To the Roadless Rule Rulemaking Docket:
I have lived just outside the National Forest in the Nooksack River drainage of the Mount Baker Snoqualimie National Forest for 35 years. The forest forest keeps our water clean, provides homes to much of the wildlife that are our neighbors and keeps diversity alive in a landscape dominated by tree farms. The roadless areas are key to preserving all of these things
I have been hiking, hunting and foraging in the Mount Baker area for decades. I value the land immensely as intact, diverse forest.
If this rule is recinded I will loose spots that have been providing my family with wild mushrooms. I will also loose the security I feel that the forest is holding back water to reduce the impace of flooding in our neighborhood and the less likelyhood of a wildfire in roadless areas.
Regarding the Mt. Baker North in the Mt Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest, Washington:
Ground disturbance, sedimentation, and stream crossings in roadless areas degrade drinking-water supplies and aquatic habitat downstream.
Runoff acceleration. Roads in mountain watersheds transform slow subsurface flow into rapid surface runoff. Cutslope interception can account for more than 79% of road overland flow, contributing 10–30% of total flood discharge in some basins (Kastridis 2020). — Kastridis, 2020 (https://doi.org/10.3390/f11111201)
Rescinding the Roadless Rule would open the Mt. Baker North, Mt Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest to road construction and associated ground disturbance. The direct and indirect effects of that activity are precisely what makes a specific comment about this area necessary.
Washington State has spent many millions to preserve and restore salmon habitat. The Federal Government should do the same and do all they can to protect the salmon and create watersheds the help prevent flooding.
The administrative record does not supply a reasoned basis for rescission; accordingly, the Department should decline to rescind.
Best,
CommentID: RLC-20261006-550ZHE