Setting a new federal policy-making record, more than 1.4 million Americans sent comments to the Forest Service in full support of the Roadless Area Conservation Rule - a forest conservation measure that protects America's last wild National Forests from commercial road building.

However, the Bush Administration halted its implementation and is attempting to weaken or destroy the important conservation measure. And to this end, the administration has started a new comment period.

The Administration has not proposed any specific changes to be addressed, but asks for public input on 10 loaded questions that primarily revisit myths generated by a small, special-interest minority of logging, mining and oil and gas industries that oppose roadless area protection. The Forest Service has made it clear that responding to these specific questions is optional and that all comments regarding Roadless Areas will be considered. Therefore, your comments can address all, some, or none of the issues raised by the Forest Service.

Below you will find: addresses, tips for letter writing, the ten loaded questions, and a sample letter that addresses each. Keep in mind that, by taking the time to write and mail a personal letter, your comments will be much more effective than a form letter or postcard.

Your support for wild forests is extremely important.

Thanks

Send your letter to:

USDA Forest Service - CAT
Attn: Roadless Comments
PO Box 221090
Salt Lake City UT 84112

via email: roadless_anpr@fs.fed.us
via fax: (801)296-4090

If possible, please send a courtesy copy of your letter to Biodiversity Associates: mail: PO Box 6032, Laramie, WY 82070 email: ebonds@voiceforthewild.org

Tips

Any comment letter will carry much more weight with decision makers if it includes personal information. For example, if you've visited roadless areas, you should mention those experiences in your letter. If your livelihood or your recreational interests depend on healthy, wild forests, mention that too. We strongly encourage you to modify the sample letter below, adding your personal touch. Remember: An individualized letter is worth a hundred form letters.

The Bush Administration's Ten Loaded Questions

QUESTION 1: What is the appropriate role of local forest planning as required by NFMA in evaluating protection and management of Inventoried Roadless Areas?

QUESTION 2: What is the best way for the Forest Service to work with the variety of States, tribes, local communities, other organizations, and individuals in a collaborative manner to ensure that concerns about roadless values are heard and addressed through a fair and open process?

QUESTION 3: How should inventoried roadless areas be managed to provide for healthy forests, including protection from severe wildfires and the buildup of hazardous fuels as well as to provide for the detection and prevention of insect and disease outbreak?

QUESTION 4: How should communities and private property near Inventoried Roadless Areas be protected from the risks associated with natural events, such as major wildfires that may occur on adjacent federal lands?

QUESTION 5: What is the best way to implement the laws that ensure States, tribes, organizations, and private citizens have reasonable access to property they own within Inventoried Roadless Areas?

QUESTION 6: What are the characteristics, environmental values, social and economic considerations, and other factors the Forest Service should consider as it evaluates IRAs?

QUESTION 7: Are there specific activities that should be expressly prohibited or expressly allowed for Inventoried Roadless Areas through Forest Plan revisions or amendments?

QUESTION 8: Should Inventoried Roadless Areas selected for future roadless protection through the local forest plan revision process be proposed to Congress for wilderness designation, or should they be maintained under a specific designation for roadless area management under the forest plan?

QUESTION 9: How can the Forest Service work effectively with individuals and groups with strongly competing views, values, and beliefs in evaluating and managing public lands and resources, recognizing that the agency cannot meet all of the desires of all the parties?

QUESTION 10: What other concerns, comments, or interests relating to the protection and management of inventoried roadless areas are important?

Sample Letter

Dear Chief Bosworth:

I am writing to support the Forest Service’s Roadless Area Conservation Rule as it was published in the Federal Register on January 12, 2001. This policy would protect over 330,000 acres on the Medicine Bow.

Protecting Wyoming’s roadless areas is important to me because_______. [You may want to fill in your personal thoughts here.]

Local forest planning has failed to provide adequate protection of roadless areas. Local forest planning has resulted in the destruction of 2.8 million acres of roadless areas nationwide over the past 20 years. Under current plans, new roads could be built in the great majority of roadless areas in Wyoming. The Roadless Rule is needed to prevent further incremental loss of roadless areas.

The Roadless Rule was developed through the most extensive public involvement in the history of federal rulemaking or environmental review. The Forest Service held more than 600 public hearings throughout the country, including many in Wyoming. More than 1.6 million Americans submitted official comments, of which more than 90 percent supported the strongest possible protection for remaining roadless areas. The states, tribes, local communities, and the general public had ample opportunity to review and comment on the proposal.

The Bush Administration must stop perpetuating the lie that healthy forests are not dependent upon fire, insect, and mistletoe outbreaks. Even if it was possible, the suppression of these natural processes would be disastrous for forest ecosystems. Too often, fire and bugs have been used by forest managers to justify huge industrial timber sales. Now the same justification is being used to prevent the implementation of one of the most important conservation measures in the last twenty years.

The Roadless Rule has no effect on access to private land inholdings. The Bush administration should not be perpetuating the myth that the Rule denies access to property inholdings.

Road building and commercial logging should be completetly prohibited in roadless areas.

Roadless areas provide less than two-tenths of one percent of the nation's timber supply. The real economic value of national forests comes from recreation and environmental quality of life.

Roadless areas in the Rocky Mountains are not a major domestic source of oil and gas; these areas contain only four-tenths of one percent of the nation's oil resources and six-tenths of one percent of U.S. gas resources. Protecting roadless areas will not have a significant impact on the nation’s energy supplies.

The Roadless Rule enjoys the overwhelming support of the American people. While some people disagree with the Rule, the Bush administration needs to respect the expressed views of the vast majority.

The Roadless Area Conservation Rule should be retained and implemented as is. In particular, the Forest Service should stop preparing timber sales in the Tongass National Forest and in Wyoming that are in violation of the Roadless Rule. The administration also should stop undermining the legality of the Rule and begin mounting a vigorous defense against lawsuits challenging the Rule.

Signed,