Protect the Roadless Rule. It’s what the people want.

I am writing as you out constituent and a concerned public land owner to say I strongly oppose the Trump administration’s plans to rescind the Roadless Area Conservation Rule. The roadless areas in our national forests are an American treasure, and the health of our nation and the world depend on them being intact. For a quarter century, the Roadless Rule has protected them from roadbuilding and logging, preserving irreplaceable wildlife habitats, sources of clean water, and recreation areas for future generations. The Trump administration’s proposal to repeal the Roadless Rule threatens all these benefits. This rollback would harm forests like the Tongass National Forest, where the Roadless Rule protects over 9 million acres of the 17-million-acre forest from industrial logging and damaging roadbuilding.     Although the proposed repeal is being justified in part as a wildfire-prevention measure, peer-reviewed evidence shows that increasing roadbuilding will only increase wildfires. More than 80% of wildfires occur within 800 meters of roads, according to recent research.  In addition, increasing timber production means cutting down bigger, old trees, which are the most resilient to wildfire. Once an old-growth tree is cut and sold, it will take hundreds of years to replace it, and even longer for ecosystems to heal following clearcutting. Since older trees absorb and store more carbon than their younger counterparts, it is especially important that we keep these forests standing right now while we have the greatest ability to mitigate climate change.    Forests are not a crop to be used to line the pockets of industry executives. They sustain fish, birds, wildlife, and people; filter drinking water; provide recreational opportunities; and absorb and store carbon, helping us to fight climate change. Carving up these forests with roads and logging means we lose those benefits. These lands belong to all Americans, not the timber industry. The pristine lands protected by the Roadless Rule provide an extraordinary landscape for numerous backcountry recreation activities; sustain sensitive fish, bird and wildlife species that need these intact ecosystems to survive; provide subsistence to Tribes; and provide clean, clear drinking water for communities. Without protection for these roadless lands, all of those benefits will be jeopardized. I urge you to speak up to keep the Roadless Rule in place and protect our forests.