I live one mile away from the Gila National Forest in southwest New Mexico. I strongly oppose rescinding the Roadless Area Conservation Rule for the following reasons. New Mexico has the fourth highest native plant diversity in the country, due in part to the fact that we have 1.6 million acres of roadless areas. Because unroaded areas are difficult to access, they very often are free of invasive plant species. This is because roads are the main vector for invasive plants, which come in on tire treads and boot soles. Roads facilitate the establishment of invasive plants by creating soil disturbance, the perfect opening for weeds. The farther an area is from a road, the fewer invasive plants there are, and the more effective the area is as a refuge for rare plants.
Why are nonnative plants so harmful? Because invasive plants lack the predators and diseases that kept them in check where they originated, they often can outcompete native plants. Invasive plants do not provide the food that wildlife need for survival. Native flora and fauna have coevolved over millennia, creating healthy, functioning ecosystems. This delicate balance is disturbed when nonnative species invade.
While the Gila National Forest has no plants that are federally listed as threatened or endangered under the Endangered Species Act, it does have 21 plant Species of Conservation Concern. These rare plants will become much more vulnerable if roads are built into plant habitats that are currently roadless. The Gila National Forest has 10 areas that have been designated by the state of New Mexico as Important Plant Areas where rare plants are known to occur. Some of these areas are currently roadless. That prime plant habitat will be seriously degraded if roads are built into it.
Roads facilitate logging, which cuts down the biggest, oldest trees, the very ones that are most resilient to wildfire. Logging does much more than just remove trees. It also destroys understory vegetation that wildlife need for food, cover, and nesting sites. Older, larger trees absorb and store more carbon than younger, smaller trees, which is an important consideration as we try to minimize the impacts of climate change. Non-native species invasions are a consequence of building roads needed for logging. It takes hundreds of years to replace old growth trees and for ecosystems to recover after clearcutting.
In addition to the deleterious impacts of road building and logging in our forests, roaded areas fundamentally change the character of recreation. People from all over the world visit the Gila National Forest as a way to recharge their spirits from the stresses of urban living and modernity. Noise and lack of solitude inevitably follow road-building. Countless scientific studies corroborate the deadly effects of noise on human and animal health. We already have too much noise in the world.
Most wildfires are ignited by people. More roads = more people = more wildfires. On the occasions that wildfires start in a roadless area, the Roadless Rule already has provisions for emergency access into roadless areas to fight fires. Duping the uninformed public into believing that roads are needed to fight fires is a travesty and a lie.
Who will benefit from building roads into areas that are currently roadless? It's a sure bet that it will be wealthy and well-connected individuals and corporations. The average person will lose access to the only areas we can visit to experience peace, solitude, and quiet, and to observe wildlife. Rich people already have beautiful places in nature that they own or can pay huge sums to visit. The overwhelming majority of Americans cannot afford large tracts of land. Rescinding the Roadless Rule is fundamentally unfair and undemocratic.
DO NOT RESCIND THE ROADLESS RULE. ONCE AN AREA IS RUINED BY ROAD-BUILDING, LOGGING, MINING, AND OIL AND GAS EXTRACTION, IT'S RUINED FOREVER.