FS-2025-0001-601912

Daphne Muehle 1810 Northridge Dr, Hailey, ID 83333 Gognomenow@gmail.com Date: October 6, 2026 Attn: Director, Ecosystem Management Coordination Docket No.: FS-2025-0001 RIN: 0596-AD66 Subject: Public Comment Opposing Any Reduction or Elimination of Roadless Rule Protections To the U.S. Forest Service: I am writing to express my strong opposition to any regulatory changes, exemptions, or amendments that would weaken, eliminate, or roll back the 2001 Roadless Area Conservation Rule. Inventoried roadless areas represent the last remaining bastions of intact, undisturbed public forest land in our country. Protecting them is absolutely vital for ecological preservation, climate resilience, and local economies. I urge the Forest Service to maintain strict roadless protections for the following substantive reasons: • Climate Mitigation and Carbon Storage: Intact, old-growth, and mature forests within roadless areas serve as critical carbon sinks. Constructing new roads facilitates commercial logging, which actively releases stored carbon, disrupts soil ecology, and destroys the very canopy needed to mitigate the worst impacts of climate change. • Biodiversity and Habitat Connectivity: Roadless areas provide large, contiguous habitats free from human fragmentation. Many endangered, threatened, and sensitive species rely entirely on these undisturbed corridors for migration, breeding, and survival. Introducing roads fragment habitats, introduces invasive species, and increases wildlife mortality. • Watershed Protection: Millions of Americans rely on national forests for clean drinking water. Roadless areas protect headwaters and stream systems from the severe erosion, sedimentation, and pollution that inevitably accompany industrial road construction and heavy machinery usage. • Fiscal Responsibility: The Forest Service already faces a massive backlog of billions of dollars in deferred maintenance for existing forest roads. Authorizing new road construction when the agency cannot afford to maintain its current infrastructure is financially irresponsible and shifts a heavy burden onto taxpayers. Developing these last untouched wild spaces provides short-term commercial gains for extractive industries at the permanent expense of the American public and future generations. I strongly urge the Forest Service to reject any proposals that compromise roadless protections and to instead focus on restoring and maintaining our already-developed forest lands. Thank you for your time and for considering these comments during the rulemaking process. Sincerely, Daphne Muehle