To the Department of Agriculture:
I am a lifelong conservationist. A youth spent mostly going to zoos and mourning the loss of habitats around the world led to a career in wildlife conservation where I realized just how much is at stake. That loss across the world has already been here, we've lost more habitats and species than most will ever know. And we cannot risk losing more to deregulation based on unscientific claims that we know will accelerate human-caused environmental damage and negatively impact human health.
The already strained federal wildfire workforce, which includes managers and biologists who are not in explicit fire roles, is already limited in their ability to enact proactive wildfire treatments in favor of wholesale wildfire suppression. Over 90% of wildfires occur within 0.5 miles of a road. My friends, colleagues, and neighbors in the community will stand to lose the lands we protect, our homes, our families, and our lives.
I do not want to see another obituary of a wildlands firefighter. I do not want to see the death till climb from yet another fire. We will lose our clean water, species that depend on connected habitats, and further exacerbate the spread of invasive species to sites that reflect pre-colonial conditions. This is unacceptable and the roadless rule should remain as it is currently written.
Rescinding the Roadless Rule would open the Morgan Ridge, Hoosier National Forest to road construction and associated ground disturbance. The direct and indirect effects of that activity are precisely what makes this proposed change so harmful.
Morgan Ridge's unfragmented interior forest provides critical maternity roost habitat for four federally endangered bat species: the Indiana bat, gray bat, northern long-eared bat, and the proposed endangered tricolored bat. These species require continuous, mature forest canopy to navigate between roosting sites and foraging areas without exposure to predators or weather. Road construction fragments this canopy into isolated patches, severing the movement corridors these bats depend on to access maternity colonies and seasonal hibernacula disruption that is functionally irreversible on the timescale of bat population recovery.
Regarding invasive species (which also increase wildfire risk), road construction creates a linear disturbance corridor, including compacted soil, exposed mineral substrate, and altered hydrology, that helps invasive plants colonize rapidly. Non-native species spread from the road into adjacent forest, outcompeting native understory plants including goldenseal and American ginseng. The roads also increase human access to the forest interior, facilitating illegal collection of vulnerable species. Once invasive species establish in the mesic upland and bottomland hardwood forests where goldenseal and ginseng persist, native plant communities are difficult if not nearly impossible to restore. Invasive species will suppress native seed germination and seedling establishment for years or decades.
Road building will only increase wildfire risk and bring destruction to crucial ecosystems. Listen to those who've done the research and manage our public lands and do not repeal the roadless rule based on false claims. Do not send my colleagues into deadly fires caused by careless deregulation.
Thank you,
CommentID: RLC-20261007-412LXA