I am writing to oppose the U.S. Department of Agriculture's proposal to rescind the 2001 Roadless Area Conservation Rule. I urge the Department to keep these protections in place for Florida's national forests and for roadless areas nationwide.
Florida's roadless areas are small, about 50,000 acres across the Apalachicola, Ocala, and Osceola National Forests, and that is exactly why they matter. Southwest Florida, where I live and work, is losing wildlife habitat to development every year. Across the state, intact public land is becoming the last refuge for species with nowhere else to go. Florida's national forests support more than 130 threatened and endangered plant species and nearly 40 listed animal species. Some of those populations exist nowhere else.
The risks are specific. New roads and logging in the Ocala National Forest would fragment habitat for the Florida scrub jay, a species found only in Florida. In the Osceola National Forest, road construction and timber harvest would increase runoff into the lakes and ponds that support the Suwannee alligator snapping turtle. The Apalachicola National Forest holds the largest red-cockaded woodpecker population in the state, and that population depends on mature, undisturbed pine forest. Roads don't only remove habitat. They cut what remains into pieces, bring in vehicle traffic that kills wildlife, and open the way for invasive species, illegal dumping, and poaching.
I understand that the Department has framed this rescission as a wildfire safety measure. That reasoning does not fit Florida. Our fire-adapted pine forests are managed largely through prescribed burning, which does not require new permanent roads. The 2001 rule also already allows road construction when needed to protect public health and safety from fire, flood, or other catastrophic events. It also allows some tree cutting to restore natural fire regimes. In addition, new roads can increase human-caused ignitions, and they add to a Forest Service road maintenance backlog that is already far beyond what the agency can fund.
Once a road is built and a forest is logged, the intact habitat it replaced cannot be recovered on any timescale that matters to a declining species. A national rule that has protected these lands for 25 years should not be discarded in exchange for short-term timber access. I respectfully ask the Department to withdraw this proposal and retain the Roadless Area Conservation Rule in full.