Please don’t rescind the roadless rule. These last tracts of old growth forest need to be protected for our children and their children's children. If they are destroyed, they are gone forever.
These trees, this wilderness are part of the lungs of the planet. Along with protected areas in Canada, Patagonia, and other countries, they breathe in carbon dioxide and breathe out oxygen. They create a home for countless wild creatures: birds, bears, wolves, snakes, otters, marmots, bats, deer, cougar, fox, coyote, turtle, and badger.
As many as 414 animals and plants listed as endangered, threatened or proposed for listing under the Endangered Species Act have ranges that overlap with roadless areas.
Sierra Nevada Red Fox
(Vulpes vulpes necator)
The Sierra Nevada red fox is one of North America’s most endangered mammals, enduring in the high, snowy mountains of Oregon and California. Most often, this rare fox quietly pads through the snow-covered highlands undetected. However, without proper habitat protection, it could quietly disappear altogether.
The numbers are dire: fewer than 40 individuals remain in the Sierra Nevada portion of its range, with the total population likely to number in the hundreds at most. Because Sierra Nevada red foxes are now so rare, direct sightings are incredibly unusual. Instead, biologists document their presence indirectly through game cameras and scat detection . Such “sightings” are often on remote, mountainous federal lands, including the Lassen, Stanislaus, Deschutes, and Mt. Hood National Forests.
Relictual Slender Salamander
(Batrachoseps relictus)
No bigger than a crayon, the relictual slender salamander is considered a “microendemic” species—one that only exists in an extremely small range. Its habitat occurs on a single mountaintop in the southern Sierra Nevada of California. Over half its suitable habitat is protected by the Mill Creek Inventoried Roadless Area within the Sequoia National Forest.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service identified habitat degradation associated with road construction as a primary threat to the species’ continued persistence. Given this precariousness, it is unsurprising that the relictual slender salamander is proposed for listing as federally endangered. Rescission of the Roadless Rule could obliterate the little remaining intact habitat it has left.
Grizzly Bears
Ultimately, the recovery of grizzly bears depends on connectivity. Roadless areas function as “stepping stones,” allowing individuals to move between isolated recovery zones and recolonize historic habitats. Without the protection of the Roadless Rule, the natural expansion of the grizzly bear will become considerably more challenging.
Jaguar
(Panthera onca)
The Chiricahua Roadless Area, located within the Coronado National Forest in southeast Arizona, is a hot spot for biodiversity. It contains suitable habitat for 57 at-risk wildlife, including the endangered jaguar.
The Chiricahua Mountains, spanning roughly 700 square miles, serve as the home range for a specific male jaguar known to researchers as “ Jaguar #3 .” Students in Tucson have nicknamed the cat “Sombra,” Spanish for “shadow.” This individual was first detected in 2016 and has been photographed about 50 times since. The Chiricahua Mountains serve as an important dispersal corridor for jaguars like Sombra, moving north from core breeding populations in Mexico into the United States.
Recovering the endangered jaguar requires conservation of its remaining habitat. Roadless areas in the borderlands are essential for facilitating safe wildlife movement across the landscape and for supporting the re-establishment of jaguars in the American Southwest.
Canada Lynx
(Lynx canadensis)
Over two million acres of lynx critical habitat are currently protected by the Roadless Rule. Thanks to protected lands like these, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service found that “current regional effects of timber harvest and thinning appear to occur at levels that are not likely threatening western lynx populations.” Removing roadless protections will increase threats to lynx, allowing more logging and development in their habitat.
Southern Appalachian Brook Trout
(Salvelinus fontinalis)
There are currently more than 600,000 acres of roadless areas in the South.These areas provide prime fish habitat free from logging, roads and culvert barriers. For example, most brook trout streams left in Georgia and South Carolina are in the Chattahoochee and Sumter National Forests. There, roadless areas overlap 2,500 acres of intact brook trout habitat. Protecting these roadless forests, along with other actions, can help conserve native brook trout.