FS-2025-0001-549643

Docket ID: FS-2026-0100-0001 (RIN 0596-AD66) Subject: Strong Opposition to the Proposed Rescission of the 2001 Roadless Area Conservation Rule Dear Director of Ecosystem Management Coordination, I am an avid hiker, backpacker, backcountry skier, wild ice skater, climber, and lover of forests and wilderness—and I am a California resident who has been deeply impacted by catastrophic wildfire. I am writing to express my strong opposition to the proposed rescission of the 2001 Roadless Area Conservation Rule. I urge the U.S. Forest Service and the USDA to keep the current Roadless Rule completely intact. My opposition is rooted in direct, personal experience. I used to live in Kirkwood, California, and I was directly impacted by the devastating 2021 Caldor Fire and the resulting emergency evacuations. During that evacuation, I moved to the Mammoth area, and in 2025, I was once again evacuated during the Pack Fire, which destroyed a number or homes in the McGee Creek drainage, right down the street from my current residence. I know firsthand the terror and upheaval that extreme wildfires inflict on rural communities. I’ve lived in the mountains of California since 2014, and I spend a significant portion of my life recreating locally across the Inyo, Tahoe, and Eldorado National Forests, as well as traveling to explore other national forests throughout the United States. Proponents of this rescission claim that dismantling the 2001 Rule is vital for wildfire mitigation, but recent ecological reality proves otherwise. During the Caldor Fire, the protected, unroaded Caples Creek Roadless Area actively shielded the Kirkwood community. This resilience was no accident: it was the direct result of a healthy ecosystem reinforced by strategic, proactive prescribed burns. The Roadless Rule already grants managers the exact flexibility they need, explicitly permitting fuel reduction and forest thinning. In fact, California alone has successfully treated over 240,000 roadless acres without laying a single inch of permanent, destructive industrial road. Introducing new road construction and commercial timber harvests into our last remaining wild spaces will drastically increase—rather than decrease—wildfire risks. Decades of U.S. Forest Service research show that nearly two-thirds of human-caused forest fires ignite along roadsides, where human traffic and highly flammable invasive grasses converge. Rolling back these protections means building the very infrastructure that invites new fire ignitions closer to mountain communities. The 4.4 million acres of roadless forests in California—and the 44 million acres nationwide—are foundational to our clean drinking water supply, our carbon storage capabilities, and our robust outdoor recreation economies. As an avid backcountry recreationalist, I know firsthand that these pristine wild landscapes provide irreplaceable, primitive recreational values and ecological integrity that cannot be restored once fractured by heavy machinery and road construction. For the safety of wildland-urban interface communities like Crowley Lake and Kirkwood, and for the preservation of our national public lands, please withdraw this rescission and maintain the 2001 Roadless Rule. Sincerely, Eva Eilenberg CA