Hello,
My name is Levi Showalter and I am writing to express my strong opposition to the repeal of the Roadless Rule. I spent several years as an employee of the Forest Service in Idaho and Alaska, doing hands-on forest management in several of the areas this rule protects. America's roadless areas protect many of our most valuable, long-term public resources: clean water, fish and game, sensitive plant species, and many others. Specifically, I worked on a botany crew; roadless areas are the only suitable habitat for several species of rare plants we surveyed for. The activities currently prohibited by the Roadless Rule are those which would severely degrade the suitability of these habitats for sensitive species. Once these areas are developed for road construction, mining, or logging, their resources are not replaceable, and neither are their intangible cultural value.
As an employee of the Tongass National Forest, I had the opportunity to live in the remote Alaskan community of Thorne Bay, on Prince of Wales Island. There, I experienced firsthand how proper forest management affects people’s lives. The locals depend heavily on wild game, fish, and plants as major parts of their diet, as imported groceries were extremely costly. Our work at the Forest Service to properly steward forest resources helped support not only an ecosystem that would be sustainable long-term in and of itself, but also support a human community that could trust the resources it provided. The Roadless Rule, which governs large areas of the Tongass near Thorne Bay, is critical for preserving the habitats that can support these natural resources and the people who depend on them. We saw this contrasted with other parts of the island that had been mismanaged by clearcutting, poorly managed uranium mining by foreign companies, and haphazard road construction. The former areas were able to support communities where people were proud of their way of life. The latter were expensive remediation sites, and served little useful purpose to either nature or society, in contrast to the USFS mission of “Caring for the land and serving people”. These areas greatly impact offsite resources as well; they protect stream headwaters and clean air that find their way into populated places. The Roadless Rule exists not to cordon off these resources and make them “unusable”; it exists because they are performing essential ecosystem functions that will keep the land productive for many generations to come.
As such, I strongly urge the Forest Service to retain this rule. I hope my children and grandchildren will one day be able to enjoy the same great American outdoors that I do, and that they may be able to take an active role in properly stewarding its natural resources. I have contacted my congressmen already to express my sentiment, and I earnestly hope that Secretary Rollins will trust the experience of her agency’s employees such as myself, along with the many other concerned citizens who recognize the irreplaceable value of the lands protected by the Roadless Rule.
Thank you,
Levi Showalter