Flint: Ditch Roadless Rule for increased industry

Conservative radio host and Army veteran-turned Republican U.S. congressional candidate Aaron Flint is pitching rolling back the federal Roadless Rule to improve public lands management, extractive industry and firefighting capability.

Flint discussed the issue with the Chronicle on Monday after attending a Sunday event in Bozeman with Jim Jordan, Republican U.S. representative for Ohio’s 4th Congressional District and House Judiciary Committee chairperson.

The Trump administration filed a proposal to rescind the 2001 Roadless Area Conservation Rule on Aug. 18. The regulation restricts road construction, reconstruction and timber harvesting on 45 million acres of National Forest land across the U.S., including approximately 6.4 million acres in Montana.

Flint connected elimination of the Roadless Rule with endorsement of his candidacy from Montana Carpenters Union Local 82 on Aug. 13.

“You are seeing the working ‘blue collar’ trade unions wanting to support candidates that have their backs, that support...the industries leading to high-wage jobs,” Flint said.

“That’s why the trade unions are starting to back pro-worker candidates like me.”

Whether the Roadless Rule stays or goes became a central talking point among conservation groups, politicians, tradesmen and outdoor recreationists after the U.S. Department of Agriculture announced its intention to rescind it in June 2025.

The Trump administration is advancing rescinding the rule through the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The Roadless Rule was enacted in 2001 by then Democratic President Bill Clinton’s administration via an administrative and public review process managed by the U.S. Forest Service.

“(It) was enacted administratively and it is being rescinded administratively,” Flint said. He believes the next president cannot reinstate the rule and that doing so could require congressional action.

In a USDA press release, Forest Service Chief Tom Schultz said rescinding the Roadless Rule could allow local forest managers to “address watershed, economic, and wildfire-risk conditions within the sideboards of existing laws, regulations, and policy.” The USDA aims to “restore authority” to local forest managers who “know the land best” to determine how forests and grasslands are managed for recreation, resource extraction and wildfire mitigation.

For Flint, eliminating the Roadless Rule could be a boon to carpenters and other blue-collar workers in unions like the Ironworkers, where members can be hired temporarily to build, repair or maintain heavy steel structures and sawmill machinery.

“It shows that even the unions — which will typically lean to the Democrats — they know who the fighter for working class families is in this state,” he said.

In Flint’s view, eliminating the Roadless Rule increases public lands access and therefore enables a more vibrant Montana timber industry, but also increases forest fire fighting capability.

Sam Forstag, Flint’s Democratic rival for Montana’s 1st Congressional District, is skeptical. Forstag is a prior Forest Service smokejumper who jumped out of low-altitude planes fighting wildfires across the West.

“Anyone who actually does this work on wildland fires could tell you that repealing the Roadless Rule within an agency that’s got a multi-billion-dollar backlog of road maintenance work is not going to do a whole lot of good for fighting fires,” Forstag said to the Chronicle previously.

Flint claims bipartisan support to eliminate the “one size fits all” Roadless Rule is out there, despite his differences with Forstag, who garnered campaign endorsements from more than nine labor unions and related worker organizations.

When asked who he talked to in the Democratic Party that is supportive of removing the Roadless Rule, Flint alleged the left is changing its tune and wants increased access to public lands for a more proactive fire response. Flint referenced Montana Republican U.S. Senator Tim Sheehy, who teamed up with Democratic lawmakers on bipartisan legislation to reform federal wildland firefighting and forest management policy.

Sheehy, who founded Belgrade-based aerial firefighting contractor Bridger Aerospace, partnered with California Democratic Senator Alex Padilla to introduce the Fit for Purpose Wildfire Readiness Act in February 2025. The bill proposes consolidating wildfire response authorities from the Departments of Agriculture and the Interior into one agency and calls for a director chosen by the President and confirmed by the Senate.

Critics warn political appointees changing within the proposed agency every administration could disrupt long-term planning and organizational stability, especially when quick action is required during fire seasons.

“A Montana Republican can team up with a California Democrat to improve our wildland firefighting response (and) capabilities,” Flint said. “I think there’s some bipartisan opportunities. What these unions are looking for is what most Montanans are: common sense over crazy.

Even California Democrats are starting to realize that. That’s why they’re starting to work with guys like Senator Tim Sheehy.”

The Public Lands in Public Hands Act is a January 2025 bipartisan bill introduced by current Republican Montana 1st Congressional District Representative Ryan Zinke and New Mexico Democratic Representative Gabe Vasquez. The bill is designed to protect public access and increase congressional oversight over federal land sales.

Flint lauded the bill as an example of bipartisan support for public lands initiatives, particularly legislation kickstarted by a Montana Republican in Congress to increase federal lands protection. If elected, Flint intends to continue to support the bill if it is not passed by 2027.

“The (Democratic Party), they’ll screech all day long about public lands in public hands, but then they want to deny Montanans access (with the Roadless Rule),” Flint said. “The other side advocates for shutting down…logging. We’ve got to fix our forests so we’re not chewing all this smoke like we’ve been doing half this summer, thanks to the fires in Oregon, Washington and British Columbia.”

There has been an upswing in Montana wildfires in recent weeks. An air resource advisor was assigned to the Sand Creek and Bobcat Lakes Fires burning in the Pioneer Mountains of southwest Montana and “massive” wildfires in Oregon and Washington, according to a state announcement last week.

By Thursday afternoon, the Deer Creek Fire burning in Lincoln County was one of the most active blazes in the state. The fire burned more than 600 acres, sending smoke into the Flathead Valley and Glacier National Park in the proceeding days.

The Cherry Peak Fire, southeast of Thompson Falls, was also active. The wildfire burned more than 140 acres. The Windmill Fire in rural Stillwater County, burned more than 3,600 acres, sending smoke into places like Laurel and Billings on Friday.

The Bobcat Lakes and Sand Creek Fires, burning in the Pioneer Mountains, perked up last Wednesday. The fires sent smoke into downwind communities, including Bozeman. By Saturday afternoon, the Rapid Refresh Forecast System smoke model showed less smoke over the state due to clouds and cooler temperatures.

“Montanans know — we need to better manage our forests here in Montana,” Flint said.

For Flint, the Roadless Rule’s biggest problem is it strips away decision-making capabilities from local officials. He doesn’t believe repealing the rule means unfettered development.

“Repealing the Roadless Rule doesn’t mean there’s going to be roads in all these locations,” Flint said. “There’s going to be a lot of areas where we’re going to fight to make sure they remain roadless, but there’s going to be other areas where we need access to better fight fires, do fuel reduction efforts, and restore public access.”

Flint clarified the fight to keep certain areas roadless could fall to local elected officials, like county commissioners.

“(Local) land managers (could) finally (be) able to work with the state of Montana to improve forest health,” Flint said, also promoting additional road access in public lands as increasing accessibility to hunters with disabilities.

“It comes down to access,” Flint said. “The whole point of rescinding the Roadless Rule is to stop managing the West from Washington D.C. and restore this decision to local land managers.”