My comments on repealing the Roadless Rule

The Trump administration wants to do away with the Clinton era rule that protects 58 million acres of forests and wildlands

The Trump administration wants to repeal the roadless rule, a Clinton era rule that protects 58 million acres of forests and wildldands. Changing the rule would open up these area to road building, mining, and logging.

The Forest Service is taking comments on this proposed change. Below are my comments on the proposed rescinding of the Roadless Rule. I urge you to do the same. You can leave a comment here.

To the United States Forest Service:

I write to the Forest Service today to voice my support to retain the Roadless Rule and oppose any effort to weaken the rule or rescind it. The rule applies to 58 million acres of America’s forests and other wildlands. Keeping these expanses free of roads, the rule ensures that these lands are safe from mining, logging, and other extractive activities.

I live in San Diego, one of the largest cities in the United States, yet a roadless area lies just 50 miles away, offering me and thousands of others the opportunity to walk among a stand of trees that have never been felled, to hear the chirps of sparrows and the stead knock-knock of woodpeckers. I take joy in experiencing unspoiled nature and to know, if this rule remains, that generations from now others can do the same and enjoy nature in the very same spot. Others across this great country can do the same. Roadless areas are retained in Wisconsin, Michigan, Oregon, West Virginia and almost every other state in the Union.

The Roadless Rule retains wild areas as habitats for millions of animals, many who might have a hard time surviving without this rule. For example, the cerulean warbler has been in decline for decades, as logging and other activities degrade the unfragmented, mature deciduous eastern hardwood forests upon which this bird relies. The Roadless Rule retains these habitats throughout the Appalachians and surrounding areas for the warblers and other species. The same can be said of spotted owls in the western states. Dozens of other endangered species benefit from the Roadless Rule.

The Roadless Rule leaves forest and streams undisturbed, allowing them to function as they have for millennia and soak in rainwater, replenish aquifers, and provide clean waters for fish and other aquatic creatures. This rule provides clean drinking water downstream for human populations.

The Trump administration contends that the Roadless Rule hampers firefighting. Yet Alexandra Syphard, a senior research scientist at the Conservation Biology Institute and the Director of Science for the Global Wildfire Collective, has said roads that are extended into forests increase human access and hence actually increase the chances of ignition in these forests. Her assessment is echoed by Jon Keeley, a research scientist with the U.S. Geological Survey who has authored dozens of scientific papers on wildfire, as well as other experts in the field of fire science.

Further, roads into forests also increase the opportunity for nonnative grasses and forbs to encroach on forests and other wildlands. After these annuals bloom in the spring, they die and dry up, creating ready tinder and increasing wildfire risk. Roads increase ambient temperatures in the environments through which they pass. They affect soil density and water content where they are constructed. They can increase dust during dry times and increase runoff when it rains. All of these affect the surrounding habitat of the forests through which roads are constructed.

For these reasons I strongly urge the Forest Service to retain the Roadless Rule in full, unaltered in any way or form. Keep the protections that keep these places wild.

Sincerely,

Paul Hormick