Comment on FR Doc # 2026-16965
I write to strongly oppose the weakening or repeal of the Roadless Rule. This Rule has protected critical water resources, has enhanced air and water quality, and has protected essential wildlife habitat. Allowing the building of roads in protected areas will inevitably lead to logging, mining and development that will greatly diminish all of these benefits.
The heart of our public lands is our system of National Forests. These Forests contain some of the. most mature and wild forest habitats remaining in the United States, which represent a tiny fraction of the mature forests that once blessed this country. These forests provide multiple environmental benefits to communities and wildlife. Notably, they provide high quality drinking water for millions of citizens, water that is now critically scarce and will be impossible to replace.
In my home state of Oregon, roadless areas protect nearly 2 million acres of Oregon’s forests, including beloved places like the Metolius River, Lost Lake, the Oregon Dunes, Mount Hebo, Hardesty Mountain, Tumalo Mountain, and the Upper Hood River Valley. These are some of the most intact landscapes we have left. I personally have spent many years enjoying the beauty of these special places. In addition to providing life-enhancing recreation, they provide clean drinking water for communities like Bend, Eugene, and Salem. They shelter fish and wildlife and preserve sacred sites and traditional foods. Carving roads into these wild places will fragment wildlife habitat, pollute drinking water sources, spread invasive species, increase fire risk, and make it possible for industrial logging and mining activities to degrade the landscape. Among other harms, it will undo generations of work to restore Northwest native salmon populations.
Management of or national forests must protect the many benefits that only healthy forests can provide: clean air and water, carbon storage, fish and wildlife habitat and recreation. The “greatest permanent value” of our forests (if their permanence is assured) is in these multiple environmental benefits, and most critically, in their carbon sequestration at a time when the climate crisis is overtaking ecosystems and destroying life and property on an ever-widening scale. We now know that Northwest coastal and Cascade Range forests have some of the world’s highest capacity to store carbon. Indeed, current science supports large forest reserves to sequester carbon, provide wildlife habitat and foster biodiversity. The catastrophic effects of climate change on forests are all around us, and more and more species are becoming threatened or endangered. The value of extractive industries must not be allowed to outweigh the invaluable and irreplaceable ecosystem services provided by our small remaining areas of mature and old-growth forest.
Last year over 600,000 citizens (including myself) expressed their strong support for the current Roadless rule by submitting comments to the U.S. Forest Service. U.S. citizens also overwhelming support the protection of our National Forests for future generations. Public sentiment on this issue is clear.
The Roadless Rule preserves the last of our intact public lands as a source of clean water, a home for wildlife, a haven for recreation, and a heritage for future generations. It must be maintained and protected.