I urge the Forest Service to select Alternative 1 and keep the 2001 Roadless Area Conservation Rule in place.
I live in the Portland area and know the Mt. Hood National Forest well. From 2014 to 2016, I served on a stakeholder group that advised the Forest Service on plans open to public comment, bringing together people with different interests, from recreation to conservation to local communities. In that work, I saw that decisions held up best when people with differing views were heard early. The Roadless Rule reflects that kind of broad public process, and rescinding it on a short comment window runs counter to it.
Mt. Hood’s undeveloped backcountry helps protect clean water, wildlife habitat, and quiet recreation close to where millions of people live. Once roads are built into these areas, the damage is difficult and expensive to undo.
Rescission is also unnecessary and costly. The Rule already allows thinning and hazard-reduction work where it’s needed, and Trout Unlimited has pointed out that the Forest Service’s own data undercuts the claim that it blocks forest health treatments. Meanwhile, the agency already manages roughly 370,000 miles of roads and carries about $10.8 billion in deferred maintenance, more than half of it for roads. Adding new road miles would only grow that burden.
Finally, the public has already spoken. More than 600,000 comments were submitted in the first round, and the agency has acknowledged that 99 percent opposed rescission. This proposal should not move forward against that record.
I ask that the agency keep the Roadless Rule intact.
Tonya Moore
Portland, Oregon