SANTA FE, N.M. (AP) — The Trump administration plans to rescind a nearly quarter-century-old rule that blocked logging on national forest lands, Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins announced on June 23.

The roadless rule adopted in the last days of Bill Clinton’s presidency in 2001 long has chafed Republican lawmakers, especially in the West where national forests sprawl across vast, mountainous terrain and the logging industry has waned.

The rule impeded road construction and “responsible timber production”, Rollins said at the annual meeting of the Western Governors Association.

“This move opens a new era of consistency and sustainability for our nation’s forests,” Rollins said.

Scientists say that worsening wildfires are driven by a combination of climate change that warms and dries out forests, less logging and decades of fire suppression that has allowed fuels to build up.

The roadless rule has affected 30% of national forest lands nationwide, or about 59 million acres, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the agency over the Forest Service.

State roadless-area rules in Idaho and Colorado supersede the boundaries of the 2001 roadless rule, according to the USDA, meaning not all national forest land would be affected by a rescission.

Rollins’ announcement was a first step in a process to rescind the roadless rule to be followed by a formal notice in coming weeks, the Agriculture Department said in a statement.

Selling public lands drew a mixed reception from governors at the same meeting. They expressed enthusiasm for economic development and worries about curtailing public access to shared lands.

Speaking to a panel of governors, Department of Interior Secretary Doug Burgum described a new “era of abundance” on public lands under President Donald Trump’s administration in the development of natural resources including energy and critical minerals needed for domestic production of cellphones, computers and vehicles.

Outside the hotel entrance in downtown Santa Fe, several hundred protesters filled the street to denounce efforts that might privatize federal public lands.

Environmental groups, who want to keep restrictions on logging and road-building for places such as Alaska’s Tongass National Forest, criticized the possibility of rolling back the protections.

“Any attempt to revoke it is an attack on the air and water we breathe and drink, abundant recreational opportunities which millions of people enjoy each year, havens for wildlife and critical buffers for communities threatened by increasingly severe wildfire seasons,” Josh Hicks, conservation campaigns director at The Wilderness Society, said in a statement on the USDA’s plans.