Dear Chief Tom Schultz,
As a parent, I respectfully submit that the Department should treat the proposed rescission of the 2001 Roadless Area Conservation Rule as the consequential, irreversible administrative action that it is — and apply a standard of justification commensurate with that consequence and that irreversibility.
Regarding the Sandwich Range in the White Mountain National Forest, New Hampshire:
Road building and vegetation management reshape fire regimes by changing ignition sources, fuel loads, and landscape-scale fire behavior.
Roadless areas maintain more natural fire regimes. Because roadless areas lack the access that enables intensive suppression and the traffic that brings human ignitions, they retain fire patterns closer to what their ecosystems evolved with. Adding roads changes both ends of the equation at once (Aplet et al. 2026; USDA Forest Service 2001). — Aplet et al., 2026 (https://doi.org/10.1186/s42408-026-00450-2); USDA Forest Service, Pacific Northwest Research Station, May (https://www.fs.usda.gov/pnw/pubs/pnw_gtr509.pdf)
Rescinding the Roadless Rule would open the Sandwich Range, White Mountain National Forest to road construction and associated ground disturbance. The direct and indirect effects of that activity are precisely what makes a specific comment about this area necessary.
This is our legacy and what we leave behind for all living things.
Nothing here justifies throwing out two decades of protection.
Best regards,
CommentID: RLC-20261002-AI4YAS