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Dear NRDC Activist,
California's Tahoe National Forest... Minnesota's Boundary Waters... the Appalachian Trail... vital sections of these awe-inspiring public lands are now all at risk.
The Trump administration is pushing to open nearly 60 million acres of national forests to disastrous logging and road building by repealing the Roadless Rule, which has long blocked polluting companies from trashing these iconic lands.
The administration will be seeking public comments on their ruinous proposal for just a few days. We need as many people as possible to speak out NOW — can I count on you to help?
We are not letting our forests go without a fight. Submit your comment right away.
Gutting the Roadless Rule would:
- Endanger wildlife habitat: Home to many imperiled species like jaguars, grizzly bears, wolves, and salmon that NRDC has spent years protecting, these largely untouched lands serve as critical habitat and refuges from climate change.
- Jeopardize mature and old-growth trees: The rule has played a vital role in protecting old-growth forests across the country, including Alaska’s Tongass National Forest, the world’s largest intact temperate rainforest and the nation’s largest old-growth forest.
- Imperil recreation areas: Every year, millions of Americans explore the unparalleled beauty of forests protected by the Roadless Rule to hike, hunt, camp, fish, climb, and paddle.
- Threaten drinking water sources: These wildlands capture, filter, and channel clean drinking water for millions of Americans.
- Worsen climate change: It takes decades to regrow large, mature trees that capture and store the most carbon. Those trees are also the most targeted for logging; if we lose them, we lose a critical tool in fighting the climate crisis.
- Fail to safeguard communities from wildfire: Repealing the Roadless Rule is not a wildfire “solution” — research indicates that more roads are associated with more fires.
Make no mistake: This is yet another assault on public lands to make corporations richer while the rest of us, and our planet, bear the consequences.
Too much is at stake if we give away our forests to industrial logging companies. Act now!
NRDC’s legal team is considering all of our options to fight back against threats to our forested public lands, including going to court. We’ve been defending the Roadless Rule and the unparalleled forestland it safeguards for decades. We have no intention of stopping. But to make that happen, we need your help to quickly mobilize a massive public outcry in defense of our shared forests.
Our forests are for all of us, not for corporate polluters.
Send your urgent message in defense of our cherished forests.
Sincerely,
Garett Rose
Senior Attorney, Nature, NRDC
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