FS-2025-0001-573747

To: Director, EMC, USDA FS Re: Special Areas; Roadless Area Conservation, Proposed Rule, 91 FR 53827 (August 20, 2026). Docket FS-2025-0001, RIN 0596-AD66 I oppose the proposal to remove and reserve 36 CFR 294(B), and I urge the Department to adopt the No Action alternative and keep the 2001 Roadless Rule in full. These forests are full of mature and old-growth trees that provide important wildlife habitat, and they are my favorite places to hike, fish and camp. Wild forests should remain protected from roadbuilding, commercial logging and mining. My name is HELEN M. HOOPES, and I live in CRESCENT CITY, CA. I regularly visit THE REDWOODS IN JEDEDIAH SMITH PARK WHERE THERE IS A ROTARIAN PROTECTED GROVE AND A DAUGHTERS OF THE REVOLUTION PROTECTIVE GROVE - these protected groves are lovely and speak to the need for protection historically considered in the US. But they are not located in roadless areas and are not as protected or pure as the roadless areas. Hundreds of thousands of acres of Inventoried Roadless Areas in Mendocino, Six Rivers, Klamath, Shasta-Trinity and Rogue-Siskiyou National Forests leave much more unprotected areas for the types of activities being sought by change in this rule and are only drop in the map of California. I also live in Lubec, Maine.. The 235,000 acres of protected roadless backcountry within the White Mountain National Forest serve as a world-class playground for outdoor enthusiasts. Because these areas are kept completely free of industrial roadbuilding and logging, they preserve a raw, rugged terrain that people love to explore. Here you can find Common Loons nesting on quiet lakes and scattered ponds. Wood Ducks & Canada Geese in in the low-lying wetland refuges bordering the mountain edges and in the higher elevations you can find Bicknell's Thrush, Spruce Grouse, and Black-backed Woodpecker, but though not spoken of, even the eagle and swan can be found communing in flight The fishing, hiking and swimming that i get to do in these pristine areas awakens the heart and spirit and allows us to follow the laws of nature and God. •Laudato Si' (2015): Pope Francis laid the groundwork for this concept in his environmental encyclical, emphasizing human responsibility to protect the planet as part of moral and social duty. •Amazon Synod (2019): The final document from the Synod of Bishops on the Amazon formally proposed defining an "ecological sin", leading directly to the Pope's public remarks later that year •Vatican Guidance (2026): Building directly on these foundations, the Vatican's International Theological Commission released a comprehensive text authorized under Pope Leo XIV titled Caring for Our Common Home: A Responsible and Fraternal Response to the Triune God, which frames serious environmental destruction explicitly as a "sin against creation and against the Creator. •My specific comments below follow the sections of the proposed rule's preamble, as the Department requested. the remainder are in the attachment. 1. Mature and old-growth forests and wildlife habitat. Roadless areas hold some of the last large, unfragmented stands of mature and old-growth forest on National Forest System lands. Once a road is cut and an old stand is logged, that habitat cannot be replaced on any timescale that matters to the species that depend on it. The preamble ("Summary of Potential Impacts – Timber") says rescission would open about 4.8 million acres of forest to active management. It does not say how much of that is mature or old growth. Elk, deer, salmon, trout, fishers, lynx and many other species rely on these intact areas as habitat and as connecting corridors between protected lands. Request: Keep Subpart B. At minimum, the final EIS must map and quantify the mature and old-growth acres that would lose protection, and analyze habitat fragmentation and connectivity loss for at-risk species. 2. Hiking, fishing, camping and the recreation economy.The Department's own analysis admits rescission would trade away quiet, remote, self-reliant recreation, increase user conflicts, and cost recreationists an estimated $6.1 million a year ("Summary of Potential Impacts – Recreation"). That is exactly the kind of recreation I come to these forests for. Roadless headwaters are also where clean, cold water for trout and salmon begins. Roads are a leading source of sediment in streams. The preamble says effects on fisheries are not expected to be significant, but it also concedes that later plan changes "could result in effects to commercial fisheries if resource conditions are affected." The benefit side is weak by comparison. The projected $5.2 to $11.4 million in timber revenue assumes harvest on every operable acre, which the Department itself calls unlikely. Request: The final EIS and cost-benefit analysis should fully value recreation, tourism, outfitting, sport fishing and drinking-water protection, and compare them honestly against speculative timber revenue.