Emigrant Peak in the Custer-Gallatin National Forest (Photo by Jacob Frank | National Park Service | Flickr).

The Trump administration announced Wednesday that the U.S. Department of Agriculture has taken the next step in repealing a rule protecting nearly 60 million acres of national forest land from logging and development — more than 10% of which is in Montana.

The 2001 Roadless Rule prohibits the construction of road and harvest of timber on inventoried roadless areas — roughly 30% of all Forest Service land — across the county preserving intact ecosystems across huge swaths of federal public lands in western states.

Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins said in a press release that rescinding the rule will bring “common sense management” to national forest land.

“Today marks a c

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