Read the comments.

I spend a lot of time in the wilderness area of Kisatchie National Forest in Louisiana as well as other national forests in Texas and North Carolina. Areas in the national forests around these wilderness areas are managed for timber and have many old, poorly maintained roads that cut through them, introducing pollution, noise pollution, light pollution, and disturbance of native wildlife. There is a need for roads but this feels like a ruse to capitalize on virgin, pristine land, timber, and other natural resources for some entity other than the American public to benefit from financially. Wild fire management comes up as a reason for rescinding this rule but roads are actually one of the number one causes of wild fires (cigarette butts, trailer chain sparks, etc.). I hope all of the comments get considered and I hope the administration realizes that once these wilderness areas are tampered with, they will never be the same. Ever. I would like my children and future generations to have access to these pristine areas. Roads will only be the death of them.

Dear Chief Schultz, As a person who approaches stewardship as a moral and not merely a practical matter, I'm asking the Department to reconsider rescinding these protections. Little Lake Creek is the closest forest to my home, and one we enjoy. This area is special to me and my neighbors as a relatively accessible roadless area Regarding the Little Lake Creek in the National Forests in Texas, Texas: Ground disturbance, sedimentation, and stream crossings in roadless areas degrade drinking-water supplies and aquatic habitat downstream. Sediment generation. Forest roads generate substantially more sediment than undisturbed forest. A heavily used gravel road segment in the Pacific Northwest delivered roughly 130 times more sediment than an abandoned road, and paved segments yielded less than 1% of the sediment from gravel surfaces (Reid & Dunne 1984; Sugden & Woods 2007). — Reid & Dunne, 1984 (https://doi.org/10.1029/WR020i011p01753); Sugden & Woods, 2007 (https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1752-1688.2007.00016.x) Rescinding the Roadless Rule would open the Little Lake Creek, National Forests in Texas to road construction and associated ground disturbance. The direct and indirect effects of that activity are precisely what makes a specific comment about this area necessary. Once roads are allowed in an area it is changed forever--the plant and wildlife adapt to human presence. We need to have spaces where this does not happen. The U.S. National Forests are the headwaters of our great rivers and the largest source of municipal water supply in the nation. According to DellaSala (2011), national forests supply drinking water to at least 124 million people in more than 3,400 communities across 33 states—roughly a third of all national-forest runoff originates in inventoried roadless areas. Roads are a major cause of water pollution: erosion rates from logging roads have been documented as much as 850% higher than from undisturbed forest. Because the 2001 Roadless Rule protects these headwaters, it is vital for maintaining clean drinking water for communities across the country. Major U.S. cities including Los Angeles, Portland, Denver, and Atlanta receive a significant portion of their water supply from national forests. Beyond the headline fights over wildfire, recreation, and water, the Roadless Rule plays a quieter but essential role in federal land law and ecological assessment. Section 7 of the Endangered Species Act requires the Forest Service to consult before any action that may affect listed species — and the rule's road-construction prohibition has shielded countless management decisions from triggering that consultation. The rule also props up federal forest planning: peer-reviewed analyses of forest plan adequacy consistently find that forest plans alone, without the Roadless Rule's overlay, fail to provide adequate safeguards for sensitive species and intact landscapes. And state-level conservation rankings (NatureServe and others) repeatedly identify roadless areas as concentrated in the rarest, most threatened ecosystems in the lower 48 — the kinds of places where a road, once built, cannot be undone. “Comparing fire severity across forests under different protection regimes, the study found forests with higher levels of protection had lower severity values even though they are generally identified as having the highest overall levels of biomass and fuel loading. The result contradicts the claim that protected, intact forests are more dangerous fire risks. — Bradley et al., 2016 (https://doi.org/10.1002/ecs2.1492)” Don't dismantle what's standing. With gratitude, CommentID: RLC-20261002-QY0OUQ

Dear Forest Service: I have enjoyed time in nature since I was a child. Protecting our Earth is extremely important to me - and should be to society at large, because it is our home. The rescission of this Rule would destroy the environment and leave us more susceptible to a whole host of problems, including loss of biodiversity and climate change. Having roadless forests in the area is important for preserving local ecosystems, including the wildlife balance of all the flora and fauna. As a resident who lives nearby, I want dangerous animals like coyotes and mountain lions to have an undeveloped area to hunt and live so they don’t attack the pets of those in my neighborhood. I want the lizards, birds, and bats that eat mosquitos to have plentiful opportunities for reproduction so they keep those pests in check. The forest provides that. The roadless forest near me is Little Lake Creek in the National Forests in Texas, where the Alligator Snapping Turtle (Macrochelys temminckii, G3) is a key species. Without the protections of the 2001 Roadless Area Conservation Rule, the turtle loses its primary buffer against “7.2 - Dams & water management/use.” Studies have shown the deleterious impact of development in natural areas. A 2022 study from Biological Conservation journal states: "Frequent human disturbance caused by mining development and road construction in the Kalamaili Mountain Ungulate Nature Reserve (KNR) — inhabited by 80% of Chinese khulan (Equus hemionus) — has interfered with or completely blocked their movement and access to parts of the reserve. The habitat of khulan in KNR went from a good natural habitat in 2005 to deterioration due to mining development in 2011. In 2019, road construction likely hindered its recovery to pre-mining levels. Our study revealed the significant impacts that mining development and road construction have had on the distribution of core habitats, ecological corridors, and movement of khulan." The Alligator Snapping Turtle in the Little Lake Creek Inventoried Roadless Area depends on the unroaded landscape to moderate exposure to “7.2 - Dams & water management/use.” Road construction in this area eliminates the spatial buffer between the threat source and occupied habitat. This rescission would destroy what little natural land we have left in our country. Please don’t let this rescission pass. With gratitude, Abigail C