acres of IRA, including some of our most beloved and ecologically valuable landscapes, such as White Pine Fork, Dog Lake, Mineral Fork, and the majority of Millcreek Canyon. Past attempts to expand resorts onto IRAs have been stopped, at least in part, because of roadless area protections, including the 2017 attempt by Nordic Valley’s previous owners to build a gondola and 10 new lifts on Inventoried Roadless land.
Under the guise of preventing wildfires, the attempted rescission of the Roadless Rule is intended to open 45-million acres of IRA to commercial logging and development. Mitigation of wildfire risk is something Save Our Canyons takes very seriously, and we support efforts that integrate best available practices for fuel treatment and watershed restoration. The Trump Administration claims that commercial logging must be done to limit wildfire risk, but we disagree. Successful fuel treatments are commonly done in IRAs, even right here in the Wasatch. These Shared Stewardship projects are typically facilitated by local Forest Service Ranger Districts, along with State and non-profit partners. Ongoing Shared Stewardship projects in the Wasatch focus on small fuels and follow up with proper restoration and reseeding techniques - no commercial logging is involved. The vast majority of wildland fires in the US are caused by humans, upwards of 85%, many of these happening along roadways. In fact, 2024’s Yellow Lake Fire in the Uinta Mountains ignited over 33,000 acres after being sparked by a commercial logging operation on National Forest land - a far cry from the care and science that goes into Shared Stewardship projects.
Further threats from new roads include invasive species, habitat fragmentation, noise pollution, user conflicts, and degradation of water quality (Scientific Basis for Roadless Area Conservation, 2003), all of which could cause devastating harm to the Wasatch.
The proposed rescission must now go through the rulemaking process, which by law must include a public comment period. The decision will almost definitely face legal threats, which will hopefully derail the attempts to turn our forests into 2x4s. What can you do?
1. View our interactive Storymap to learn more about how the Roadless Rule protects the Wasatch.
2. Contact your members of Congress to advocate for:
- Passing the Roadless Area Conservation Act (RACA), which would codify the Roadless Rule into law.
- Funding and resources for Shared Stewardship projects, which use best practices to reduce wildfire risk, including in IRAs.
3. Contribute opinion-pieces to local newspapers, like this one we sent to the Salt Lake Tribune.
NEPA Regulatory Changes
On July 3, 2025, the Trump administration enacted immediate and sweeping changes to the US Forest Service (USFS) National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) regulations, replacing them with significantly weaker Department of Agriculture (USDA)-wide regulations. These regulatory shifts will make it much more difficult for conservation advocates to learn about and influence projects.
NEPA, passed by Congress in 1969, is a procedural statute that mandates federal agencies to consider the environmental effects of proposed major federal actions and provides a framework for public engagement. Federal agencies and departments have regulations that determine specialized processes for adhering to NEPA - these procedures are essential to ensure that bedrock environmental law is upheld to the highest standard. Save Our Canyons views these changes by the Trump administration as a blatant attack on public processes, agency transparency, and environmental integrity.
The new regulations also introduce significant changes to NEPA document classifications:
- Environmental Impact Statements (EISs), the most robust classification, are limited to 150 or 300 pages (depending on complexity) with a two-year completion time. Critical components like the scoping process and the requirement for a draft EIS have been eliminated. Furthermore, agencies are no longer formally required to respond to comments in writing, though comments are still to be considered.
- Environmental Assessments (EAs) are now capped at 75 pages and must be completed within one year. Notably, a public comment period is "not required," nor is the publication of an intent to conduct an EA.
- Categorical Exclusions (CEs), the lowest-tier classification, have been "drastically consolidated and expanded".
Though USDA positions these changes as an effort to benefit the economy by speeding up burdensome review processes, these shifts are really an effort to hand the reins to private companies and state lawmakers on management of federal public lands. Ski resort expansions, aerial tourist attractions, and commercial logging will all see an easy path to completion, with little opportunity for public input. SOC is actively collaborating with groups like the Western Environmental Law Center (WELC) and Southern Environmental Law Center (SELC) to submit technical comments opposing these changes, and will continue to keep you updated as things change.
Budget Reconciliation Bill
In a victory for conservation and public lands, Senator Mike Lee's proposal to mandate the sale of up to 3.3 million acres of public land was stripped from the House Fiscal Year 2025 Reconciliation Bill (aka Trump's "Big Beautiful Bill") before its passage. Lee removed this provision after intense public scrutiny and a lack of support from congressional colleagues. Alongside nationwide, bipartisan efforts, Save Our Canyons members sent over 2,000 letters advocating for the removal of this harmful provision, which would have put a price tag on 35,839 acres in the Central Wasatch alone. The precedent of using public land sales as budget patches remains a serious threat, and we can expect similar proposals to resurface in future legislation as long as Lee remains in office.
Though the public land sell-offs were removed, the reconciliation bill that passed still contains two problematic sections that could significantly impact the Wasatch:
Project Sponsor Opt-in Fees for Environmental Reviews [Sec. 60026]: This provision creates a "pay-to-play" system allowing project sponsors to fast-track environmental reviews by paying 125% of anticipated costs for Environmental Assessments or Environmental Impact Statements. This could enable ski resorts and other developers to expedite projects on National Forest lands in the Wasatch by simply paying a fee, potentially compromising the thoroughness of environmental review processes.
Timber Sales and Long-Term Contracting for the Forest Service [Sec. 50301(a)]: The bill mandates that the Forest Service increase timber sales by at least 250 million board-feet annually through 2034 and establish at least 40 new long-term timber contracts lasting 20+ years. These sweeping mandates ignore local forest plans and community needs, potentially affecting forest management decisions in the Wasatch and throughout the National Forest System. In combination with attempts to rescind the Roadless Area Conservation Rule, this congressional directive could have direct consequences for forest health in the Wasatch.
While celebrating the removal of public land sell-offs, we must remain vigilant. With harmful provisions around environmental reviews and logging contracts now law, and multiple opportunities for sell-offs to resurface in future legislation, continued advocacy is essential. The transparent, community-driven process proposed in the Central Wasatch National Conservation and Recreation Area Act stands in stark contrast to Lee's sweeping approach. As we've seen, public pressure works – but only if sustained.
Funding and Staffing Cuts
It’s no secret that a significant portion of staffing and funding for our federal agencies have been lost in the past 6 months. A recent analysis by Center For American Progress (CAP) identifies that both staffing and funding for federal land management agencies will be cut by over 30% in the administration’s Fiscal Year 2026 budget. From bathroom closures to the loss of seasonal trail staff, these changes have wide-ranging impacts to our public lands here in the Wasatch. These impacts don’t only affect the land and recreationists, but also require local governments and taxpayers to pick up the slack, as is the case in American Fork Canyon, where Utah County is paying to pump the toilets at recreation sites. Save Our Canyons is closely tracking these changes, and will share a more comprehensive description as these issues come to light.
More to come
Efforts by lawmakers to turn public lands into a paycheck seem to be nonstop this year, and these that we have listed so far may be just the beginning. We will continue to update this page with more information to keep you updated as the year unfolds with the various federal policy changes that hit close to home, along with ways you can help. We remain committed to preserving the beauty and wildness of the Wasatch, and couldn't do it without you. Please reach out to us if you have any questions or suggestions, and consider making a donation to support our mission.
