forest watch
forest watch
Alabama’s National Forests are federal public lands managed by the U.S. Forest Service under the direction of the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Since our founding in 1991 as the Bankhead Monitor—through our evolution as Wild Alabama, Wild South, and once again Wild Alabama—Forest Watch has remained at the core of our mission. Our forest protection work began with Forest Watch as a critical tool for safeguarding Alabama’s last wild places, and it continues to guide our advocacy today.
Wild Alabama actively monitors Forest Service activities to ensure compliance with the 2004 Forest Revision Plan for National Forests in Alabama and to promote management practices that align with sound restoration principles. Our goal is the protection and recovery of healthy, intact ecosystems across Alabama’s public lands.
This work includes ongoing participation on the Bankhead Liaison Panel, on-the-ground monitoring (“ground-truthing”) of timber sales and management activities, submitting public comments on proposed policies and projects, and responding to concerns raised by forest visitors and community members.
Through Forest Watch, Wild Alabama serves as a vigilant advocate for responsible, science-based stewardship of our National Forests.
Forest Watch Updates
Aug 20, 2026
Defend the Roadless Rule
On August 18, 2026 the Forest Service filed its Draft Environmental Impact Statement, and its Chosen Alternative is to rescind the Roadless Rule in its entirety.
Go to www.roadless.org to learn more and to get a guide to a well-written comment that becomes part of the administrative record that decides the outcome.
Jul 23, 2026
Speak Up for Old-Growth: Federal Decisions That Could Shape the Future of America’s Oldest Forests
We need your support to defend the 2001 Roadless Area Conservation Rule, which currently safeguards approximately 58 million acres of national forest land in “Inventoried Roadless Areas.” These Inventoried Roadless Areas have been protected from logging, roadbuilding, and extraction via the 2001 Roadless Rule, but the US Department of Agriculture wants to remove those protections. Roadless Areas contain over 9.1 million acres of old-growth forest, so we need your help speaking up against this threat!
Public comment deadline: TO BE ANNOUNCED.
We expect this comment period to begin later this year and we will share updates when it opens.
In the meantime, please learn more about Roadless Areas and how we can fight to protect them below.
May 29, 2026
A guide to wild hikes in Southern roadless areas
Explore at-risk areas in Virginia, North Carolina, Georgia, Tennessee, Alabama, and South Carolina — and learn how the Roadless Rule protects some of the South’s wildest public lands. Then, tell Congress to Protect the South's Wildest Forests!
Mar 31, 2026
The Past, Present and Future of The Roadless Rule
In this special episode, The Wild Idea brings its recent public webinar directly to podcast listeners.
Join a high-powered panel of scientists, attorneys, policy veterans, and conservation advocates to examine one of the most consequential federal land protection policies in American history: the 2001 Roadless Rule. The rule has shielded 58.5 million acres of largely intact national forest land from new road construction and most commercial timber harvest for more than two decades, and it now faces a proposed rescission.
