WE have until September 21 to save America’s Roadless Forests.
After you click “send this letter,” organizers will submit it to the US Forest Service as a public comment and email it to your Senate & Representative offices based on your zip code.
For more on what’s happening, scroll past it.
Chief Schultz,
The Roadless Area Conservation Rule should not be rescinded or altered. The Rule should be kept in place so that Inventoried Roadless Areas can continue to provide the following benefits to the American public.
1. Vital Habitat for Imperiled Species: The lands in question include diverse forests, wetlands, canyons and other undeveloped lands that are critical to our nation's ecological health.
2. Protecting Migration Corridors and Habitat: Protected roadless areas help ensure that migratory game corridors for species such as elk and mule deer remain intact and protected from roads and the industrial development roads enable.
3. Vital for America’s Drinking Water: The US National Forests are the headwaters of many of our great rivers and one of the largest sources of municipal water supply in the nation, serving over 60 million people in 3,400 communities in 33 states.
4. Subsistence and Cultural Values: 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.
5. Outdoor Recreation: Roadless areas offer abundant outdoor recreation opportunities such as hunting, fishing, camping and other activities. Every year, millions of people take advantage of the free (or extremely affordable) access to these public lands.
Please do not rescind the Roadless Area Conservation Rule.
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If you provide a valid email address, organizers may send you an update about the Roadless Area Conservation Rule.
HERE’S THE LOWDOWN:
On June 23, Secretary Brooke Rollins announced that the USDA was planning rescinding the 2001 Roadless Rule.
On Aug 29, the USDA published a notice of intent, kicking off a 21 -day comment period which ends September 19. The scoping period set the stage for the rulemaking. This was our opportunity to inform the USDA about which issues are important and therefore, which issues they should address when developing the EIS. They received 625,000 public comments. 99% of the comments opposed rolling back the Roadless Rule.
The proposed rollback 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.
On August 18, the USDA proposed TO ELIMINATE one of the greatest protections for AMERICA’S most precious forests: the Roadless Rule.
Keeping The Roadless Rule makes sure forests can’t be destroyed by preventing the first step of the heaviest industrial practices: building roads through them.
Getting rid of the Roadless Rule would open these special areas to industry.
You can use this pre-written letter to tell the Forest Service what you think they should do.
Your letter will be electronically sent to the Forest Service and the Senators and Representatives for your zip code to make sure those who represent you will be more likely to protect forests no matter what.
When adding to the letter, write professionally, be honest, fact-based & pragmatic for the best results; or just send the pre-written letter as-is.