Cheoah River in Nanthahala National Forest, North Carolina | Alan Cressler
Defend Roadless Rule Protections for your Clean Water, Rivers, and Wildlife
This week marks the 25th anniversary of the Roadless Rule - this rule is the sole protection for 94,000 miles of rivers on public lands, which includes drinking water sources for major U.S. cities, including Denver, Colorado, Bozeman, Montana, and Atlanta, Georgia.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture recently announced it is seeking to roll back the Roadless Rule which would be the single largest rollback of protections for rivers in U.S. history -- putting clean water and freshwater habitat at serious risk.
Join us in urging members of Congress to defend the Roadless Rule and ensure protection for almost 45 millions acres of federal National Forests.
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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.
