Caribou-Speckled trail (Photo by FKillea/NRCM)
I’ve hiked up Speckled Mountain three times, summitting once. That day, I had made some grave mistakes regarding my hiking attire and spent half of the ascent in a radioactive silence, swarmed by mosquitos attacking through the thin fabric of my tights (a word to the wise: never wear fabric that lays close to your skin when hiking in White Mountain National Forest in June). I think I even said, out loud, “I am not having fun,” and perhaps, “I want to turn around, but I won’t.”
And I didn’t.
When my husband and I reached Speckled’s peak, we saw an ocean of green, the forest sliding down the mountain and across the landscape into New Hampshire and Quebec. Stunning landscapes like this don’t just make memories and inspire awe, they serve an essential ecological role.
While the White Mountain National Forest primarily falls within the boundaries of New Hampshire, a small section—47,000 acres—lies in Maine, just south of Gilead in northwestern Oxford County. Some of this sliver—6,000 acres—are Inventoried Roadless Areas, meaning they have been protected from road-building and harvesting activities since 2001 by the Roadless Area Conservation Rule (expanding the Caribou-Speckled Wilderness already protected by the Wilderness Act of 1964).
Unfortunately, those precious acres could soon be subject to road construction and subsequent extractive activity because of the Trump Administration’s latest attempt to hand over our public lands to corporations and billionaires for profit.
Wilderness and Roadless Areas in Northern New England (Source)
Roadless Rule Effective at Protecting Vital Wildlife Habitat
The nation’s Roadless Area Conservation Rule grew from an initiative to protect swaths of National Forest land that was predominantly undeveloped but not federally designated wilderness. The Roadless Rule placed a moratorium on logging and road construction or maintenance in Inventories Roadless Areas, creating nearly 59 million acres of what has been referred to as “de facto wilderness” across the United States. Much of this land is adjacent to areas federally designated as wilderness, creating even larger areas that are relatively undisturbed by human activity.
In the late summer of 2025, the Trump Administration’s U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) announced plans to rescind the Roadless Rule, igniting massive and outspoken public opposition in an initial comment period. In blatant disregard of public opinion, the USDA has continued the process of undoing the Roadless Rule; a draft environmental impact statement (DEIS) about its repeal is due this spring.
The popularity of the Roadless Rule is due to the long list of environmental, public health, and economic benefits it helps to protect. Large swaths of undeveloped forestland provide vital habitat for imperiled species and ensure that migratory game corridors remain intact. Additionally, roads are a major cause of water pollution, whereas established forests act as natural filters, removing contaminants from our water.
Bicknell’s Thrush (USFWS)
Ecological Value of Maine’s Roadless Area
Back on the summit of Speckled Mountain: this beautiful, largely unfragmented landscape is home to some of Maine’s remaining late-successional and old-growth forest and provides habitat for such animals as marten and Black-throated Blue Warbler, both of which thrive in older forest conditions. Habitat fragmentation disrupts safe travel for species within their native range, and habitat destruction threatens the long-term survival of species highly adapted to their environments.
Within the Roadless Area in Maine’s section of the White Mountain National Forest, there are areas that have been determined to be ideal inland wading bird habitat and deer wintering areas. Dense with evergreens, the high elevations of the Whites in Maine provide habitat for Bicknell’s Thrush, a species of conservation concern. Longnose dace—a vulnerable fish species—swims in nearby streams.
Painted trillium (left) and red trillium growing on Speckled Mountain (FKillea/NRCM)
Baseless Attacks on Roadless Rule Lack Evidence
The Trump USDA falsely argues without evidence that the Roadless Rule has prohibited the US Forest Service from managing forests. Unsurprisingly, like most decisions made by this administration, their claims are untrue and not based on well-reasoned science. In reality:
- The Roadless Rule allows for exceptions to the moratorium on roadbuilding in the case of “imminent danger” related to health, safety, or wildfire.
- Statistically, most human-caused wildfires (up to 80% of wildfire starts) ignite within half a mile of a road.
- The harvest of “generally small diameter timber” is, in some cases, acceptable within Roadless areas if its removal will help “restore ecosystem structure and function, such as reducing the likelihood of uncharacteristic wildfire.”
Keeping Wild Places WILD
If these protected areas are opened to roadbuilding, they are then vulnerable to logging and mining, all three of which have serious runoff consequences for forest health and water quality.
The Natural Resources Council of Maine believes these places must stay wild and the administration’s senseless attacks on our public lands must be stopped. Across the nation, hunters, anglers, and conservationists are coming together to oppose Trump’s attempt to repeal the Roadless Rule.
Once the DEIS is released this spring, the following comment period will be the last chance for the public to voice their dissent against the termination of the Roadless Rule. The threat is not only to the stunning cloak of forest across the mountains of western Maine, taken in from the peaks of Maine’s parcel of the White Mountain National Forest. The health of tens of millions of acres of forest—and their surrounding ecosystems and watersheds—is at stake.
—by Frances Killea, NRCM Policy Advocate, Woods, Waters, & Wildlife
This is an important reminder of why roadless areas matter. Once roads are built, the damage to wildlife habitat, water quality, and quiet wild places is hard to undo. The Speckled Mountain example makes the issue feel very real and local.
Footpaths have provided, for seasonal movement and trade for North-America’s indigenous peoples, for thousands of years, without disturbing the natural order and balance needed to maintain a healthy and thriving planet. Over the past 300 years we have irresponsibly devastated the only place we have to live. WE MUST STOP!!! We can begin that by protecting what little is left of our wild places. NO ROADS!!
Keep roadless areas roadless. In this time of rampant pollution, climate change and deforestation, I want to preserve the wild places intact. There is a link between trees, wilderness and rainwater – to avoid drought, wildfires and desertification, we need to realize how critically important nature is to everyone’s survival. Let’s stop being so short-sighted and profit driven, and instead be good stewards of the planet for future generations to experience it’s myriad diversity. It’s time.