It’s news that has environmentalists on the Central and South Coast worried.
The Trump Administration has taken the first step towards opening hundreds of thousands of acres of land in the Los Padres National Forest to logging.
The Agriculture Department announced the opening of a 21-day public comment period on a proposal to rescind the Roadless Area Conservation Rule.
The rule protects about 58 million acres of national forest from the construction of permanent roads and industrial logging. The policy protects more than 630,000 acres of land in the Los Padres National Forest.
Administration officials say repealing the rule is needed for wildfire prevention and economic growth. However, representatives of the conservation group Las Padres ForestWatch say this is a push by the federal government to open more public land to logging.
