More than 2 million acres of roadless, wilderness area in Oregon could soon lose protections

Tim Ingalsbee, executive director of Firefighters United for Safety, Ethics and Ecology, and one of the environmental advocates on the flight, said he anticipates building roads will increase the chance that Oregon’s remote, hard to reach areas will burn.

"The vast majority, 90% or more of wildfires, happen alongside roads,” Ingalsbee said. “What they might gain from the possibility of ferrying in large convoys of firefighters and dozers and all that stuff, they're going to lose in terms of vastly more wildfire ignitions from careless motorists, campers, or arsonists."