“lifelong hiker and backpacker, a kayaker, a forager, a naturalist”
“lover of wild places”
“outdoor enthusiast”
The comment
I am a lifelong hiker and backpacker, a kayaker, a forager, a naturalist, a lover of wild places. The Roadless Rule has had a deeply impactful and beneficial role in protecting what small amount of wilderness is left to Turtle Island. Roads do so much harm, from introducing invasive species, creating erosion, increasing the risk of wildfire, and facilitating the wanton extraction of our last remaining stands of wild timber. Even as an outdoor enthusiast who has used and appreciated roads that take me deep into the wilderness, I firmly oppose and weakening or rewriting of the roadless rule that would create more roads. We do not need more roads. We do not need more access. We need stewardship. We need ecosystem repair, we need clean water and fish habitat and places where mountain lions, bears, otters, wolves, and other wild creatures can take refuge. What has been done to our natural history and our ecosystems is criminal and ugly. The shame of it should haunt us all for generations. We must not cut the last trees, mine the last bedrock. We don't need more roads, don't need more access for multinational companies to strip our wilderness of resources. We need courage and integrity from our leaders, not a short-sighted selloff destined to benefit only a few, while despoiling our last wild places. Protect the Roadless Rule. Protect our water and our forests and our earth and our history. No new roads. No more extraction. The only honorable action is one of resistance to this onslaught of extractive greed and terror. I will lay down in front of the bulldozers rather than see more of this horrific harm from this morally bankrupt, intellectually corrupt, and utterly vile administration. Protect the Roadless Rule.