Rona Fried & Annette McGee Rasch

The Trump Administration is about to rescind the Roadless Rule – the only rule that protects our wildest and most remote National Forest lands. After you read this article, we hope you will submit your Comment against this move.

Roadless Areas are 5,000 acres or larger – 58 million acres in 36 states and Puerto Rico – equivalent to just 2% of US land that is closed to road building. Once a road goes in, intact forests become fragmented, breaking up critical wildlife habitat. Roads make it possible to log, mine or drill for oil. Keeping our forests free of roads is the most effective way to protect large areas of wildlife habitat. The Roadless Rule went into effect in 2001 with unprecedented public input: 600 public hearings and 2.5 million public comments in favor of it.

It’s not like we don’t have roads in our National Forests. Taxpayers have funded an astounding 380,000 miles of forest roads there! Can’t we leave some of our most cherished, important wildlands without roads??? Why should we pay to open our forests to corporate profits? Maybe Trump will make a deal for the US government to get a percentage like he has with Nvidia and Intel.

Just like Trump wants to Drill, Baby, Drill, he wants to Log, Baby, Log. The last thing Trump cares about is climate change or wildlife. To build his case, his administration claims more logging will reduce wildfire risk, which is completely FALSE. Countless scientists, firefighters and career foresters say the opposite is true: ample research confirms that INTACT, MATURE FORESTS are the best way to prevent wildfires. Thinning forests (to benefit logging companies) makes wildfires more likely, not less. Why? Because a thinned-out forest is NOT healthy.

While most Americans may assume “National Forests” means they are protected, sadly that’s not the case. Roadless areas are refuges for wildlife that have to deal with endless logging of their habitat, pushing them beyond park boundaries. I have rescued and rehabbed many, many animals that strayed out of forests and got hit within 50 feet of a boundary.

Imagine you’re a shy woodland creature, perhaps a young bobcat, or maybe a porcupine. You’re thirsty, hungry, or possibly seeking a mate. Your habitat is overcrowded so you’re forced to move on. You tentatively step out beyond your known refuge – but then, whoa! You encounter a clear cut, or a busy roadway. You’re scared, but your need is keen, so you’re driven forward. But nothing in your experience or instinctual programming has prepared you for the noise, the lights, the humans, or worse, huge metal objects whizzing by at 60 miles an hour…

One study found that more than 350 million vertebrate animals, big and small, are killed by vehicles in the U.S. every year.

Healthy, intact forests are also a major source of clean drinking water in our country. Forests protect the headwaters of major rivers – crucial for maintaining mountain-fed, clean water nationwide. When roads are built for logging, sediment pours into rivers, polluting water supplies. Roads also worsen the spread of invasive species.

Our economy also benefits from intact forests. Eco-tourism is a top economic contributor to countless towns near our National Forests. Tourists don’t come to see scarred clear cuts or vistas. Roadless Areas protect the wildlands that millions of us go to for recreation and spiritual relief. We need these quiet refuges in nature to help cope with this world that seems crazier by the day.

Example: Klamath-Siskiyou Bioregion (Southwest Oregon/Northeast California

With over 1 million acres of Roadless Areas, these lands protect the headwaters and tributaries of several Wild and Scenic Rivers – the largest concentration of undammed rivers left in the lower 48 states. Less than 1% of surface fresh water on Earth is this clean and clear – and this pristine water quality ensures the survival of threatened salmon.

The unique geology translates into rare soil types that make globally significant botanical diversity possible. There are plants that exist nowhere else in America thanks to its serpentine fens, seeps, high-altitude wet meadows and ancient rocky hills.

Visitors and scientists come from around the world to experience this primitive place that rightfully belongs to all Americans – not to logging and mining companies. Having survived for millions of years, it takes my breath away that one greedy misguided political regime can do so much irreparable damage. A big mining operation is poised to move forward now.

Visit the Kalmiopsis Wild website to learn about the special character of this region.

Lawsuit to Protect the Roadless Rule
Earthjustice will represent a slew of environmental organizations (for free!) in court to protect the Roadless Rule.

“The Roadless Rule has protected priceless forests across America for a quarter century,” said Drew Caputo, vice president of Litigation for Lands, Wildlife and Oceans at Earthjustice. “These national forests belong to all Americans, not to the timber industry, which wants them sold to the highest bidder. Earthjustice has successfully defended the Roadless Rule in court for decades. Nothing will stop us from taking up that fight again.”

“Only a fraction of our national forests remain undeveloped and free of roads, and that is entirely thanks to the Roadless Area Conservation Rule,” said Alex Craven, Sierra Club’s Forest Campaign Manager. “Trump is making it crystal clear he is willing to pollute our clean air and drinking water, destroy prized habitat for species, and even increase the risk of devastating wildfires, if it means padding the bottom lines of timber and mining companies.”

Here are the areas protected by the Roadless Rule