I grew up visiting wilderness areas protected by the roadless rule, and still do very often today. They’ve made me who I am and part of what makes this country so beautiful. All nature is beautiful, but having places unimpacted by development and the march of human progress is so important. For us, and for the wonderful and unique organisms we share this land with.
As mentioned above, not only do these roadless areas have a profound meaning to us as humans, but it’s essential to wildlife. Roads fragment habitat (which is already generally extremely fragmented as is on a landscape scale), lead to animal mortality events from road collisions, and allow for easy access to potential extraction of resources in areas where that would have not formerly been considered feasible.
I’m a masters wildlife biologist student here in the southern Appalachians and I’ve seen what roads can do first hand. Firefly populations being impacted by vehicle traffic, high road mortality in rare reptiles, sensitive habitat like bogs being disturbed. These are all things I’ve seen personally, and things that areas formerly resilient to such human disturbances (like the Nantahalah and Pisgah National Forests) are now under threat of. The sensitive habitat under former protection by the roadless rule is now potentially vulnerable.
For the future. For us to enjoy. For the animals and plants that need this habitat. Please uphold the roadless rule.