“Forest Service already manages hundreds of thousands of miles of roads and has a huge backlog”
“hard time understanding why we would take on even more long-term road construction and maintenance”
“removing protections from millions of acres of roadless country goes much further than that”
What it names
Works cited
Furniss et al. 1991
The comment
I’m writing as a dad, a hunter, an angler, and someone who spends a lot of time on our public lands. I live in Helena, Montana, and these places are important to me and my family.
I urge the U.S. Forest Service to keep the 2001 Roadless Rule in place.
I value our public lands because they give my family and me places to hunt, fish, hike, camp, and simply get away from roads and development. Some of the best wildlife habitat and backcountry experiences we have left are in these roadless areas.
The Roadless Rule doesn’t prevent hunting, fishing, grazing, recreation, habitat work, wildfire mitigation, or access to existing rights. What it does is provide some protection from building new roads into some of our most intact public lands.
As a hunter and angler, I worry about what happens when we continue adding roads into these areas. Roads can fragment wildlife habitat, affect migration routes, impact streams and watersheds, and change the character of the backcountry. Once a road is built, it is very difficult to undo.
The Forest Service already manages hundreds of thousands of miles of roads and has a huge backlog of road maintenance. I have a hard time understanding why we would take on even more long-term road construction and maintenance when the agency is already struggling to maintain the roads we have.
More importantly, I want my kids—and eventually their kids—to have the same opportunity to hunt, fish, and experience wild public lands that I have had.
I understand that forest management needs to change and that there are times when roads and active management make sense. I support responsible, locally informed management of our public lands. But removing protections from millions of acres of roadless country goes much further than that.
These lands belong to all of us. Once we permanently change some of our last remaining intact backcountry, we don’t get it back.
Please listen to the people who use and care for these lands. I respectfully ask the Forest Service to keep the 2001 Roadless Rule in place.
As a dad, hunter, and angler, I want to leave these places better for the next generation—not more developed.
Thank you for considering my comments.