“Destroying some of the few remaining natural areas that have not yet been sullied by roads and development…”

Destroying some of the few remaining natural areas that have not yet been sullied by roads and development would be a serious and irreversible mistake that would impact every generation to come. Repealing the Roadless Rule will severely harm our drinking water. Roads are the largest controllable source of forest sediment as proven in Roadless areas and clean water. Journal of Soil and Water Conservation, 66(3), 78A—79A. (Dellasala, D. A. 2011) for example Salem, OR had to spend roughly $100 million after sediment from logging related disturbances contaminated the watershed. Dominick A. DellaSalas 2011 synthesis in the Journal of Soil and Water Conservation proves that 3,400 communities across 33 states rely on national forests for drinking water, including Los Angeles, San Francisco, Denver and Californias Central Valley, which provides food for the ENTIRE country. Let that sink in, the entire country. Our country, like every single ecosystem, is connected. We cannot simply continue to import almost every source of food or continue to lose trading partners and opportunities of food and organics. Roughly 124 million Americans stand to face contaminated water if the Roadless Rule isn’t in place.