The Forest Service must keep the Roadless Rule.
Allowing development throughout these protected forests completely disregards the peoples rights and the health of ecosystems we as humans depend on. There will be significant consequences to our water supplies, our health, biodiversity, endangered species and so much more. This rule protects over 60 million Americans from unsafe water, protects and provides habitats for over 1,600 threatened and endangered species, plants and animals. Harming or opening up development in Pisgah and Cherokee National Forest will impact my community and I directly. We as a community depend on a clean and safe water supply to drink, cook and bathe, which will be taken away with the impacts and effects of fracking, increased runoff, a depletion of groundwater and so much more. Additionally, animals such as the Bog Turtle, Timber Rattlesnake, and Northern Saw-Whet Owl are just a few amazing animals that will be put into further danger. Keep it roadless.
The Forest Service should keep the Roadless Rule intact exactly as it is. Do not weaken or repeal this critical policy.
National forests are the heart of our public lands. The Roadless Area Conservation Rule protects some of the wildest forests we have left, forests that protect critical wildlife habitat and drinking water for millions. Revoking the Roadless Rule puts landscapes, wildlife, and communities at risk.
Not only is the Roadless Rule good policy, it's also wildly popular across the country, with over 600,000 people submitting comments to the US Forest Service last year in support of keeping the rule in place. And more than 20 years ago, the American people overwhelmingly called for our national forests to be protected for future generations. Revoking the Roadless Rule would destroy the natural inheritance we leave for our children.