I am writing in opposition of rescinding the Roadless Rule. I support the Alternative 1, the No Action alternative.
National forests provide people with many recreational opportunities, like hunting, fishing, hiking, camping and rafting. I personally like the opportunities for camping, hiking, swimming and just being in nature that national forests provide.
We need to have pristine areas of wilderness. Wildlife needs somewhere to live without human intervention, preferably large areas that aren’t fragmented.
“Habitat fragmentation is considered to be one of the single most important factors leading to loss of native species (especially in forested landscapes) and one of the primary causes of the present extinction crisis” — Heilman et al., 2002 (https://doi.org/10.1641/0006-3568(2002)052[0411:FFOTCU]2.0.CO;2)
We also need clean air and water and forests help with that.
“Clean water is most closely linked to undisturbed natural ecosystems. When undisturbed watersheds in roadless and protected areas are fragmented by roads, logging, and intensive recreation development, both water quality and biodiversity decline as hydrological integrity is lost. The roaded, intensively managed landscapes of other national forest lands have been closely correlated with heavily sediment-laden streams and dramatic changes in flow regimes.” — DellaSala et al., 2011 (https://doi.org/10.2489/jswc.66.3.78A)
“Logging roads have been linked to great increases in erosion rates and sediment delivery to streams—up to 850% over rates in undisturbed habitat” — DellaSala et al., 2011 (https://doi.org/10.2489/jswc.66.3.78A)
Opening up the land to more roads, logging and mining could cause more pollution, disrupt wildlife and cause fires.
“our findings—that forests with the highest levels of protection from logging tend to burn least severely—suggest a need for managers and policymakers to rethink current forest and fire management direction” — Bradley et al., 2016 (https://doi.org/10.1002/ecs2.1492)
I believe all national forests need to be protected. Each area has its own ecosystem, habitat and climate and all are important. We need the diversity of flora and fauna of each area. Each landscape offers something unique and is worthy of protection.
The national forests belong to everyone and we should not open them up to corporations, but protect and save them for future generations. Once we destroy our public lands there is no getting them back.