California’s wild forests need protection — not more roads
Opinion By Woody Smeck
September 6, 2026
California’s national forests contain some of the last truly wild landscapes in the American West. They protect drinking water, provide critical wildlife habitat, support recreation economies and give millions of people the chance to experience nature on its own terms. Today, those landscapes face a serious threat.
The U.S. Forest Service is considering changes to its forest management rules that could weaken protections for roadless areas and expand motorized access across public lands. These may sound like technical regulatory changes, but they could open some of the most ecologically important and undeveloped parts of California’s national forests to new roads and motorized use.
During 32 years with the National Park Service, including as superintendent of Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks and later as a regional manager overseeing parks across California and Nevada, I learned an important lesson: Once roads and motorized vehicles enter wild country, their impacts extend far beyond the road corridor itself. Roads fragment wildlife habitat, spread invasive species and disease and create new opportunities for human-caused wildfire. Forest Service research of fires in Southern California — an area that includes Los Padres National Forest — found that two-thirds of human-caused wildfires in California started along roads. These impacts accumulate over time and are often difficult, if not impossible, to reverse. The stakes are especially high on California’s Central Coast.
Approximately 650,000 acres of roadless lands within the Los Padres National Forest could be opened to road development and motorized uses. These lands protect watersheds that supply our local reservoirs and rivers, including Lake Nacimiento, Lake Cachuma and the Salinas River. They also provide habitat for some of California’s most iconic and imperiled wildlife, including the California condor, San Joaquin kit fox and Southern California steelhead. These forests also support recreation and tourism economies that depend on unspoiled public lands. But their value cannot be measured only in acres or dollars. During my career, I saw what people seek in our public lands. They come for unspoiled landscapes, wildlife, and the chance to experience places that still feel wild. They come for mountain vistas and quiet trails among the big trees. Those opportunities are becoming increasingly rare. This is not an argument against responsible public access. Access and conservation can coexist. But opening protected roadless areas to more roads and motorized use crosses a different line. It permanently changes landscapes and diminishes the very qualities that make them worth protecting.
Previous generations made difficult choices to safeguard these lands. We are their beneficiaries — but also their stewards. We hold these public lands in trust, not simply for ourselves, but for those who come after us. The question is whether we will pass that inheritance to our children and grandchildren with its forests, waters, wildlife and wild character intact. The Forest Service is accepting public comments on proposals to repeal the Roadless Rule and revise its Travel Management Rule. Comments are due Sept. 21 and Sept. 23, respectively. Details are available at Regulations.gov under dockets FS-2025-0001 and FS-2026-0100. If you value clean water, wildlife, quiet recreation and resilient forests, now is the time to speak up. What happens in these forests over the coming weeks could shape them for generations.
Woody Smeck served 32 years with the National Park Service, including as Superintendent of Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks and Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area, and as Deputy Regional Director of the Pacific West Region, where he oversaw national park units across California and Nevada. He lives in Nipomo.
The Coalition to Protect America’s National Parks represents over 5,100 current, former, and retired employees and volunteers of the National Park Service, with over 50,000 collective years of stewardship of America’s most precious natural and cultural resources. Recognized as the Voices of Experience, the Coalition educates, speaks, and acts for the preservation and protection of the National Park System, and mission-related programs of the National Park Service. More information can be found at https://protectnps.org.
Source: Coalition to Protect America’s National Parks
