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Re: Proposed Rescission of the Roadless Area Conservation Rule To Whom it May Concern: The Center for Responsible Forestry, a Washington conservation organization working to protect the state's legacy forests, urges the Forest Service to withdraw this proposal and keep the Roadless Rule in place. Washington has over nine million acres of national forest, including over two million acres of inventoried roadless areas. They lie across the Olympic, Mount Baker-Snoqualmie, Gifford Pinchot, Wenatchee, Okanogan, Colville, and Umatilla National Forests, in the Cascades, Kettles, Selkirks, Olympics, and Blues. In northeast Washington, the Kettle Range and the forests around the Salmo-Priest Wilderness hold critical habitat for grizzly bears and a reestablishing lynx population, and backcountry destinations like Liberty Bell and Maple Pass would become vulnerable. Areas such as Mount Baker and Lake Quinault also offer popular backcountry recreation that depends on roadless protection. Much of what remains of Washington's older, intact forest sits in or beside these roadless areas. Once a road is cut into such a forest, the damage cannot be undone. SENATE BILL REPORT +4 The Department calls the rule a barrier to wildfire risk reduction, and protecting communities from fire is a legitimate goal. But the rule already limits logging in roadless areas to smaller-diameter trees for restoration and fire resilience. Opening remote backcountry to roads does not protect towns. It brings more human presence and more fire danger, and it adds to a road system that already has too many decaying roads that are too expensive to maintain. conservationnw conservationnw Timber industry representatives have argued that other laws, such as the Endangered Species Act and NEPA, would still limit timber production and protect the environment. Those laws apply project by project, after roads and timber sales are already proposed. The Roadless Rule is the only protection that applies everywhere in advance. Without it, every roadless area would have to be defended again in a separate fight. yahoo Washington has been through this before. When the rule was first developed, 45 public meetings were held in Washington and more than 140,000 comments came from Washington residents, the overwhelming majority in support. After the 2005 repeal, the state was left petitioning the federal government to keep its protections. In this rulemaking, the agency received more than 600,000 comments in the first round and now admits that 99 percent opposed rescission. The proposed rule and draft environmental impact statement then received 32 days of comment, compared with 129 days in 2001 and 182 days in 2005. Washington's communities, tribes, hunters, anglers, and forest users deserve real public meetings in this state before any decision is made. skip to navigation | skip to content +2 For 25 years the Roadless Rule has kept Washington's headwaters cold, its wildlife corridors connected, and its backcountry open to everyone. Please do not rescind it. Sincerely, Brel Froebe Center for Responsible Forestry