The Trump admin says repealing the Roadless Rule will reduce wildfires. A new study casts doubt on that.

The Trump administration says it wants to repeal the longstanding Roadless Rule, which protects national forest lands from logging and new roads, to reduce wildfire risk. But new research shows that fires haven’t burned significantly more in roadless areas than in developed forest areas across the West.

Scientists at the University of Oregon and Oregon State University analyzed 40 years of wildfire data across national forests in 11 western states where most roadless areas are located.

“Essentially there’s no difference in the extent of fire in inventoried roadless areas than in areas that have lots of roads,” said James Johnston, a co-author of the paper and professor at the University of Oregon. “In fact, in the last 12 years or so, there’s been slightly less fire in inventoried roadless areas than in those developed areas.”