Northern Rockies Ecosystem Protection Act of 2025

H.R. 2420 would protect vast tracts of public land across Idaho, Montana, Oregon, Washington, and Wyoming by designating approximately 20 to 23 million acres of inventoried roadless areas as wilderness under the 1964 Wilderness Act. The bill would also designate roughly 1,800 miles of rivers and streams as Wild and Scenic Rivers. The protected areas span five major ecosystems: the Greater Yellowstone, Greater Glacier/Northern Continental Divide, Greater Salmon/Selway, Greater Cabinet-Yaak-Selkirk, and Greater Hells Canyon ecosystems.

The bill would establish biological corridors connecting protected areas to help preserve wildlife populations and genetic diversity, and would create Wildland Restoration Areas on approximately 1 million acres to fund restoration jobs addressing damage from past resource extraction. Wilderness designation provides the highest level of legal protection available, which would restrict logging, road building, and most commercial activities in these areas. The bill is currently referred to the House Committee on Natural Resources and has not yet been voted on by the full chamber.