I oppose rescinding the Roadless Rule. Existing roadless areas provide multiple benefits to the public, including fire safety, environmental and economic benefits.
Cutting roads into roadless areas will not decrease wildfires. A recent study found that 80 percent of human-caused fires happen within a half mile of a road. Roadless areas thus reduce fire risk rather than increasing it.
Roadless areas protect water quality. Logging roads, open stream fords and denuded forests all increase soil erosion and stream sedimentation. Forestry best management practices call for stabilization for old logging roads and stream crossings or “putting them to sleep.” Let them sleep. Roadless areas are often adjacent to designated wilderness areas. They provide a buffer zone between the wilderness and human development. They also provide a travel corridor for wildlife between pockets of forest habitat.
Roadless areas benefit the economy. Less than 5 percent of the U.S. is roadless or wilderness. Meanwhile, the recreation economy — which often relies on roadless areas and public lands — represents a whopping $1.3 trillion in economic output, almost 2.4 percent of the entire U.S. GDP. And hunting generates $33.5 billion in wages and income, with a total economic output of over $107 billion. That is greater than the GDP of 121 countries.
The market for wood pulp has crashed. Timber owners have a poor market for pulp wood produced during thinning cuts. Paper companies are selling off timber land. There is no need for opening additional acreage to logging. The U S Forest Service should invest in research and development of new markets for pulp wood, not new roads.
The U.S. Forest Service has 371,000 miles of roads already — roughly eight times more than the entire U.S. interstate highway system. And the maintenance backlog for these forest roads is $6.1 billion. I am a trail volunteer in George Washington Jefferson National Forest. I travel the existing forest roads to access trails in need of maintenance. Limited forest service staff cannot keep up the roads they have.
Rescinding the Roadless Rule can only hurt backcountry recreation and the environment with limited economic benefit to the few logging companies geared toward cutting old growth forests. It does not serve the interests of the American people.