In the U.S., over 23 million hectares of wild forests are being handed over to big business for exploitation.

The insane destruction of the remaining wilderness is happening not only in Russia, but all over the world. I want people to understand that the situation is critical everywhere. And when I say “critical,” I mean that we are balancing on the edge of a sudden and uncontrollable collapse of all global ecosystems, which have already been hanging by a thread for quite some time.

Right now we see how, in Russia, a draft law aims to develop the Baikal region with clear-cutting and mass construction, and another bill has been virtually passed to allow widespread logging of mountain forests for tourist clusters across the country! We hear calls to abolish the nature-reserve system, we see heavy machinery tearing up the millennia-old alpine meadows of Lago-Naki, and even within the city limits of Moscow plans are being made to fell the protected Losiny Ostrov National Park.

Today I would like to tell you a bit about what is happening in another country—the United States of America. It is important that you grasp the scale of the madness unfolding!

The Donald Trump administration has announced plans to repeal the 2001 “Roadless Rule,” which has protected about 58.5 million acres of U.S. national lands from road building and logging. That is roughly 23.6 million hectares—the very amount of protected wild forests that could now be opened for construction and timber harvesting.

Let’s look at this in more detail.

The so-called “Roadless Rule” in the United States was introduced by the Bill Clinton administration in January 2001 to provide long-term protection for the country’s wildest forest areas. The goal was to prevent large-scale development of wildlife refuges. Even then, the government understood that cutting roads through intact ecosystems would slice nature into fragments, disrupt all biological cycles (nutrient flow, animal migrations, etc.), and inevitably degrade the isolated patches.

The rule therefore prohibited the construction of new roads, the reconstruction of existing ones, and especially commercial timber harvesting. In this way, the health of the national forests was safeguarded for future generations!

I have examined this U.S. law in detail; it states that the ban is necessary for:

• Preserving the integrity of all natural landscapes and ecosystems. In black and white: forests must remain unfragmented; only then can wild nature remain a refuge and sustain itself. The law explicitly says that building roads will lead to massive forest fires, large-scale industrial logging, ecosystem degradation, and the spread of invasive species.

  
  

• Saving on infrastructure maintenance. By 2001 the U.S. Forest Service had accumulated a multibillion-dollar backlog for maintaining the existing forest-road network. The agency literally could not keep up with road maintenance. As of 2025, the Forest Service faces more than $8 billion in deferred road repairs. Thus, the 2001 law followed the logic that it is smarter to keep remote natural areas road-free: no need to spend money, and nature stays protected!

  
  
• And another justification was preventing constant conflicts between big industry and conservationists. Business dreams of destroying the forest to make money, while environmentalists seek protected status for ecosystems! So when Clinton set nationwide rules, big business was forced to back off.

Interestingly, the “Roadless Rule” became one of the largest public-comment actions in U.S. history: more than 1.6 million comments were submitted, almost all supporting forest protection. The law was hailed as one of the greatest victories of society and common sense over the capitalist system!

I came across remarks by former Forest Service employee Chris Wood, who took part in drafting the law. He said: “The Roadless Rule is one of the most significant and popular successes in the history of U.S. conservation policy.”

Exactly!

After the law was passed, major industrial players began pushing to lift the ban. In the very first years, for instance under President Bush, lobby groups in power demanded the federal prohibition be removed, claiming the law hampered forest management. In reality, it hindered only one thing: the destruction of America’s national forests. In 2011 the appellate court upheld the federal ban and rejected all lobbyist arguments.

The areas covered by the road-building ban are spread across more than 40 states, but the largest concentrations are in Alaska and the mountain states of the West. I must point out—these are deliberately chosen areas of the highest biological value, the very refuges of wild nature that must never be touched.

In Alaska it is about 15 million acres, most of which lie within Tongass National Forest, one of the largest national parks in the U.S., home to a millennia-old temperate rainforest. Idaho has about 9.3 million acres, including vast wilderness in the Rocky Mountains such as the Frank Church Wilderness Complex and other hard-to-reach mountain refuges. Montana also has millions of acres, as do Wyoming and others.

As you can see, the 2001 law protected ancient-forest refuges nationwide!

Donald Trump himself is an oligarch—a businessman. Everyone knows that! He represents not only his own interests but those of all major industries in the country. And if Donald Trump is in power, that means power lies in the hands of oligarchs who naturally seek to maximize profits at any cost.

During his previous term, Trump partially rolled back the “Roadless Rule” in Tongass Forest, lifting protection there in 2020. Under the next president, the decision was reversed and the protected status restored.

Now, upon returning to power, Trump’s first move has been to announce plans to abolish the forest-protection law entirely.

In June 2025 Trump’s appointee—Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins, who oversees the Forest Service—announced the administration’s intention to completely repeal the “Roadless Rule.” That’s 30 percent of all U.S. national forests, which for more than half a century have been considered sanctuaries for wildlife.

And note: they plan not only to allow road building and large-scale logging but also extensive resource extraction with industrial development.

I’m not sure it’s even necessary to comment on Rollins’s words; when I read her statements, I just shook my head: sheer nonsense, identical to what our own lobbyists say about developing protected areas. Word for word! I don’t even know who’s copying whom.

Essentially, Rollins said the 2001 law “had outlived its usefulness” and had become “an absurd obstacle to rational forest management.” Repealing it, she claimed, would “usher in a new era of consistent and sustainable forest management.”

Yet under the banner of “sustainable management,” officials immediately add that repealing the federal law is “the elimination of excessive regulation that hinders business and innovation.” Moreover, President Trump has already issued a number of executive orders to urgently increase timber harvesting in federal forests by 25 percent and to expand mineral extraction on federal lands.

Once the repeal is passed, all industry will rush into Alaska’s ancient forests to exploit resources. Thus the administration promises jobs and economic growth in forest regions by opening previously “conserved” resources.

Does this remind you of anything? Perhaps the situation in our own country, Russia? Under the banner of “economic superiority,” previously protected areas are being cracked open. Virtually simultaneously, governments have begun tearing apart the remaining protected lands that still serve as refuges for wild nature.

Another point: senators, various officials, and members of the Trump administration all claim that repealing the law will finally allow forest fires to be fought effectively—that the law only worsened the situation because fires can’t be fought without roads.

Yet since 2001 temporary roads have been allowed in roadless areas to prevent major fires! That provision is still in force. So we’re witnessing blatant lies from local officials ready to spout any nonsense to justify big business interests.

Moreover, it is noted that in the U.S. 85–90 percent of all forest fires occur near forest roads or settlements. Real scientific studies show that the presence of roads increases fire risk many times over; in some areas fires are recorded up to four times more often near roads than in deep wilderness.

Note that our officials say exactly the same about Lake Baikal: an urgent need for clear-cutting to build roads “to fight forest fires.” And while we’re at it, let’s build tourist clusters, bring in millions of tourists, and slice nature into pieces with transport arteries.

Our allies in U.S. conservation circles are sounding the alarm! For example, Vera Smith, head of Defenders of Wildlife, said that Secretary Rollins “picks up a flamethrower and torches a landmark set of rules” that for decades protected wilderness refuges from destruction.

Oh, by the way, it’s worth noting right away that Secretary Brooke Rollins has no experience in forestry. But she is known for her business-world connections, and her rhetoric is identical to what major timber-industry lobbyists in the U.S. say.

Incidentally, the most fervent lobbyists are the industrialists in Alaska, because Tongass’s ancient forests are rich in valuable timber species. There is a lot of cedar, for instance, which forms the backbone of local biological systems—and is an extremely lucrative resource for quick profit. And, as you’ve already guessed, Alaska holds huge underground resources like copper-gold and coal. It’s all about money!

I think we can wrap up the material here; I’ve covered the issue in depth.

Just understand the scale of the catastrophe now unfolding in the world! While we try to protect the last remnants of wild nature in Russia, at the same moment the United States is serving up a gift to billionaires so they can get even richer by brazenly plundering the country’s natural wealth.

I’ll conclude with a quote from Drew McConville of the Center for American Progress, who said the administration “is obsessively trying to sell off our public lands as quickly as possible,” hiding behind pretty words about fire safety.

© PAVEL PASHKOV