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The
Heartwood Pulse
News from
the Forest
March
2026 |
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Hello Heartwood
friends and family,
This issue of the Heartwood Pulse is focused on the
convergence of several federal bills and rules that impact our
forests greatly, including the proposed reversal of the
Roadless Rule, a Forest Service policy that protects
inventoried roadless areas from road building and
logging.
The Roadless Rule has protected the last remaining
wild areas in National Forests all across the Heartwood
region, from Alabama, with 665,000 roadless acres, to Vermont,
376,000 acres, to Illinois with 293,000 roadless acres.
But it isn't just the Roadless Rule that is under
attack. There are currently bills in Congress and other policy
changes, which when taken together would be an outright
assault against our forests.
- Fix
Our Forests Act (HR471/S1462)
- Changes
in the Forest Service Project-Level Predecisional
Administrative Review Process.
-
Proposed Rescission of the
Roadless Rule
-
Farm, Food, and National Security
Act (Farm Bill) of 2026
-
Federal Acquisitions Regulations
(FAR) “Revolutionary Overhaul”
Disguised as efforts to protect communities from
wildfires, these bills and policy changes would open millions
of acres of public forests to logging, remove critical old and
mature trees, circumvent environmental review, severely limit
public and judicial oversight, promote the use of our forests
for biomass energy production, while actually having the
effect of increasing fire risks.
But together, we can make a difference! Keep reading
for details about actions you can take, such as:
- Host your own Roadless Rule public meeting
- Contact your US Senators and Representatives about
proposed bills
- Sign on to comments due March 9th to protect public
participation in Forest Service projects
Thanks
to the Climate Communications Coalition, and all of the people
and groups in the Heartwood network, who have provided this
critical information you can use to take action.
We
also hope you can join us for this year's Heartwood Forest
Council in Southern Illinois over Memorial Day
weekend.
Thank you for being part of the Heartwood Network!
For the forests,
Matt Peters |
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HEARTWOOD'S 34TH ANNUAL FOREST
COUNCIL
MEMORIAL DAY WEEKEND - MAY
22-25 |
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Heartwood's 34th Annual Forest
Council will be held in the heart of the Shawnee National
Forest at Dixon Springs State Park in Southern Illinois
on May 22 - 25, 2026.
This year’s theme, “Where Past
Meets Present - Understanding the history of our public lands
to help us meet the current crisis,” will be a time to
study our history as we strategize for our future and
strengthen our network and our friendships.
If you, your organization, or
business would like to be a co-sponsor, please contact in...@heartwood.org.
Event highlights
include:
Registration and detailed
event information will be posted soon on the Heartwood
website. In the meantime, check out our Facebook
Event page. |
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CONVERGENCE OF FEDERAL BILLS
& RULES
=
AN ATTACK ON
OUR BELOVED NATIONAL
FORESTS |
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Adapted
from Sonia Demiray, Climate Communications Coalition
There
is a dangerous convergence of five federal bills and rules
which will fundamentally impact natural resources and
ecosystem services provision from US forests:
1) The
Fix Our Forests Act (HR471/S1462)
This
bill has passed the house and is being heard in the Senate.
It’s a thinly veiled giveaway to industrial logging under the
guise of wildfire management. Read the congressional bill summary and the John Muir
Project analysis.
ACTION: Contact
your US Senators
Tell
them the Fix Our Forests Act won't actually fix anything.
The
bill is likely to be heard in March.
2)
Forest Service Announcement 2/6/26: Changes to Project-Level
Predecisional Administrative Review Process
This radically changes
the review and objection process for public participation with
the USFS, including very shortened comment periods and page
limits on what one can provide, thereby effectively cutting
off participation:
-
- Comment periods on Environmental Assessments (EA)
reduced from 30 days to 10 days.
- Comment periods on Environmental Impact Statements
(EIS) shortened from 45 days to 20 days
- Get rid of newspapers of record and rely solely on
agency website for announcements.
- Impose page limits on objections (15 for EA and 30
for EIS), which includes any attachments.
- No longer taking CD roms or external hard drives
(they always limit the size of documents submitted through
online portals.)
- Calling this "not a major rule" and stating that
they don't think it is subject to the Congressional Review
Act.
ACTION:
1.
Sign on to this High-Level
NGO Sign-On Letter to oppose the new Project-Level
Predecisional Administrative Review Process, written by Ben
Levitan with Earthjustice. The deadline to sign on is March
9th @ 2pm PST.
2. Comment on the Public
Comment Portal and at federalregister.gov. Write your own comments
or use the sample letter found here: Climate
Forests Alert Toolkit.
COMMENTS MUST BE
RECEIVED BY MARCH 9, 2026 AT 11:59 PM EDT or mailed to: Director,
Ecosystem Management Coordination, 201 14th Street SW, Mailstop
1108, Washington, DC 20250-1124.
3)
Proposed Rescission of the Roadless Rule
The
United States Forest Service (USFS) will release its updated
proposal and Draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS) this
March. A final decision is expected later this year. The
reversal of this rule would jeopardize 45 million acres of
undeveloped backcountry forestland managed by the USFS. Here
is a copy of the sign-on
letter from September 2025 and additional information can
be found in the article by Sonia Demiray on page 6 of
the Fall 2025 Heartbeat.
ACTION:
1.
Contact
your US Senators
2.
Comment as soon as the DEIS is out
3.
See more info below for ideas on creating your own event
4)
The Farm Bill
“The Farm,
Food, and National Security Act of 2026” works hand in
hand with the proposed repeal of the Roadless Rule and the Fix
Our Forests Act with detrimental consequences for our
forests.
-
- Increased
Logging Without Oversight: It is worth noting that the
US Forest Service is a branch of the US Department of
Agriculture (USDA), and that trees/forests are still
considered a “crop.” Therefore national forests fall under
the USDA's purview. The proposed 2026 Farm Bill gives the
Secretary of Agriculture broad discretion to carry out
timber sales, at any price (i.e. giveaways), of any forest
(i.e. old-growth), for any reason, and all without any
public involvement or environmental review.
- Biomass:
The new Farm Bill promotes forests as a source of
biomass energy, eligible for multiple tax credits,
subsidies, and incentives, but in practice, wood-burning
biomass is the biggest carbon polluter of all per unit of
energy generated. The Partnership for Policy Integrity's
Biomass
Energy Basics has a good overview of the problems with
woody biomass for energy. See also Sonia Demiray’s
article on page 12
of the Fall 2025 Heartbeat to fully understand where
the US Forest Service stands regarding woody biomass for
energy.
- Categorical
Exclusions: Among the most egregious aspects of the
Farm Bill is the expansion of Categorical Exclusions (CE)
that eliminate public input and open forests to logging
for a variety of reasons. Categorical Exclusions were
intended to cut paperwork and remove the need for
environmental impact statements on tasks deemed to have no
significant environmental impact. The 2026 Farm Bill
proposes to use CE to justify logging of up to 6000 acres
to remove "hazard trees," allow fuel removal projects of
up to 10,000 acres which can be carried out by a third
party (i.e. the timber or biomass industry), and remove
any previously required consultation with US Fish and
Wildlife on endangered species.
ACTION:
Contact
your US Representative in Congress
multiple
times to highlight how bad this bill is.
5)
Federal Acquisitions Regulation (FAR) "revolutionary
overhaul"
The Federal
Acquisitions Regulation is the primary regulation used by
all executive agencies in their acquisition of supplies and
services with appropriated funds.
On
April 15, 2025 President Trump issued Executive
Order 14275 to streamline and
accelerate all government acquisitions and eliminate many
layers of review, guardrails, and rules which have been built
over the past four decades.
On August 15, 2025
the deregulation began with the announcement
that "agencies are authorized to immediately begin eliminating
one-third of requirements from their future contracts that are
not required by statute or executive orders." This
announcement also highlights that
"the old rules were
built for paperwork...we're clearing out red tape."
In short, the
administration can decide what to purchase or make any agency
purchase. Case in point, they just ordered the Pentagon to
boost coal use. What will they order to be powered by
woody biomass?
ACTION:
1.
Contact
your US Representative in Congress to educate them
2.
Publicize the issue in the media
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HELP KEEP THE ROADLESS RULE IN
PLACE |
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By
Ellen "Len" Montgomery, Environment America
Since 2001, nearly one third of our national forests
have been protected from road building and commercial logging
by a policy called the Roadless Area Conservation Rule.
The Roadless Area Conservation Rule is an administrative
policy that plays an indispensable role in protecting the
intact forests on America’s public lands.
In
June 2025, USDA Secretary Rollins announced plans to roll back
the Roadless Rule. This was followed by a Notice of Intent
in August with a comment period that ended in September 2025,
which garnered over 600,000 comments in favor of protecting
the Roadless Rule. We anticipate a Draft Environmental Impact
Statement (DEIS) to be released in 2026, potentially as soon
as March.
If
USDA follows through on their plans to rescind the rule, this
move will open up these thriving wildlife habitats and
recreational areas for logging and roadbuilding. Thousands of
miles of new roads could crisscross our national forests,
damaging important habitat and creating new opportunities for
human-caused fires.
Despite
the tremendous amount of public interest, the USFS has
not planned any public hearings, so organizations in
communities across the country are arranging town hall-like
meetings of their own where people can give testimonials,
write letters, sign petitions, and become more
informed on
the consequences of repealing the Roadless Rule.
ACTION:
1.
Contact
your US Senators
2. GET
CREATIVE!
-
- Host a Roadless
Rally or Forest Forum in your area
to support the
Roadless Rule.
- Host a
letter-writing party at your local
library
- Have a potluck at
your own home with a few friends.
- Make a video on your
phone about why roadless areas are important to you and
send it to your congressional
representatives.
Contact
Len Montgomery at Environment
America or in...@heartwood.org for help organizing your
own event. |
|
Podcast Interview with
Gary
McFarlane |
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99.2% of Comments Oppose
Rescission
of the Roadless
Rule |
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Methodology: The Center
for Western Priorities downloaded all 183,168 public comments
posted to regulations.gov
as of 6:00 am MT on Friday, September 19th, 2025. The comment
period closes at 11:59 pm ET, September 19th. Using a
combination of manual and keyword analysis, a statistically
random sample of 5,000 of those
comments were categorized as
“supportive,” “opposed,” or “neutral” to the proposed
rescission of the 2001 Roadless Rule. The sample has a margin
of error of ±1.4 percent. The full data
set and toolchain
are available for
download. |
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INDIANA:
Honoring Andy at the Indiana State
House |
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Indiana State House, February 3rd,
2026. Members of Heartwood, Indiana Forest Alliance and Sierra
Club Hoosier Chapter from left to right: Julie Lowe,
Marilyn Bauchet, Lora Kemp with State Senator Shelli Yoder at
the Podium, and State Representative Matt Pierce
. |
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By
Lora Kemp
Through
snow and cold weather, Hoosiers headed to the State House in
Indiana on February 3 for Conservation Day. The Dwight
Chamberlin Raptor Center provided a Red Tailed Hawk and a
Barred Owl to join the ceremony. Lora Kemp, of the
Heartwood Council, got on stage to remind attendees of the
legacy Andy Mahler had created as a champion for Indiana’s
forests, especially the Hoosier National Forest. Members from
Heartwood, Sierra Club, and the Indiana Forest Alliance
thanked State Senator Shelli Yoder and Representative Matt
Pierce for their commitment to Conservation and for nominating
Andy for the Circle of Corydon Award (awarded to Andy by
Governor Braun and presented last fall at the Heartwood
reunion).
The
two state legislators, Shelli Yoder and Matt Pierce, were
presented with copies of Andy Mahler
and the Hoosier National by Steven Higgs, Ecoblitz:
An Indiana Forest Expedition by Indiana Forest
Alliance, and Nature
Walks in Southern Indiana by Alan McPherson and Sierra
Club Hoosier Chapter. Representative Pierce and Senator Yoder,
both gave speeches about Conservation and Andy’s contributions
to the forest movement in Indiana and across the
Midwest.
Senator
Yoder pointed out that Andy was an ardent protector of
Indiana’s National and State Forests. She spoke about how
Andy’s love of nature prompted him to create the Indiana
Forest Alliance, Protect Our Woods, and Heartwood, fulfilling
Andy's and other's vision of protecting Public
Lands. |
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