Language

Advertising byAdpathway

Sportsmen For Wild Olympics Release Map of Headwaters at risk under Trump Plan to log roadless public lands on Olympic National Forest, 59 Million Acres Nationwide

12 hours ago 1

PROTECT YOUR DNA WITH QUANTUM TECHNOLOGY

Advertising by Adpathway

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE September 5th, 2025

QUILCENE, WA—September 5th, 2025: Today, Sportsmen for Wild Olympics released a new map with photos illustrating the devastating impacts that developing key roadless backcountry public lands on Olympic National Forest could have on critical headwaters of prime trophy fishing rivers and public access on the Olympic Peninsula. The group is calling on Congress to pass the Wild Olympics Act as a proactive solution to permanently protect these lands.

“This map tells Congress and the Administration: protect the Olympic Peninsula’s public lands—don’t privatize or develop them,” said Ashley Nichole Lewis, a Quinault Indian Nation fishing guide and spokesperson for Sportsmen for Wild Olympics. “It gives our fellow sportsmen and women something to fight for, not just against—a lasting solution to threats we are confronting right now.”

The urgency comes as the Trump Administration announced a shortened comment period ending September 19th on their plans to rescind the Roadless Rule in order to log & develop sensitive spawning habitat on public lands, a key federal safeguard for undeveloped backcountry areas across national forests, including Olympic National Forest. The new map with photos highlights & names the critical ancient forest roadless headwaters & salmon streams on Olympic National Forest that are now threatened by the Trump Administration’s plan to lift protections for these backcountry public lands prized by the Olympic Peninsula sportsmen community for the clean water, critical habitat & access they provide.

What is the Roadless Rule?

The Roadless Rule, established in 2001, protects undeveloped areas of national forests from new road construction and logging. These “roadless” areas are often rugged backcountry landscapes that provide crucial habitat for fish and wildlife, protect water quality, and offer remote hunting and angling opportunities. Removing these protections opens the door to industrial development in some of the last intact forest lands in the country.

“Rescinding the Roadless Rule is yet another attempt to hand over our essential public resources to special interests—at the expense of salmon, clean water, and future generations,” Lewis said.

The coalition—comprising thousands of local and regional hunters and anglers, and over 30 leading sportsmen organizations—has already punched well above their weight earlier this year playing an outsized role in the national backlash opposing the unprecedented threats to public lands coming from both Congress and the Administration. Lewis says these threats highlight exactly why the group supports the Wild Olympics Wilderness & Wild and Scenic Rivers Act, recently reintroduced by Senator Patty Murray and Representative Emily Randall.

“The different public land sale efforts in Congress and the new plan to strip protections from 59 million acres of core forest headwaters nationwide—including lands on the Peninsula—show that they will use any tactic to privatize or exploit our public lands,” Lewis said. “This map shows what that would actually look like. Congress & the White House must reverse course and pass Wild Olympics to permanently protect these critical salmon streams instead.”

The Wild Olympics Act, developed with years of local input, would enhance hunting and fishing access while permanently protecting some of the last, best intact salmon-spawning habitat left in the Lower 48. Importantly, it would not close existing roads or cost timber jobs. It has broad local support.

The new map & photos show how the Wild Olympics proposal would protect key areas such as South Quinault Ridge, Moonlight Dome, and other core ancient forest headwaters & rivers vital for hunting & fishing on the Peninsula —areas the Administration now plans to open for logging by rescinding the Roadless Rule.

(The steep forested slopes of the Moonlight Dome Roadless Area forms the critical headwaters for both the East and West Forks of the Humptulips River (seen ok the left), one of the top ten Trophy Fishing Rivers in Washington State. President Trump is rescinding Roadkess Rule protections for these backcountry public lands in order to mandate logging, roadbuilding & development of the sensitive salmon spawning habitat of Moonlight Dome and 59 million more acres of remote backcountry national forest lands nationwide. The Wild Olympics Act would permanently protect Moonlight Dome against threats like this in the future.)

The map also reveals that 300,000 acres of Olympic National Forest have been identified as eligible for sale under different plans by the Administration and some members of Congress during earlier drafts of the budget bill passed earlier this year. While the land sale provision was struck from the budget, proponents continue to push this idea forward.

The unprecedented threats to public lands recently sparked Senator Murray to throw down the gauntlet in the Senate, announcing she will block any public lands legislative package that comes out of Utah Senator Mike Lee’s Senate Energy & Natural Resources Committee unless it includes her Wild Olympics bill, a move that galvanized local supporters to pull out all the stops to get it done this Congress.

Lewis hopes the map inspires more hunters and anglers to join the thousands who have already signed their petition.

“The outdoor community is powerful. Our fishing and hunting guides are pillars of this community. The same places we work the hardest are the ones we return to after the day is done—because we love them. Let’s use that collective power to ensure a single pen stroke can never take our public lands away. Let’s pass the Wild Olympics Act.”

###

HOW TO FIGHT BACK.

1) Sign the WildOlympics.org/wild-olympics-petition/ telling Congress ancient temperate rainforests of the #WildOlympics aren’t for sale & to permanently protect Olympic Peninsula #publiclands & rivers against travesties like this in the future.

2) Those who can afford it PLEASE WildOlympics.org/DONATE to fuel our fight. We helped defeat this four years ago. Help us defeat it again & pass the Wild Olympics Wilderness & Wild & Scenic Rivers Act to permanently protect ancient forests & salmon streams once & for all.

3) SUBMIT A COMMENT AT PORTAL LINK Comment Period Ends Sept 19th. Tell USDA to uphold the Roadless Rue to protect Olympic Peninsula Ancient Forests & critical salmon nurseries that were already centuries-old when our nation was born.