Dear USDA Leadership:
As an outdoor enthusiast, I know that some things on public land can be restored and some things can't. Road impacts fall in the second category.
This land is what restores my connection to my community, our sources for clean drinking water, and rejuvenation to continue good work with my neighbors.
Just last week, I was able to spend a night in the Rattlesnake mid-week. Close enough to town but remote enough to make me feel like I traveled far away yet was still back at work the next morning.
Our town draws our drinking water off that unroaded watershed.
Regarding the Rattlesnake in the Lolo National Forest, Montana:
Forest plan consistency, multiple-use direction, and how proposed management would alter the roadless character of inventoried areas.
Rescinding the Roadless Rule would open the Rattlesnake, Lolo National Forest to road construction and associated ground disturbance. The direct and indirect effects of that activity are precisely what makes a specific comment about this area necessary.
We lose traditional values of the land with the loss of this rule.
The Department is urged to terminate this rulemaking without rescinding the Roadless Area Conservation Rule.
With best wishes,
CommentID: RLC-20261006-IBIV3X