Roads affect much more land than the relatively small footprint they occupy.
They can:
Fragment wildlife habitat and create new forest edges.
Increase vehicle access and human disturbance in previously remote areas
Alter natural drainage patterns.
Increase runoff, erosion, and impacts on water quality.
Provide pathways for invasive plants and other nonnative species to spread.
Disrupt wildlife movement and ecological connectivity.
By contrast, roadless areas in our national forests - and on the private lands that surround them - help protect contiguous habitats, extensive wetlands, wildlife corridors, ecological connectivity, and water quality.
At a time when habitat outside our public lands continues to disappear, removing protections from some of the least fragmented and least disturbed portions of our national forests moves us in decidedly the wrong direction.
Florida’s continuing loss and fragmentation of wildlife habitat make remaining intact public lands increasingly important.
Approximately 50,000 acres in Florida’s three national forests currently receive protection under the Roadless Rule. USDA should carefully evaluate whether existing forest plans would provide equivalent long-term protection if the national rule is eliminated.
The Roadless Rule already contains exceptions for certain necessary activities, including fire management and emergency response. USDA should consider whether these targeted exceptions provide sufficient management flexibility without eliminating the current protections altogether.
I visit the Ocala National Forest for hiking and wildlife spotting, including Florida scrub-jays, gopher turtles, bears, and snakes. They're able to live their natural lives without disturbing human areas and becoming a nuisance. Florida is a treasure of biological diversity and protecting that benefits all Americans.
We need commerce and resource extraction, but we also need wild spaces that are hard to access in order to maintain our sense of wonder and awe at the beauty that America has when kept in its natural state.