Throughout my life the public lands have been an integral part of my close familial bond. My father would take my family hike in White Mountains National Park as his father took him. I grew up on the outskirts of Big Cypress Forest in South West Florida and conservation and time in nature where pillars of my up bringing. As a young adult hiking the Appalachian Trail from Boiling Spring PA to Leigh High opened up a deep love for backcountry camping. Later during the pandemic my husband and I would backpack from Harrisburg PA through to Liberty Mountain in NH. Now that we live California, we spend every free moment in Emigrants and Stanislaus National Forest. Every summer my close friends and I hike in Eagles Nest Nation Forest in Vail CO. Our public lands are what make America unique and special. Being able to connect with nature and experience these wild places they way they were when the country was founded in a privilege that we cannot afford loose.
The Forest Service should keep the Roadless Rule intact exactly as it is. Do not weaken or repeal this critical policy.
National forests are the heart of our public lands. The Roadless Area Conservation Rule protects some of the wildest forests we have left, forests that protect critical wildlife habitat and drinking water for millions. Revoking the Roadless Rule puts landscapes, wildlife, and communities at risk.
Not only is the Roadless Rule good policy, it's also wildly popular across the country, with over 600,000 people submitting comments to the US Forest Service last year in support of keeping the rule in place. And more than 20 years ago, the American people overwhelmingly called for our national forests to be protected for future generations. Revoking the Roadless Rule would destroy the natural inheritance we leave for our children.