S. 2042 — Roadless Area Conservation Act of 2025

This section sets forth 15 congressional findings on the social, ecological, economic, and multiple-use benefits of protecting inventoried roadless areas within the National Forest System—including their role in watershed protection, biodiversity conservation, recreation, wildfire risk reduction, support for a 368,102-mile Forest Service road system's $5.98 billion maintenance backlog, and hydropower development—and declares the purpose of the Act to provide lasting protection for such areas within the context of 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 36 C.F.R. part 294, 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.