Contacts:
Amanda Pankau, Director of Energy and Community Resiliency, Prairie Rivers Network, apankau@prairierivers.org, 217-840-3057
Jack Darin, Chapter Director, Sierra Club Illinois Chapter, jack.darin@sierraclub.org, 312-229-4690
Barb McKasson, Illinois Chapter Sierra Club Chair for Shawnee National Forest Committee, babitaji@aol.com
Judith Nemes, Environmental Law & Policy Center, jnemes@elpc.org, (773) 892-7494
Over 10,500 Acres of Designated Roadless Areas Within the Shawnee National Forest Would be Impacted by the US Department of Agriculture’s Proposal to Rescind the Roadless Rule
The US Department of Agriculture (USDA) has issued a proposal to rescind the 2001 Roadless Area Conservation Rule, eliminating critical protections for millions of acres of national forest land and leaving them vulnerable to logging, road construction, and other industrial activities.
Nationwide, the 2001 Roadless Area Conservation Rule (2001 Roadless Rule) currently provides important protections to approximately 44.7 million acres of National Forest System lands. The Roadless Rule protections extend to 10,666 acres of forest land in the Shawnee National Forest in Southern Illinois, including the Burke Branch, Ripple Hollow, Burden Falls, Bay Creek, Eagle Creek, and Clear Springs roadless areas. The loss of Roadless Area designation could open up the areas of the Shawnee to more road construction. This could facilitate the spread of invasive species, worsen habitat fragmentation, cause erosion and sedimentation into pristine streams, and lead to resource extraction, as well as directly impacting threatened and endangered species—and all wildlife.
PRN’s Amanda Pankau, Director of Energy and Community Resiliency at Prairie Rivers Network, holds a Masters Degree from Southern Illinois University’s Cooperative Wildlife Research Lab, and owns a home near one of the Shawnee’s designated roadless areas. “The acreage of roadless protected areas in the Shawnee may be small compared to areas in the west, but that doesn’t mean the protections offered by the roadless rule are any less important,” Pankau said. “In fact, the relatively small size of these areas and the highly fragmented nature of the forest within the Shawnee means these protections are especially vital.”
Prairie Rivers Network (PRN), the Illinois affiliate of the National Wildlife Federation, the Sierra Club’s Illinois Chapter, and the Environmental Law and Policy Center (ELPC) are asking the public to learn more about these important areas and to submit their written comments supporting the rule to the USDA during a 30-day public comment period that ends September 21st. To make the process easier, PRN has prepared a petition the public can sign, or they can submit comments directly to the USDA.
The short 30-day written public comment period offered for the proposed reversal stands in stark contrast to the over 400 public meetings that were held before the Forest Service adopted the rule in 2001. Every national forest and grassland held at least two meetings, and that public process resulted in more than 1.6 million comments, with 95 percent supporting roadless-area protections. Several Midwestern organizations joined together to ask the Forest Service for more time and ways for the public to engage.
“The protected roadless areas in the Shawnee National Forest and across the Midwest’s National Forests could become chopped up by roads and logging projects if the Trump administration follows through with this action. We join our partners urging Illinoisans and people across the Midwest to speak up for these last few wild and wonderful public lands. Such a major change to our National Forests demands more time and opportunity for the public to engage. Today we are submitting a letter from ourselves and 21 partners to the Forest Service asking for 120 days to comment and for public hearings that will ensure we all have a chance to be heard about protecting these Midwest Roadless Areas,” said Kelly Thayer, Senior Policy Advocate with the Environmental Law & Policy Center. The letter can be found here.
Forests once covered 40% of Illinois’ landscape. Today the 14% that remains is highly fragmented and increasingly threatened by invasive species. Despite the small remaining percentage, our state’s forests provide critical habitat for plants and wildlife—in fact, they are home to 61% of the native flora and 75% of the state’s wildlife habitat.
“We have lost the majority of Illinois’ natural prairies, forests, and wetlands,” Pankau said. “Opening up some of our nation and state’s last intact wild lands to more road development, logging, and resource extraction will cause permanent harm that we will never see rectified.”
“The brazen actions of the Trump Administration to sell off pieces of our nation’s national heritage make it more important than ever that people raise their voices in defense of these areas that are meant to be protected for future generations,” said Barb McKasson, Illinois Chapter Sierra Club Chair for Shawnee National Forest Committee. “Whether you have enjoyed these special places yourself, or simply want to know they will always be there for biodiversity and recreation, please join all those speaking up for nature in these uncertain times.”
The 30-day comment period for the proposed rule and draft environmental statement ends at midnight Sept. 21, 2026. The public can either submit comments directly to the Forest Service (https://www.regulations.gov/commenton/FS-2025-0001-223869), or they can sign Prairie Rivers Network’s petition or Sierra Club’s petition.
“The proposal to remove the protections in the Shawnee’s roadless areas wouldn’t concern me as much if it weren’t being proposed alongside so many other harmful environmental actions by the Trump administration,” said Pankau.
Pankau is referring to other actions by the Trump administration that she says will harm natural areas and wildlife in our National Forests including, removing protections for the habitat that supports endangered species, weakening the review process that helps us understand the environmental consequences of actions on public lands, closing 57 Forest Service research stations, and mandated quotas from politicians in Washington DC to increase logging by 250 million board feet every single year through 2034.
Prairie Rivers Network
At Prairie Rivers Network (PRN), we protect water, heal land, and inspire change. Using the creative power of science, law, and collective action, we protect and restore our rivers, return healthy soils and diverse wildlife to our lands, and transform how we care for the earth and for each other. To learn more please visit www.prairierivers.org.
Sierra Club Illinois
The Sierra Club is America’s largest and most influential grassroots environmental organization, with more than 3.8 million members and supporters. In addition to protecting every person’s right to get outdoors and access the healing power of nature, the Sierra Club works to promote clean energy, safeguard the health of our communities, protect wildlife, and preserve our remaining wild places through grassroots activism, public education, lobbying, and legal action. For more information about the Illinois Chapter of Sierra Club, visit www.sierraclub.org/illinois.
Environmental Law & Policy Center
The Environmental Law & Policy Center is the Midwest’s leading environmental legal advocacy organization. We drive transformational policy changes with national impacts. We show that environmental progress and economic development can be achieved together by putting sustainability principles into practice. We advance climate solutions effectively by accelerating clean renewable energy alternatives to conventional power plants and advancing clean transportation solutions. We protect the Great Lakes and defend the Midwest’s wild and natural places, and we fight for safe, clean water and healthy clean air for all. We combine effective public interest litigation with strategic policy advocacy, sound science, and economic analysis. ELPC produces strong results for the environment in the courtrooms, boardrooms, and legislative hearing rooms across the pivotal Midwest states and in Washington D.C. www.elpc.org.
