FS-2025-0001-571363

I am writing to oppose the repeal of the 2001 Roadless Area Conservation Rule. I am an avid user of America’s public lands and have thru-hiked more than 3,000 miles of our national trails, including the Pacific Crest Trail (PCT, 2021), Vermont Long Trail (2023), and Arizona Trail (2025). These experiences have given me a deep appreciation for undeveloped forests, mountains, and wild places—not simply as scenery, but as places where people can challenge themselves, find solitude, and experience landscapes and wildlife that cannot be recreated once roads and development change them. This issue is especially personal because approximately 288 miles of the Pacific Crest Trail (~11% of the trail) pass through 63 roadless areas in California, Oregon, and Washington. For example, Liberty Bell, in my home state of Washington, incorporates just one of numerous sections of hiking trails that stand to be impacted if the Roadless Areas Conservation Rule is repealed. In 2021, as I was hiking the PCT, the Northern Terminus of the trail was almost closed due to wildfires in the area. I remember sitting at Rainy Pass, knowing a fire was within just a few miles of the trail, and deciding to continue with the final 60 miles of my trip. The days that followed, hiking through Liberty Bell, were among the most peaceful and memorable of my entire journey. I have attached a photograph from my approach to Grasshopper Pass as a reminder of what is at stake. Liberty Bell is much more than a beautiful backdrop for recreation. Its approximately 108,495 acres of continuous, unroaded subalpine forest provide important habitat and movement corridors for wildlife, including gray wolves, Canada lynx, wolverines, and other species that depend on large, connected landscapes. Keeping these areas roadless also helps protect watersheds, fish habitat, soils, and native plant communities from the erosion, sedimentation, fragmentation, and invasive species that roads and logging can bring. I understand that the Forest Service faces legitimate challenges, including wildfires, forest health, and the need to manage public lands effectively. But those challenges should not lead us to permanently sacrifice some of the country's remaining intact landscapes. The Forest Service already has hundreds of thousands of miles of roads to maintain, and once a road is built into a previously roadless landscape, its ecological and recreational character may be permanently altered. One of our nation's greatest strengths is its natural beauty. Our public lands provide something remarkably rare: places where Americans of every age, race, gender, political affiliation, and background can share the same experience. Whether hiking, climbing, hunting, fishing, camping, or simply standing quietly in a forest, these lands belong to all of us. I respectfully urge the U.S. Forest Service and Department of Agriculture to retain the 2001 Roadless Area Conservation Rule and protect Liberty Bell and the many other roadless landscapes that future generations deserve to experience as we do today. Please preserve these irreplaceable places. Sincerely, Alder Colleen Strange