To the U.S. Forest Service and U.S. Department of Agriculture:
I am writing to express my strong opposition to the proposal to fully or partially rescind the 2001 Roadless Area Conservation Rule (Docket FS-2025-0001).
As an advocate for our nation's public lands, I rely on the integrity and protection of our inventoried roadless areas. The Roadless Rule has served as an effective, durable baseline that protects clean water quality, critical wildlife habitats, carbon storage, and high-value backcountry recreation across tens of millions of acres.
Repealing this federal baseline and leaving decisions to local management will result in fragmented, uneven protections that cannot be undone once roads and logging cut through these intact forests.
I frequently visit Lolo National Forest, Glacier National Park, Bob Marshall Wilderness, and value these lands because they protect local watersheds, provide crucial wildlife connectivity, and offer quiet backcountry recreation. There are few places in this world that are like these special lands in Montana and the mountain West, and they need protection. Once that protection is gone, there's no going back to the way things were. Roads stay for generations, as scars across the land.
I urge the U.S. Forest Service to abandon the proposed rescission and maintain full protections for all designated inventoried roadless areas.
Sincerely,
Heather Lepp
Missoula, Montana.