“protects critical wildlife habitat and drinking water”
What it names
Works cited
10.1186/s42408-026-00450-2Healey 2020
The comment
Dear Secretary Rollins,
Please withdraw the proposal to repeal the 2001 Roadless Rule. I want future generations to inherit healthy forests, and I am concerned that repeal would cause lasting damage without making communities safer.
A 2026 peer-reviewed study in Fire Ecology found wildfire ignition density was about four times higher within 50 meters of roads than in inventoried roadless areas (Aplet et al., DOI: 10.1186/s42408-026-00450-2).
Forest Service scientist Sean Healeys 2020 study found forests with and without roads burned at similar rates after the Rule took effect. It also found non-native plants were twice as common within 500 feet of roads (DOI: 10.1088/1748-9326/aba031).
These findings do not justify removing protections across the country. Please preserve the Roadless Rule and prioritize targeted, science-based measures that protect communities and forest ecosystems.
Sincerely,
Mona Reed
The Forest Service should keep the Roadless Rule intact exactly as it is. Do not weaken or repeal this critical policy.
National forests are the heart of our public lands. The Roadless Area Conservation Rule protects some of the wildest forests we have left, forests that protect critical wildlife habitat and drinking water for millions. Revoking the Roadless Rule puts landscapes, wildlife, and communities at risk.
Not only is the Roadless Rule good policy, it's also wildly popular across the country, with over 600,000 people submitting comments to the US Forest Service last year in support of keeping the rule in place. And more than 20 years ago, the American people overwhelmingly called for our national forests to be protected for future generations. Revoking the Roadless Rule would destroy the natural inheritance we leave for our children.