Defend Roadless Rule Protections for your Clean Water, Rivers, and Wildlife

Cheoah River in Nanthahala National Forest, North Carolina | Alan Cressler

The U.S. Department of Agriculture has announced it is seeking to roll back the Roadless Rule, which is the sole protection for 94,000 miles of rivers on public lands. This includes drinking water sources for cities including Denver and Albuquerque.

Rolling back this rule would be the single largest rollback of protections for rivers in U.S. history -- putting clean water and freshwater habitat at serious risk. We only have until September 19th to submit comments to the USDA.

What is the Roadless Rule?
For over two decades, the Roadless Rule has prohibited the construction of new roads and commercial logging in “inventoried roadless areas" on National Forests, centering watershed protection as a core pillar of the Forest Service’s mission.

What are the drinking water, wildlife, and fire protection benefits?
Areas protected by the existing rule have tremendous importance for drinking water, fish and wildlife, outdoor recreation, and many other values Americans hold dear. Roadless areas protect the supply, quality, and reliability of drinking water for millions of Americans.

They are also essential for recovering and maintaining declining wildlife populations. For example, western native trout have declined dramatically, with most species now occupying less than 5% of their historic range. Five of the eight species of western native trout rely on roadless areas for more than half of their habitat, while one species, the Gila Trout, depends on roadless areas for 99% of its habitat.

When it comes to managing for wildfire risk, if we build more roads we will have more wildfires. Research shows that wildfires were four times as likely to start in areas with roads than in roadless forest tracks and across the country, over 90% of all wildfires occurred within a half mile of a road.

Tell the U.S. Department of Agriculture: do not rescind the Roadless Rule.

*We will ensure your information and comment is uploaded to regulations.gov by the Sept 19 comment deadline.

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Dear {contact_data~salutation},

I urge you not to rescind the Roadless Rule. The almost 45 million acres of roadless forests across our country are critically important for the nation’s supply of clean water.

Roadless areas support drinking water for millions of Americans and a multi-billion-dollar outdoor recreation economy.  They provide refuge for endangered wildlife, including native trout, and filter clean water. People hunt, fish, hike, and boat in both these remote, wild places and in the clean rivers and streams provided by the protection of their headwater forests.

Rolling back the Roadless Rule endangers important American values including access to public lands and waters.

We cannot jeopardize clean water, the outdoor recreation economy, and critical wildlife habitat by exposing almost 45 million forest acres to roadbuilding, commercial logging, mining, drilling and other extractive, industrial development. The Roadless Rule must remain in place for clean water and healthy rivers nationwide.  
 
Sincerely,

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