Good afternoon,
I do not support changes to the roadless rule which established prohibitions on road construction, road reconstruction, and timber harvesting with limited exceptions. Today, the 2001 Roadless Rule applies to nearly 45 million acres of National Forest System lands, including in Alaska. I have personally seen the benefits of the roadless rule during summers spent on public land in Northern Michigan where you can still find small stands of old growth White Pine, a keystone species for the region. Logging in the 1800s decimated their population and caused massive soil erosion issues through out the state, resulting in water pollution and a deeply impoverished populace once all the trees were gone. You can still see the impacts of that logging 100 years later. What was once pine trees has been replaced with fast growing hard woods like maple in much of the state. You can learn about the impacts on mass logging at Hartwick Pines State Park in Grayling, Michigan. What is left of our public forests still supports their surrounding economies by protecting the watershed, creating recreation areas, and supporting tourism and hunting. Please defend what is left of out Public Land. Keep the Roadless Rule in tact!