I write in opposition to rescinding the 2001 Roadless Area Conservation Rule.
I grew up hiking and camping in the White Mountain National Forest and have spent weeks in the Green Mountain National Forest. I visit less often now that I am older. Yet I return to the White Mountains to be embraced by forested lands for a refreshing respite from my urban life, breathing the bracing, scented air deeply.
The Roadless Rule safeguards nearly 45 million acres of national forest lands. We came to these stewardship protections the hard way, after suffering great losses whose lessons we risk forgetting. During Reconstruction after the Civil War, demand for timber was high and forest clearing widespread.
In 1873, the young superintendent of the Adirondack Survey, Verplanck Colvin, age 26, could see the forest for more than the trees. He warned that continued clear-cutting would reduce water flowing to the Erie Canal and Hudson River, commercial waterways on which New York’s burgeoning economy depended. Vermonter George Perkins Marsh’s book, Man and Nature; or, Physical Geography as Modified by Human Action, helped people understand how destroying forests could undermine the watersheds sustaining their prosperity.
New York established the New York State Forest Preserve in 1885, protecting approximately 681,000 acres in the Adirondacks and another 34,000 acres in the Catskills. Much of this land had come into state ownership through unpaid-tax forfeitures after logging and abandonment. Subsequent purchases and other acquisitions expanded the protected forests. New York recognized that these watersheds' public value extended far beyond the timber standing on them.
The Green Mountain and White Mountain National Forests also protect headwater streams that feed rivers across state boundaries. The White Mountain National Forest contributes to the Connecticut, Merrimack, Saco, Androscoggin, and Presumpscot river systems. The Green Mountain National Forest shelters headwaters of the White, West, and Deerfield Rivers, which feed the Connecticut; the Batten Kill, renowned for trout fishing, which feeds the Hudson; and Otter Creek, which flows into Lake Champlain.
Opening inventoried roadless areas to additional roads and timber harvesting would put these upstream protections at risk. The consequences could reach downstream communities through erosion, sedimentation, and damage to water quality and aquatic habitat. Decisions made within one national forest can affect people far beyond its boundaries.
Rescinding the Rule would be penny-wise for logging industries and pound-foolish for Americans. I urge USDA to retain the 2001 Roadless Rule.
Rob Moir, PhD
Executive Director
Ocean River Institute
12 Eliot Street
Cambridge, MA 02138