Secretary Rollins and Chief Shultz,
Your plan to roll back the Roadless Area Conservation Rule would undermine tens of millions of acres of U.S. forests, wetlands, and canyons that belong to the American People. It is your role to protect these ecological treasures from the kind of development that would endanger them.
Opening up our forests to destructive logging and road building will lead to water pollution of municipal water supplies from Sitka, Alaska to Atlanta, Georgia to Phoenix, Arizona and disrupt recreation areas used by hikers, paddlers, campers, fishermen, and hunters. It will threaten endangered species, disturb wildlife and interrupt vital corridors that allow migration.
The Roadless Area Conservation Rule should be STRENGTHENED to protect Alaska’s Tongass National Forest - the largest temperate rainforest in the world, California’s Tahoe National Forest, segments of the Appalachian Trail, the Chattahoochee National Forest.
As an avid hiker and camper who grew up in New Mexico, I have witnessed the power and beauty of these pristine environments. My father, who hiked and fished and camped in remote corners of our national forests introduced these special places to me. Because he was a geologist with a deep knowledge of biology, he helped me to understand how connected these natural places are to our well-being. If we destroy them or allow them to be destroyed, it will be at our own peril – and tragically, the peril of our children. The rollback of the Roadless Area Conservation Rule cannot stand.
Thank you for your attention to this matter of vital national interest.