I’m writing in strong support of the roadless rule. I believe we actually need more roadless areas within our country and that rescinding the rule would be a travesty for the people of this country, our precious ecology and for future generations.
I live within walking distance from the Angeles National Forest. It is a place of refuge, solace, and inspiration for myself, my family, and our friends. We hike in the forest at least four days a week. The hiking helps us stay fit and healthy and provides us a chance to bond as a family. Being immersed in the smells, clean air, fresh streams and incredible diversity of plant and animal life is something we all look forward to every week. As a baby, some of my daughter’s first words were the plants she would see along the rustic mountain trails. This connection to nature is how we are meant to live and many of us in the U.S. have become separated from it. Many of our country’s modern plagues are rooted in this disconnection from nature – obesity, depression, chronic diseases, cancers, etc.
We are grateful for this proximity of the Angeles National Forest, and some of our most treasured places are in roadless areas. There is an area along the San Gabriel River boarding a roadless area where my friends and I would spend summers decompressing and enjoying the river. The water would be crystal blue. And it was an escape from the urban density in which we all lived.
Living adjacent to the ANF, wildfires are also a huge concern of ours. Countless studies, including ones from the US Dept of Fish and Wildlife, have shown that the presence of roads significantly increases the risk of wildfires. Most wildfires are human-caused. With more roads, come more people and more opportunities for fires to spark. In addition, roads are known to increase the presence of invasive species, most of which grow quickly and then dry out, creating the worst kind of fuels and kindling for wildfires.
In addition to our personal issues with rescinding the roadless rule, we know roads fragment, disturb and pollute wild areas. Our nation needs natural, intact, wilderness areas with thriving ecosystems. While humans have temporarily created our own systems to feed and support ourselves, these intact ecosystems have been the backbone of life on this planet for its entire history. If our human-made systems fail, our only life-line is the natural ones. We need to preserve them for means of human and national security.
Even with flourishing human systems, intact natural areas are imperative to our health. They keep the air and water clean. And are even a trove of natural knowledge for ourselves and future generations. For example, there is a plant that grows near me in the ANF, Yerb Santa (eriodictyon crassifolium), which has been known for generations as a healing plant. Scientists at the Salk Institute are currently studying it and found a compound within the plant that shows promise as a drug for Alzheimer’s. Intact ecosystems protect plants like this.
If it’s not self-evident, wild areas are valuable in their own right. Maybe you see them as the creations and gifts of divinity or maybe as the result of thousands of generations of various organisms evolving together. I believe every cell, every heart-beat, every flower of every species has the right to flourish. We have a moral imperative to respect the natural world, and protect the diversity of life on this planet. The roadless rule is a step toward that. Many of the Roadless areas are in biodiversity hot spots. Places that need protection so that myriad forms of life can continue to flourish like they have through the ages.
Let us not lose sight of the important things in life and what makes our country great. We need to protect roadless areas for ourselves and for future generations. Roadless areas have lower risk of fire ignition, they provide beauty and recreation that inspire life and connection to nature and among people, they help keep our nation healthy through clean air, water, and they help protect the natural world, a gift of innate value which we must protect at all costs.