Shouldn’t We Maintain Roads Before We Build More?
I strongly oppose the proposal to fully or partially rescind the Roadless Area Conservation Rule. This reckless action would devastate our public lands, waste taxpayer resources, and undermine the clean water, wildlife habitat, and recreation opportunities that millions of Americans depend on. I urge the agency to take Alternative 1, the No Action alternative and retain full Roadless Rule protections.
I live in Helena, Montana but lived in Red Lodge, Montana for a few years. The Beartooth Highway near Red Lodge is one of the highest, most scenic roads in the country - the road climbs to 10,000 feet. The reason why it's so scenic?
There are no other roads. On both sides of the road, there is the Custer-Gallatin National Forest of Montana, and the Shoshone National Forest of Wyoming. If the 2001 Roadless Area Conservation Rule is rescinded, the south side of the road is open to roads. The roadless area, known for its roadless area, bringing tourists in from all over the world, is open for road building. This is some of the most pristine, high alpine ecosystem in the country, if not the world. It's bad enough one road (The Beartooth Highway) cuts through this roadless area - let's not make it more. The trails, bears, and humans who make this place home, right next to Yellowstone National Park, will thank you.
When I worked for the Forest Service, I drove up and down some incredible dirt roads. Cleaning up campgrounds, completing whitebark pine and elk browse surveys, and patrolling trails for maintenance, I saw incredible sunsets, elk bugling, and rivers rushing.
That is, when my eyes weren’t laser-focused on avoiding the literal canyons of potholes carved into the road in front of me.
Once, I helped with a harlequin duck survey along a high, crisp, and cold river — the ducks favorite place to be. To survey, our team walked upstream five river miles, testing eDNA every few hundred yards. It was exhausting, lovely work — but the part I dreaded the most was the drive.
You see, we started our survey with river waders on at exactly 7 a.m. We dropped off a car at the end of our river survey (to avoid the five miles back… in the dark). On the way to and from, the road had so many bumps, potholes, razor-sharp rocks, and at one point a loose electric wire, we barely made it past 5 mph. We inched, maneuvered, and got out of the car to make sure we didn’t drag the bottom on a rock.
We joked it would have been faster to walk, but with the eDNA machine weighing more than 30 pounds, and our wet waders weighing just as much, we decided that the terrible drive was necessary.
When there is now a push to rescind the Roadless Rule, an act passed in 2001 that protects 30% of Forest Service land from road building…I have to ask: why is there a push to build new roads, instead of maintaining the current ones?
I imagine how much differently that survey would have gone with a different, better road – less dread of driving I’m sure, maybe more alert for the surveys, but also how many more people would have been able to access the river if the road was maintained.
How many of you avoid a road because of how many potholes it has? I know I would go up to Priest Pass more often near Helena if the road wasn’t a nightmare to drive. I’m sure, if you access public lands like I do, to hunt, fish, hike or bike, you have a similar story of a terrible, bumpy, washed-out unmaintained road. Or, when the road got too bad, you had to turn around before your final destination.
Better roads mean more access to public land, not more roads. Maintained, existing roads means better access to public roads, not more roads we can’t even drive on.
There are so many reasons to protect the Roadless Rule and be opposed to the rescinding of it – backcountry hunting access, wildlife habitat, clean drinking water, and nature as a whole. But have we considered that maybe, we wouldn’t even be able to use the new roads they’re proposing? Why would we be able to, when we can’t even properly use the ones that currently exist?
There are 265,000 miles of roads that the U.S Forest Service alone maintains in the United States. There are 165,000 miles of road in the National Highway System. If you agree we should work on maintaining those 265,000 miles of roads first, do not rescind the roadless rule. Let's keep one part of our country roadless, where only feet and hearts can reach. Please.
I oppose the proposal to rescind or alter the Roadless Rule, and I support Alternative 1, the No Action alternative.