FS-2025-0001-511825

Nine years ago, in the fall, I took the woman who is now my wife on a seven-day backpacking trip through New Hampshire's White Mountains: Franconia Notch, Mount Lafayette, Mount Garfield, and deep into the Pemigewasset and Wild River Wildernesses. It was the first time I took her fly fishing. There were no screens and no noise, just a river so clear it looked like liquid diamonds. We watched trout rise to insects and forgot to cast. At night the stars were so bright they made us feel small, and closer to each other and to the place. The next day she caught her first trout, was so elated she lost her footing and fell in, and when I ran to rescue her I tripped and went in face first. We couldn't stop laughing. That's when I knew she was the one. I'm a father of two small kids now, and this year I'm taking them into country like that for the first time. I want them to have the kind of memories that shaped me. The Roadless Rule is a big part of why country like that still exists. Roadless areas make up less than 2% of the American land mass, yet they hold habitat for 25% of our threatened and endangered species. About 70% of the public land inside them supports native trout and salmon, including 90% of it in New Hampshire. Roads bring sediment, fragmented habitat, and fish barriers, and a road, once cut, isn't undone. I understand the wildfire concern, but 78% of human-caused fires on National Forests start within a half mile of a road. The 2001 rule already allows fuels reduction and restoration work. And the Forest Service can't maintain the roads it already has, with a $10.8 billion backlog, more than half of it roads. These lands belong to all of us. Please keep the 2001 Roadless Rule in place, so my kids and their kids can find these places the way I did. The 2001 Roadless Area Conservation Rule conserves over 58 million acres of multiple-use public lands managed by the U.S. Forest Service that provide some of the best places to hunt and fish in America. Repealing safeguards afforded by the Roadless Rule will jeopardize intact fish and wildlife habitat and I urge the U.S. Department of Agriculture to uphold strong protections for all roadless areas. Across the country, roadless areas provide irreplaceable habitat for native trout and salmon, big game, and other wildlife. The 2001 Roadless Rule generally prohibits new road construction and industrial logging, while at the same time keeping these public lands open to habitat improvement projects, hazardous fuels reduction, hunting, fishing, OHV riding, firewood cutting, grazing, and camping. The 2001 Roadless Rule already allows for balanced forest management, including timber harvest, to reduce the risk of uncharacteristic wildfire, as well as to restore habitat for sensitive fish and wildlife species. Importantly, hazardous fuels treatments in roadless areas are commonplace, helping protect at-risk communities and restoring forest health. If rescinded, new road construction and associated industrial-scale logging will fragment fish and wildlife habitat, degrade water quality and quantity, and reduce backcountry hunting and fishing opportunities on public lands. There are 370,000 miles of roads in the National Forest System with a maintenance backlog of $10.8 billion, 55% of which is due to dilapidated roads that cause sedimentation and erosion that reduce water quality, create barriers to fish migration, and create public safety hazards. We need to take care of the roads we already have, not add more roads that we don’t have the funding or personnel to maintain. Roadless areas provide some of the best fish and wildlife habitat and hunting and angling opportunities for Americans of all walks of life. I strongly support maintaining protections for all roadless areas and keeping these public lands a great place to hunt and fish.