To the U.S. Department of Agriculture:
I am writing as a hiker, a nature lover and a concerned citizen living in Santa Fe, New Mexico. I am in opposition to rescission of the Roadless Rule. New Mexico has 1.6 million acres of inventoried roadless areas. In my community of Santa Fe, there are 241,910 acres of pristine wilderness and backcountry within the Santa Fe National Forest protected by the Roadless Rule.
When I tell friends and family why I love living in Santa Fe, it is the natural beauty, and ready access to the surrounding mountains, forests, streams and that is wilderness at the top of my list. Being in nature is one of life's great ways to destress and heal, and we are losing these areas too quickly. The Santa Fe National Forest is exquisite, and once gone, can never be replaced. The Roadless Rule crucial to protecting these natural spaces.
The above issues have particular immediacy in Santa Fe and Northern New Mexico. We have endured many years of drought, which we have witnessed exacerbate many fold in this past year alone, with extreme temperatures and little rain. Wilderness areas and forests help to hold and store water from rain and snow pack, provide clean runoff for drinking water, and help maintain our critical reservoirs and ancient acequia irrigation systems. We cannot afford to put our water supply at risk.
While I am expressing my personal concern for my home in Northern New Mexico, such fragile protected ecosystems exist in thousands of locations throughout the country. Each ecosystem has unique and important value. I am deeply concerned that the implications of opening up these spaces to roads, vehicle traffic, mining, logging and other activities has not been adequately studied for each and every area affected, and that a rush to broadly repeal a rule that has provided protections for 25 years should not be done in haste.
Any arguments made to the contrary, such as improving forest management or reducing wildfire risk, are specious and are rooted not in data but ideology.
I implore the US Department of Agriculture and the Trump Administration to take a step back, and consider the impact of rescission of the Roadless Rule on the natural areas and wildlife so many of us love, and the watersheds we critically need.
With thanks,
CommentID: RLC-20260921-L6K2WW