FS-2025-0001-472767

Docket ID: FS-2025-0001 Proposed Action: Rescission of the 2001 Roadless Area Conservation Rule To the U.S. Forest Service and Secretary Brooke Rollins: I am writing to formally submit my strong opposition to the proposed full rescission of the 2001 Roadless Area Conservation Rule across America’s National Forest System lands. The 2001 Roadless Rule has successfully protected over 44 million acres of roadless wildlands for nearly 25 years. Rescinding this national policy under the justification of wildfire mitigation is ecologically negligent and fiscally irresponsible for the following reasons: 1. Increased Ignition Risks: Peer-reviewed wildland fire research shows that up to 80–90% of all wildfires are caused by human activity, with ignitions occurring up to four times more frequently near roads than in unfragmented backcountry. Carving new road networks into remote forests will exponentially increase the likelihood of human-caused ignitions. 2. Current Solution: I have personally had conversations with firefighters and individuals with advanced degrees in public land management, and the current process of dropping in firefighters already speaks to the proposed argument for roads in these lands. Because of the ability to drop firefighters in via helicopter, it negates the need to build roads to manage fires in these areas. Furthermore, I have come to appreciate alternative fire management techniques such as native burning rituals which provide much less pollution and promote biodiversity within these regions. 3. Existing Rule Flexibility: The 2001 Roadless Rule already contains clear exceptions allowing land managers to address urgent public health, safety, and catastrophic wildfire threats. Forest Service personnel can already conduct mechanical thinning, controlled burns, and emergency interventions without permanently destroying these precious resources. 4. Drinking Water and Watershed Degradation: Roadless areas serve as the natural municipal water filtration systems for roughly 47 million Americans. Constructing roads and conducting commercial harvests in steep backcountry areas causes severe soil erosion, sedimentation, and silt pollution in downstream headwaters. 5. Infrastructure Backlog: The U.S. Forest Service already faces a multi-billion-dollar deferred road maintenance backlog on more than 370,000 miles of existing roads. Authorizing new road construction when existing infrastructure cannot be maintained places an unnecessary burden on American taxpayers. As an avid backpacker who regularly visits national parks and forests, I rely on these intact roadless areas for clean watersheds, wildlife migration corridors and undisturbed tranquility in the backcountry. I strongly urge the Department of Agriculture and the U.S. Forest Service to withdraw this proposed rescission in its entirety and uphold the 2001 Roadless Area Conservation Rule. Sincerely, Mark Mitchell Bartlett, TN 38134