Stand up for the Roadless Rule – Emerald Curtain Collective

Why this Matters

For more than twenty years the Roadless Area Conservation Rule has kept road building, logging, and mining out of about 45 million acres of national forest. The administration is moving to repeal it, citing fire risk and timber value, and neither reason holds up well under examination. Oregon carries some of the largest roadless acreage in the country. On this coast that means the undeveloped backcountry of the Siuslaw, where cold clean water runs down to coho spawning gravel and where marbled murrelets still find canopy old enough to nest in. More than 600,000 people spoke up for this rule last time. The Forest Service has not opened its comment docket yet, and Sierra Club expects a window of only 14 days once it does, so they are gathering comments now to deliver the moment it opens.

Steps to Take

Step 1

Add your comment through Sierra Club's Roadless Rule action page. They will hold what you write and file it when the Forest Service opens the docket.

Step 2

Write from where you stand. A comment that says "I live in Waldport and I fish the Alsea" carries weight that a form letter does not.

Step 3

Make the fire argument yourself if it fits. Roadless backcountry is not what burns hottest, and the mature trees targeted for logging are the ones most likely to survive a fire.

Step 4

Watch for the docket to open. The formal window is expected to be short, so a second comment filed directly at that point is worth the few minutes it takes.

Sample Text

Option 1

I am writing in support of keeping the Roadless Area Conservation Rule intact. I live on the Oregon Coast, where the forests behind our towns feed the streams our salmon return to. Roadless country is not empty country. It is where the water stays cold, where elk winter, and where marbled murrelets find trees old enough to hold a nest. Roads bring sediment into streams and open the door to logging that no amount of replanting undoes within a human lifetime. Please leave this rule alone.

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Option 2

Repealing the Roadless Rule would open 45 million acres to development for the first time in over twenty years, and the justifications offered do not survive scrutiny. Logging mature and old-growth trees removes the most fire-resilient part of a forest. I supported this rule when it was last reviewed and I support it now. Please listen to the hundreds of thousands of Americans who have said the same thing.