H.R. 3930 — Roadless Area Conservation Act of 2025

This section declares congressional findings on the social, ecological, economic, and recreational benefits of inventoried roadless areas within the National Forest System (e.g., protecting watersheds serving tens of millions, saving millions in water filtration costs, providing backcountry habitat and recreation opportunities, serving as biological refuges, and allowing multiple uses including mechanized travel); the compatibility of such protection with the Forest Service's multiple-use mission without new limitations on roadless or adjacent lands; the unreliability of recreation economies without it; lower wildfire risk in roadless areas; the agency's $5.98 billion maintenance backlog for its 368,102-mile road system; and continued hydropower potential. The section states the Act's purpose to provide lasting protection for these areas within multiple-use management.

This section defines three terms for purposes of the Act: (1) inventoried roadless area, as any area in which road construction, road reconstruction, or logging is subject to regulation under the Roadless Rule; (2) Roadless Rule, as part 294 of title 36, Code of Federal Regulations, as adopted on January 12, 2001, and modified for Idaho on October 16, 2008, and for Colorado on July 3, 2012, and December 19, 2016; and (3) Secretary, as the Secretary of Agriculture, acting through the Chief of the Forest Service.