Speak up for the Roadless Rule.
The Trump administration is proposing to eliminate the popular Roadless Rule, which protects millions of acres of National Forest lands across the country.
The Roadless Rule is about more than roads in our forests – it’s about everything these roads bring with them. Protect our forests from clear-cutting, drilling, and further development by protesting the rollback of this important rule.
While the State of Colorado has its own Roadless Rule, which will provide some protections from this federal action, it is still critical to make comments in support of public lands throughout the rest of the western states.
Here's how YOU can help:
Submit a comment to the Forest Service in support of keeping the existing Roadless Rule. Comments are due September 21st!
Use our sample comment at the bottom of the page to guide your own!
Ask your friends to do the same. We are trying to collectively reach one million public comments in favor of the Roadless Rule.
What’s at Stake
The proposed rollback elimination of the 2001 Roadless Rule jeopardizes nearly 45 million acres of undeveloped backcountry forestland managed by the U.S. Forest Service, comprising around a third of the territory in our national forest system. These forests have only remained intact because of the Forest Service’s nearly 25-year-old commitment not to build roads in these areas for harmful activities like major logging operations or oil-and-gas drilling.
Areas, in dark green, that would lose protections under the proposed rule rescission.
What the Roadless Rule Protects
Habitat for Imperiled Species
The lands in question include lower-elevation forests, wetlands, canyons and other undeveloped lands that are critical to our nation’s ecological health. Because they are not fragmented by roads, these Roadless Areas provide habitat for many imperiled species such as California condors, grizzly bears and wolves in the Yellowstone area, native salmon and trout in the Pacific Northwest, migratory songbirds in the Appalachian hardwoods and more. They also sustain wild salmon, especially in Alaska where they are the lifeblood for both the fishing industry and traditional subsistence practices of Indigenous communities.
America’s Drinking Water
The US National Forests are the headwaters of our great rivers and the largest source of municipal water supply in the nation, serving over 60 million people in 3,400 communities in 33 states. Roads are a major cause of water pollution. Because it protects these headwaters, the 2001 Roadless Rule is vital for maintaining clean drinking water for communities across the country. Major U.S. cities including Los Angeles, Portland, Denver, and Atlanta receive a significant portion of their water supply from national forests.
Subsistence and Cultural Values
Increased industrial activity in roadless areas would also jeopardize culturally-important sites and subsistence use areas. These spaces are critical to food security for many indigenous communities as well as for sustaining cultural practices, including hunting, fishing, and gathering forest plants for food, medicine, and traditional arts.
Protecting Migration Corridors and Game Habitat
Roads fragment habitat and degrade migration corridors that game species like elk and mule deer rely on. Protected roadless areas help ensure these migratory game corridors remain intact and protected from roads and the industrial development roads enable.
Recreation Spots are at Risk
Since 2001, protected roadless areas have offered abundant outdoor recreation opportunities such as hunting, fishing, camping or other activities. Every year, millions of people take advantage of the free (or extremely affordable) access to these public lands. According to maps from Outdoor Alliance’s GIS Lab, roadless areas protect 11,337 climbing routes and boulder problems, more than 1,000 whitewater paddling runs, 43,826 miles of trail, and 20,298 mountain biking trails. Large sections of the Continental Divide, Pacific Crest, and Appalachian National Trails traverse protected roadless areas.
Recreation Spots at Risk:
11,337
43,826
20,298
Sample Comment
Intro
My name is {YOUR NAME}, and I live in {YOUR CITY/TOWN/STATE}. I am submitting this public comment today to strongly urge the USDA to select Alternative A – the No Action Alternative – in the 2001 Roadless Rule Rescission Draft Environmental Impact Statement. This Alternative would preserve the 2001 Roadless Rule.
PERSONALIZE THIS SECTION – Your Connection to Roadless Areas
- Have you visited Roadless Areas across the West? What did those experiences mean to you?
- Check out the interactive map viewer to see areas impacted by the proposed rescission:https://experience.arcgis.com/experience/c6122042b4ae46c9b323306912e8b40e/page/Review-%26-Edit-Data?views=Map-Layers
- Do you care about the many public resources safeguarded by roadless areas like clean drinking water, wildlife habitat, recreation access, and cultural and archaeological sites?
- Do you camp, hunt, fish, run, hike, ride, paddle, climb or otherwise explore the thousands of recreation opportunities in Roadless Areas?
- Do you have a cultural, spiritual, or ancestral connection to Roadless Areas?
- Why do these areas deserve protection, in your own words?
Points to hit – pick what feels meaningful to you
I ask the USDA to address the {any/all of the following – select what feels meaningful to you} problems before any decision is made:
- Vital for America’s Drinking Water: The US National Forests are the headwaters of our great rivers and the largest source of municipal water supply in the nation, serving over 60 million people in 3,400 communities in 33 states.
- Recreation Spots at Risk: Since 2001, protected roadless areas have offered abundant outdoor recreation opportunities such as hunting, fishing, camping or other activities. Every year, millions of people take advantage of the free (or extremely affordable) access to these public lands. According to maps from Outdoor Alliance’s GIS Lab, roadless areas protect 11,337 climbing routes and boulder problems, more than 1,000 whitewater paddling runs, 43,826 miles of trail, and 20,298 mountain biking trails. Large sections of the Continental Divide, Pacific Crest, and Appalachian National Trails traverse protected roadless areas.
- Important for Protecting Migration Corridors and Game Habitat: Roads fragment habitat and degrade migration corridors that game species like elk and mule deer rely on. Protected roadless areas help ensure these migratory game corridors remain intact and protected from roads and the industrial development roads enable.
- Millions Support the Roadless Rule: The Roadless Rule is a highly popular policy that is often celebrated as one of America’s most successful conservation measures. Prior to its enactment, more than 600 public hearings were held nationwide, and 1.6 million Americans weighed in to call for protection of these forestlands. More recently, more than 45 members of the House and Senate have signed onto legislation that would codify the Roadless Rule so that in the future, it could not be rolled back without an act of Congress.
- Policy Has Built-In Exceptions: The Roadless Rule is extremely flexible and allows for necessary forest management and the construction of roads as needed to address fires, floods, or other catastrophic events, and other circumstances like the need to connect communities. National forest managers routinely conduct forest stewardship activities within roadless areas such as prescribed burning and wildlife habitat improvement activities.
Sign off!
For these reasons, I urge the BLM to select Alternative A and retain the existing protections for Roadless Areas.
Thank you for considering my comment.
[YOUR NAME]
[YOUR CITY/TOWN, STATE]
[Optional: YOUR RELEVANT AFFILIATION — e.g., Tribal member, local business owner, public lands user, scientist, etc.]
Questions?
Contact Public Lands Program Manager John Rader at john@sanjuancitizens.org.
