We’ve been down this road before. In 2020, Winter Wildlands Alliance stood up against the Trump Administration’s attempt to gut the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA)—a bedrock environmental law that ensures federal agencies “look before they leap” by evaluating environmental impacts and listening to the public before making major decisions.

Alongside the American Alpine Club, we went to court to defend wild winter landscapes and climbing areas across the country. Then, we petitioned the Biden Administration to restore critical public engagement and environmental review requirements that were removed in 2020.

Now, the Trump Administration is back and moving fast—once again attempting to weaken NEPA and strip away your voice in the future of public lands and winter experiences.

We support making NEPA more efficient. But not by cutting out the public.

Earlier this year, many of you joined us in opposing the Council on Environmental Quality’s (CEQ) Interim Final Rule. That rule weakened centralized NEPA guidance and opened the door for federal agencies to create their own, less stringent regulations.

Since then, the agencies, including the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), have done just that, working at lightning speed to create new guidelines that reduce the NEPA process to little more than a rubber stamp for development and extraction.

On July 3, the USDA released an Interim Final Rule that immediately rewrites how the agency complies with NEPA. This rule applies to the U.S. Forest Service, and significantly weakens environmental oversight. 

The rule strips away the existing framework for environmental review, replacing it with vague and discretionary procedures that mostly benefit commercial developers and extractive industry. Among other things, the new rule immediately:

• Eliminates agency-specific NEPA regulations, including the Forest Service’s detailed guidance, and replaces them with generalized, weaker guidelines for the whole Department of Agriculture;
• Does Away with the Schedule of Proposed Actions (SOPA)—a crucial Forest Service public notification tool that alerts local communities to upcoming environmental analyses and projects and allows communities to have oversight over their local forests.  
• Removes Requirements for Environmental Assessments (EAs) and other baseline reviews, offering a pay-to-play option for corporations, mining companies and developers. 
• Expands the use of broad and unchecked Categorical Exclusions (CEs) to fast-track projects like timber harvest, energy extraction, and high-impact motorized use with little environmental scrutiny.
• Reduces or removes requirements to consider cumulative impacts, which are fundamental to understanding the long-term effects of development, logging, or infrastructure on wild landscapes, sensitive wildlife and climate. 
• Imposes arbitrary page limits and unrealistic timelines for completion of NEPA analysis, which will force rushed and careless decisions, especially given dramatic staffing cuts across all agencies. We’re in favor of efficient deadlines, but not at the expense of thorough analysis and public input!

These changes dramatically impact our ability to protect the quiet, wild, snowy places we all love, making Forest Service lands that support winter recreation, wildlife, and climate resilience more vulnerable than ever to unchecked development.

Even though the USDA rule is already in effect, the USDA is still accepting public comments until August 4th, 2025. This is your chance to push back and make your voice heard. 

We wish we could make it easier, but the only way to do this is (and to have a real impact) is to write your own personalized comment using the Forest Service’s official CARA form. Here’s what to include in your comment:

• Speak Up: Tell the Department of Agriculture that you are strongly opposed to NEPA rule changes affecting the US Forest Service that curtail your opportunities for engagement, undermine the public’s ability to hold the agency accountable, and put our wild snowscapes at risk! 
• Be specific: Talk about which public lands you care about and why. Mention particular local projects that matter to you and how the rule will impact winter recreation, access, or wildlife. For example, the Rio Grande National Forest has already completed the scoping process and developed alternatives for their winter travel plan. The interim final rule would prevent the public from commenting on those alternatives.
• Highlight the value of public input and environmental review: For example, Grand Targhee Resort’s proposed ski area expansion saw robust public participation and required the Forest Service to analyze all cumulative impacts of boundary expansion. A process like this would be skipped entirely under the new rule.
• Emphasize how NEPA protects communities and ecosystems: Especially in rural areas, NEPA is often the best—and only—tool to prevent reckless development and ensure government transparency. 

• Silence public voices in decisions that impact our public lands.
• Open the door for unchecked logging, road-building, mining, and commercial development.
• Increase environmental damage without accountability.
• Weaken legal protections for wildlife, watersheds, and climate stability.
• Undermine community-led recreation and conservation planning.

At Winter Wildlands Alliance, we’ll never stop fighting for strong environmental protections and meaningful public participation on our national forests. Together, we can keep our wild snowscapes protected and ensure NEPA remains a powerful tool for the people and places that depend on it.

This is likely your only chance to comment on the USDA’s interim final rule. Don’t miss it.

If you have any questions, please reach out to our CO Policy Manager, Brittany Leffel, at bleffel@winterwildlands.org.