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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