I am writing to strongly urge the United States Forest Service (USFS) to preserve the Roadless Rule in its full capacity. The science is clear, roads are one of the biggest threats to healthy ecosystems across our federal lands. We know that roads create erosion, roads deposit sediment into watersheds, roads inhibit animal migration. It also is known that the vast majority of human caused wildfires are caused on or along roads! While the USFS is currently arguing that we need roads to mitigate wildfire risk, we need to acknowledge the serious threat that building more roads creates for the very issue it aims to address. Simply put, roads are the source of many wildfires.
I fell in love with the natural environment and studying environmental sciences in wild and roadless places within the Los Padres National Forest in Coastal California. I took that love of nature and dedicated my professional career to it. Now, with a degree in Environmental Science and a career in Natural Resources Management, I look at the USFS attempted rescission of the Roadless Rule as one of the worst decisions this agency has attempted to make in recent history.
It is painfully obvious that the intent of rescinding the Roadless Rule is not truly to mitigate wildfire risk. Rather, the public can safely assume that rescinding this rule is a sorry attempt at opening federal lands for increased natural resource extraction. I hope USFS decision makers understand the permanent detriment that rescinding the Roadless Rule will have on our federal lands. Wild places will never be wild again. People will never be able to enjoy these serene landscapes again in the same capacity. Ecosystems will forever be impacted. And worst of all, the door will be opened for private resource extraction in some of the most ecologically valuable places in America. Once that door is open, it will never be closed.
I strongly urge the USFS to preserve the Roadless Rule and fulfill its responsibility to properly manage the public lands of America.