Catastrophic wildfires like these have significant impacts on communities, livelihoods, and ecosystems. Utahans have been subjected to more than their fair share of them over the years. Natural causes, like lightning, cause some of these fires. But human activity is responsible for the majority of Utah’s wildfires — as is the case across the country. According to the National Park Service, “nearly 85% of wildland fires in the United States are caused by humans.” These are from campfires left unattended, roadside starts sparked by vehicles, flicked cigarette butts, intentional arson, and other unintentional equipment malfunctions–like faulty power lines. The Western Fire Chiefs Association puts this number closer to 90%.

Put simply, more people equal more fire.

Earlier this year, the U.S. Department of Agriculture began a process to repeal the US Forest Service’s Roadless Rule. Since 2001, the rule has conserved more than 58 million acres of undeveloped backcountry national forest system lands across 39 states. This keeps about one third of our total federal forestland protected from development like road building or industrial logging. These are public lands owned by all of us and part of our national heritage. In Utah, approximately four million acres were conserved under the Roadless Rule — about half of the total federal forests within the state.

What is the reason given by USDA for rolling back the Roadless Rule and removing protections on our forests? To have more flexibility to “reduce wildfire risk and help protect surrounding communities and infrastructure,” they claimed.

Here’s the thing. Designated roadless areas within our national forests are generally remote, far from human development. Fires that occur naturally here tend to burn in natural ways that benefit and restore ecosystems. Should a fire in a roadless area ever threaten a community, there are no restrictions that would keep firefighters from doing their jobs to protect people and property.

According to the sportsmen organization Trout Unlimited, 78% of human-caused fires on national forests occur within a half mile of a road. These are, inherently, not where roadless areas are. According to a recent study, “out of over 21,000 fires that occurred in Utah between 2000 and 2015, 75% started outside of National Forest lands and less than 10% originated in Roadless Area.” 90% of wildfires between 2003-18 were outside of Roadless areas. Most of these fires were caused by humans and originated on private lands — not from roadless, backcountry forests.

Utahans are right to address the risks posed by wildfire. But by targeting the Roadless Rule, Washington bureaucrats are looking in the wrong direction. Instead, proactively stewarding forests in front country areas that are actually near communities is a much better return on investment and a better use of our tax dollars.

And more fire isn’t the only thing Utahns should worry about if these backcountry forests are opened up. Repeal could fragment wildlife habitat for popular game species like elk and destroy many backcountry hunting, hiking, and other outdoor recreation activities. It could increase erosion and sedimentation into Utah’s rivers and streams, endangering drinking water supplies and costing us money to address.

In 2019, Governor Gary Herbert also sought to remove Roadless Rule protections for Utah’s national forests. An analysis determined that complying with this request would have cost the Forest Service an estimated $6.6 million — money that we, the taxpayers, have to pay. There are already 380,000 miles of roads within our national forests that the US Forest Service can’t afford to maintain with a $6.4 billion backlog of road and bridge maintenance costs. Why would we want to spend even more money to build more roads we can’t maintain and that also increases the threat of wildfire?

I think President Trump will go down in history as one of our greatest presidents. His record of success is dizzying, from securing the border, to taking down the Deep State, to now bringing peace to the Middle East. But on the roadless forests issue, I think there are some misguided bureaucrats within President Trump’s agencies.

To borrow a phrase from Ronald Reagan’s advisers: Let Utah be Utah. Keep the Roadless Rule in place.

Craig Shirley is Chairman of Citizens for the Republic.