I am writing to strongly urge you not to rescind the crucial protections provided by the 2001 Roadless Area Conservation Rule.
Florida has more than enough strip malls, storage facilities, condominiums, and car washes to last ten lifetimes. What we desperately need is not more development, but places where development has not yet taken hold—places where land can remain wild, undisturbed, and protected.
These roadless areas are more than vacant land. They are sanctuaries for wildlife and places of refuge, solitude, and sanity for people living in an increasingly crowded and developed world. Once these places are fragmented or paved over, they cannot simply be restored.
In the Apalachicola National Forest, allowing development that could pollute lakes and ponds and threaten one of Florida’s largest populations of red-cockaded woodpeckers would be reckless and profoundly inconsistent with responsible stewardship. We have an obligation to consider not only what can be developed today, but what we are leaving behind for generations who will have no opportunity to reclaim what we destroy.
Please do not sacrifice irreplaceable public lands simply to increase short-term profits for developers. Government should not facilitate the conversion of our remaining wild places into another round of commercial and residential development.
These lands are not ours to take. They are ours to protect. Please preserve the protections of the 2001 Roadless Area Conservation Rule.