Page - April 28, 2005
If you table at an event or hit the streets collecting comments, it is helpful to have facts available about the Roadless Rule. Here are some key points.
- The Roadless Area Conservation Rule is a Forest Service regulation that protects some of the last remnants of old-growth forests from being logged. These are the "last, best places" and by proposing to repeal the Rule, the Forest Service is putting industry profits above their protection.
- More than 2 million people submitted comments in favor of the Roadless Rule when it was first proposed. By proposing to overturn it, the Forest Service is ignoring the will of the public.
- 58.5 million roadless acres could be opened to logging if the Rule is repealed. These areas are critical habitat for animals like mountain lions, grizzly bears, and wild salmon and trout.
- Roadless areas are roadless for a reason - they're usually the steepest and most inaccessible parts of the forest. Logging in these areas not only costs more, it's more likely to cause erosion, which leads to landslides and polluted fishing streams.
- Only 4% of the US timber supply comes from public lands, and only 6% of that comes from roadless areas (official Forest Service statistics). Ending all logging on public lands would not precipitate any sort of "supply crisis." The timber industry perpetuates this myth because they prefer subsidized logging on public lands to unsubsidized logging on their own lands.
- Roadbuilding in National Forests is a form of corporate welfare. The taxpayers pay to construct the roads, and the companies make the profit. The Forest Service often spends more to build the roads than the timber company pays for the trees. Essentially, taxpayers are paying the logging companies to log.
- National forests are important because they provide clean drinking water for communities, habitat for thousands of plant and animal species, and opportunities for tourism and recreation like fishing, hiking, and camping. They are a public trust too valuable to be logged.
- The Roadless Rule was signed into effect in 2001 after three years of intensive negotiations among government, industry and environmental groups. It already represents a compromise.