Read the comments.

First, PLEASE keep the Roadless Rule in place. The Roadless Rule has been in place for a quarter century, sustaining landscapes that contribute to people’s livelihoods and sanity. Such a draconian change to the status of Roadless public lands, as is being proposed by the current administration, is destabilizing not only to people but to the environment and the ecosystem services it provides. Forests protected by the2001 Roadless Rule -- adopted with overwhelming public support -- provide vital habitat for thousands of wildlife species, safeguard drinking water supplies for millions of Americans, and ensure quality recreation cherished by all. The Roadless Rule was enacted in 2001 after more than 600 public hearings were held around the nation, and the public provided more than 1.6 million comments on the Rule—more comments than any other rule in the nation's history. It is shameful that public hearings were not scheduled at all for a situation that will affect millions of Americans – and the thousands who come from other countries just to experience the amazing thing that we in American have: PUBLIC LANDS!!! Because of their special qualities, maintaining roadless areas has been a goal of conservation for nearly 90 years (Marshall, R., & Dobbins, A. (1936). Largest roadless areas in the United States. The Living Wilderness, 2, 11–13.) Roadless designation does not preclude management activity. In Montana alone, since the 2001 Roadless Rule went into effect, more than 188,400 acres of hazardous fuels treatments have been conducted in roadless areas. These roadless lands are critical to the health of our elk populations in Montana. 93% of summer elk habitat is within roadless areas. Roadless lands are the secure habitat that provides a 5-week elk seasons in Montana. Montana's five-week hunting season generates significant revenue for the state, contributing approximately $118 million. Overall, outdoor recreation, including hunting, plays a crucial role in Montana's economy, accounting for a substantial portion of the state's GDP. Withdrawing the roadless rule would require the shortening of Montana’s elk season to the detriment of all elk hunters, and to the economy of the state. Roads negatively impact trout and trout streams through sediment, pollution, and altered stream channels. 79% of roadless lands in Montana are home to native trout like Westslope cutthroat trout, bull trout, and Yellowstone cutthroat trout. The mountainous terrain of Montana's roadless areas, particularly Inventoried Roadless Areas (IRAs) in national forests, contains the headwaters for many of the state's major river systems. The high elevation of these areas means they receive a disproportionate amount of precipitation and snowpack, which is critical for year-round streamflow. However, with about 7,000 miles of dirt roads on national forest lands contributing sediment to waterways in Montana, this figure would expand dramatically if the Roadless Rule were abandoned. Roadless lands provide secure areas from human-caused forest fires because 78% of human-caused fires on USFS lands occur within a half-mile of a road. 85% of all wildfires are human-caused. As a result – there are far fewer fire starts within Roadless lands, than in areas penetrated by roads. More than 90% of roadless areas in Montana are recognized as having low or very low potential for energy development. The 2001 roadless rule recognizes valid existing rights for oil and gas development, and it does not prohibit new leases. USFS currently has $8.6 billion in deferred maintenance on existing USFS roads. This means the USFS cannot come close to maintaining all the roads they currently have, never mind building new roads. More than most states, with rescission of the Roadless Rule, Montana has the most to lose with respect to clean water, wildlife habitat, hunting opportunity, and long-term economic prosperity. Thousands of Montanans weighed in on the Roadless issue 25 years ago, and to this day people overwhelmingly support Roadless designations. As a life-long hunter, wildlife biologist, Montana native, and board member of Helena Hunters and Anglers Association and past-president of the Montana Chapter of The Wildlife Society – all of which have supported the Roadless Rule, I respectfully implore you to keep the Roadless Rule in place, or better yet, enshrine these roadless lands in permanent legal protection. For the past six years, as a member of the Helena Hunters and Anglers Association, I and others have been gathering and reporting on the status of Inventoried Roadless Areas on the Helena portion of the Helena-Lewis and Clark National Forest. Photo records, field notes, and aerial reconnaissance have so far, documented the status of five Inventoried Roadless Areas -- noting where the landscape is functioning well and where improvement could be implemented. One of these reports is attached.

I'm opposed to the proposed rescission of the Roadless Rule. Among the affected areas, I have hiked and camped in the Lewis and Clark National Forest and the Flathead National Forest in Montana. While destroying and diminishing opportunities for public recreation such as hiking and camping. The road building, resultant logging and other activities allowed through the proposed rescission will destroy or significantly impact habitat for federally listed species including Grizzily Bear, Canada Linx, Bull Trout and Gray Wolf. Game and non-game species will also suffer significant direct and indirect negative impacts. I have also hiked and camped in national forests in Colorado, Idaho, Utah, and Wyoming which will experience similar losses of public recreation opportunities along with the habitat destruction and degradation to federally listed species as well as other non-game and game species described in the previous paragraph. The 2001 Roadless Rule should stay in place! Thank you The Forest Service should keep the Roadless Rule intact exactly as it is. Do not weaken or repeal this critical policy. National forests are the heart of our public lands. The Roadless Area Conservation Rule protects some of the wildest forests we have left, forests that protect critical wildlife habitat and drinking water for millions. Revoking the Roadless Rule puts landscapes, wildlife, and communities at risk. Not only is the Roadless Rule good policy, it's also wildly popular across the country, with over 600,000 people submitting comments to the US Forest Service last year in support of keeping the rule in place. And more than 20 years ago, the American people overwhelmingly called for our national forests to be protected for future generations. Revoking the Roadless Rule would destroy the natural inheritance we leave for our children.

I am a Montana resident living on the Blackfeet Reservation, near the Lewis and Clark National Forest, Flathead National Forest and the Wild & Scenic Middle Fork of the Flathead River. I strongly oppose rescinding the 2001 Roadless Area Conservation Rule. I value our roadless lands because they protect wildlife habitat, clean drinking water, and the intact landscapes that make our nation special. These places are not simply undeveloped land—they are important ecosystems that support communities, wildlife, and future generations. I am particularly concerned about the potential impacts on the Badger-Two Medicine. The Badger-Two Medicine is a place of profound cultural and spiritual importance to the Blackfeet people. It contains traditional cultural resources, sacred places, and areas connected to Blackfeet cultural practices and gathering. Management decisions affecting these lands should recognize that their significance extends far beyond their potential value for timber, roads, or other extractive uses. I am also concerned about the effects of additional roads and development on wildlife habitat and water resources. Roadless landscapes can provide large, relatively intact areas for wildlife and can help maintain connected habitat. Roads can fragment habitat, increase human access and disturbance, and affect soils and waterways. Clean drinking water is a public resource that Montana communities depend upon, and protecting intact watersheds should be a fundamental consideration in federal land management. I understand that the Forest Service is considering wildfire risk reduction, forest management, and local decision-making as reasons for rescinding the Roadless Rule. Those concerns deserve consideration, but rescinding a nationwide protection is a much broader action than addressing specific forest-health or wildfire-management needs. The Forest Service should evaluate whether those objectives can be achieved through carefully targeted management while retaining protections for the ecological, cultural, and water-resource values of roadless areas. Please retain the 2001 Roadless Rule and protect these irreplaceable Montana landscapes for present and future generations. Thank you for considering my comment.

Re: Docket No. 2026-16965 – Special Areas; Roadless Area Conservation – Please select No Action Alternative and retain the 2001 Roadless Rule My name is Romulus Hiner, I live and hunt out of Harlowton, MT. I hunt the Helena-Lewis and Clark National Forest, Musselshell Ranger District, which is managed out of Harlowton. Three years ago I was lucky enough to draw the 411-20 either-sex elk tag in the Big Snowy Mountains. Anyone who hunts central Montana knows 411-20 is notoriously hard to draw. The unit is dominated by private land, and without the Big Snowy Mountains block of National Forest — including the Big Snowy Wilderness Study Area and Inventoried Roadless Areas — it is nearly impossible for a public-land hunter to have a quality hunt at all. That tag is the reason I care about the Roadless Rule. In the Big Snowies, the lack of permanent system roads is what creates elk security habitat. It keeps elk on public land during rifle season instead of pushing them immediately onto private where access ends. That is public hunting opportunity. When you build a permanent road into that block, you don't create more opportunity — you fragment the security cover, you increase motorized disturbance, you spread hunters up every drainage, and the elk leave. The same applies to fishing. The headwater streams coming off the Big Snowies run cold because they are shaded and intact. New roads bleed sediment into spawning beds and warm the water. I support active forest management. I want to see thinning and prescribed burning where it improves forage and reduces fire risk — and the current Roadless Rule already allows that. Montana has treated over 188,000 acres of roadless ground for hazardous fuels under the rule. We don't need to repeal the entire national rule to do restoration work. We need to avoid unnecessary new permanent roads. Repealing the rule would remove protections from 44+ million acres nationally and more than 6 million acres here in Montana, including the island ranges around Harlowton — Big Snowies, Little Belts, Castles, and Crazies — that are our only large low-road-density blocks. I ask the Forest Service to: 1. Select the No Action Alternative and retain the 2001 Roadless Area Conservation Rule. 2. If any changes are considered, adopt a Montana-specific approach like Colorado and Idaho have, that allows restoration but retains core roadless protections and limits new permanent roads. 3. Extend the public comment period beyond September 21, 2026. A 21-30 day window is not enough for hunters, anglers, and rural communities to comment on 6.4 million acres in Montana. The Big Snowy Mountains gave me a once-in-a-lifetime hunt because they were still roadless. Please keep them that way. Romulus Hiner Harlowton, MT 59036

I am writing in support of Alternative 1, the No Action alternative that keeps the Roadless Rule and its land protections in place. I am an avid hiker and horseback rider, and member of Back Country Horsemen. In Montana, where I live, the fate of 6 million acres of backcountry lands are at stake under the proposed rule. These are lands where we ride, pack, hike, volunteer, maintain trails, and enjoy the shrinking solitude available on the Planet. We aren't simply advocating for our interests. We who volunteer to maintain trails in cooperation with public agencies continue to pay our dues in keeping America's roadless lands open for all to enjoy. We've earned credibility through hard work, Of particular concern to me is the nature of this change: It is an Executive Orders directing federal agencies to reduce regulatory protections, increase timber production, and expand development on federal lands without regard to the local expertise, long-term planning, and decision-making that currently exists at the regional and local level. It feels like a full-scale assault on the backcountry without any sound reasoning. Specifically, I am deeply concerned about losing roadless protections for areas such as the Little Blackfoot Meadows area on the Helena-Lewis and Clark National Forest. This roadless gem lies a 45-minute drive from Helena, MT, yet provides a quiet trail of gentle incline along a 4-mile stretch of meandering creek amidst a forest canopy of pines and aspen. Bear, deer, and elk are common here, and it's a great place to take a kid to fish. I have ridden horses here, camped at the cabin, taken out-of-state relatives hiking, and maintained and built trails in this area, as well as advocated for its protection. The intrinsic and irreplaceable values of this roadless area could so easily be destroyed in an instant by commercial or industrial development, depriving citizens of thousands of user days per year in a beloved place. Little Blackfoot Meadows is but one of hundreds of roadless areas we have known and loved. Please don't destroy their essence under a revised rule.

We are commenting on the 2001 Roadless Area Conservation Rule reference RIN 0596-AD66. We are adamant that we are not in favor of reversing this ruling and opening up the USA to developing roads for logging, mining extraction permits or mine development. We are local land owners who live adjacent to the Helena National Forest and the Lewis and Clark National Forest. We hunt in the national forest, recreate there as well. We depend on springs to irrigate our pastures that support cattle grazing on our land. There is value of having intact backcountry recreations. The two mentioned forest above support wildlife habitat for grizzly bears who use these forest as a corridor to the Yellowstone area. Canada lynx use these forests as a breeding ground to rebuild their population in Northwest Montana. The Continental Divide National Scenic Trail goes through these forests. Roadless areas protect wildlife habitat, biodiversity and migration corridors, keep invasive species at bay, prevent pollution and soil erosion into waterways. The roadless rule is an ecological boon to the Western United States landscapes where most of the affected areas are located. A 2020 Forest Service study concluded, after nearly 20 years of monitoring data, that more roads do NOT lead to a better forest health through increased fire-management studies. The National Environmental Policy Act requires government to conduct environmental impact assessments on proposed rule changes, a process that can take years. The Trump Administration is fast-tracking that timeline for repealing the roadless ruling and opening up mine extraction permits, logging and again, mines. Blue Copper Project is currently asking for a permit to extract metals from the USFS in our backyard. We are located 1/4 mile from the project's boundary. This is where we live and grow hay for cattle. The backlog of deferred maintenance has grown rapidly according to the draft environmental impact statement the cost of unaddressed maintenance needed just for roads and bridges that can carry passenger vehicles reached US $6.9 billion in 2024. Where is the tax burden going to fall when more roads are built? We must slow down and protect 45 million acres NOW so future generations can enjoy the same freedom to explore wild public lands that we do today. Consider our comments and those of others who are in favor of keeping our Country's roadless areas intact.

Dear Secretary Rollins, I am an owner of a family-owned, continuously operating cattle property in the Highwood Mountains of Montana, dating to my great-grandfather, who acquired it more than 115 years ago. Stephenson Ranch. I have worked my whole career in agriculture and food production, having overseen and worked in a wide variety of Ag and food businesses in Central California, Texas and elsewhere. Our family ranch property borders on the Lewis and Clark National Forest in Montana. I deeply understand the importance of our National Forests, one of our most important and critical natural treasures. An avid user of that forest for my whole life, I see how vital that area is for the local ag and ranch community, providing critical summer grazing land to small family ranches. Ranches that are only viable due to those longstanding relationships with public lands. I see how important the forest land is for the snow pack that ensures strong surface and ground water for central Montana, the most vital wheat producing area in our nation. How critical it is to the local tourism community, who come to hike and bike the trails. How beloved it is for our avid hunting and fishing communities. That forest and all the public forests in Montana are fundamental to the local economy and the local culture. They are highly valued and used by an amazingly wide swath of people and businesses, across the state. Indeed they fuel so much of the local economy. While my current job has me in Texas, Montana is my home and Im a proud 4th generation native. I know in Texas and California, both states with robust Ag businesses, how critical those same public lands are for the very same reasons. The entirety of Californias Central Valley agriculture depends on the Sierra snowpack. The importance of those Sierra forests fuels the rural communities of California, both the mountain communities and the Central Valley communities. I say that as a former senior executive in Californias largest farming company. I strongly oppose the Proposed Rule rescinding the 2001 Roadless Rule. It has always been a rule with wide bipartisan support It is good for not just the preservation of the land, but for the rural communities who depend on those areas for their livelihoods, and who enjoy the benefits provided. Rolling back the Roadless Rule will open irreplaceable Montana and Western landscapes up to large-scale logging, road construction, and other development that will industrialize our national forests. The Roadless Rule has protected irreplaceable roadless values while permitting fire suppression, fuels mitigation work, trail maintenance, and other forest management activities for the past 25 years. It is a fiscally responsible, environmentally sound, multiple-use management tool. Please adopt the No Action alternative for the Final Rule. Sincerely, Elizabeth Stephenson CEO, SYSTM Foods 2707 Valley Spring Road Austin TX 78746 And President, Stephenson Ranch 13293 Upper Highwood Creek Road Highwood MT 59450