Roadless Rule Comments Due Jan 24th!
Hi folks! Elsa here. Speaking up for the natural world and all of its magic, and gifts, has always been an empowering and meaningful experience for me. Speaking up has forced me to face my insecurities, overcome a speech impediment, and resist apathy and laziness. Although challenging, these things have been major positives in my life, and that’s a big part of the reason why I feel confident asking other people to get involved with protecting the Tongass.
The Roadless Rule has been part of my life for decades (check out this old blog post about my first visit to DC as a “bush kid”), and I’ve learned a few things along the way. In this post I’m going to share some ideas for how you can engage right now to protect the Tongass. Believe me, I know that these things are never as easy as they might seem in writing. It takes a lot of work and courage to speak up for wild places, especially if you’ve never been able to visit them in person. Thank you for standing strong for the Tongass. Read on for action ideas and tips for submitting a public comment!
The Tongass. Photo: Colin Arisman
There are just two weeks left to submit a comment to the US Forest Service in support of protecting 9-million acres of Roadless forests in the Tongass.
For those of us who want to keep ancient trees standing in the Tongass … now is the time to get our boogie on! Here are three ways you can take action right now:
Submit a public comment. Personalize your comment by sharing your unique perspective and specific concerns. Personalized comments carry the most weight! Submit via the form on our Take Action page, and we’ll send it straight to the US Forest Service. See below for tips on submitting an impactful public comment.
Host an Understory screening party. Understory is yours to share with friends, family, students and colleagues. In these last couple weeks of the comment period, host a screening of Understory for the people in your life. Ask screening attendees to submit a public comment on behalf of the Tongass. Download our Advocacy Guide on our Take Action page to help you organize a screening!
Share on social media. Let your social networks know that the public comment period for Roadless Tongass is open until January 24th! Send folks to our take action page so they can get involved. www.laststands.org/action
We need to stop clearcutting oldgrowth. Dr. Natalie Dawson in the Tongass. Photo: Colin Arisman
Here’s a bit of background on the Roadless Rule:
The Roadless Rule is more than 20 years old; it was first established in 2001 to protect 58 million acres of roadless forests across the nation. Roadless national forests are simply that: the last remaining forests in our nation that aren’t crisscrossed by logging roads. These forests safeguard drinking water supplies, and provide communities with hunting, fishing and recreation opportunities. The intent of the Roadless Rule is to provide lasting protection for these areas by prohibiting road construction and timber harvesting.
Over half of the large-tree forest in the Tongass has been logged, and the Roadless Rule has proven essential for protecting some of the last stands of ancient trees and keeping fish and wildlife populations in balance.
In 2018, the USDA and accepted a petition from the State of Alaska requesting that the agency exempt the Tongass National Forest from the Roadless Rule. The USDA and US Forest Service worked quickly under political pressure from the Trump Administration to undo protections for the Tongass, but the public comment they received was overwhelmingly in favor of keeping Roadless Rule in place for the Tongass. The US Forest Service ignored the public will, and deferred to the interests of industrial logging companies – the Tongass was exempted from the Roadless Rule just a month before Trump left office.
On November 23, 2021, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) published its proposal to reinstate the Roadless Rule for the Tongass. You can find this proposal and the Environmental Impact Statement it references here: https://www.regulations.gov/docket/FS-2021-0007/document
The public has until January 24, 2022 to comment on the current proposal to reinstate the Roadless Rule for the Tongass.
It’s very important to submit a unique comment. The US Forest Service and other federal agencies will often consider all form letter comments to be ONE comment, even if there are thousands of them. Taking the time to write an individual comment means that your comment will be printed in the public record and counted as “unique”.
The US Forest Service is very clear that a public comment period is not a “voting” period. However, when you submit a public comment it becomes part of the public record, and that information is quantified to influence other decision makers. With big enough numbers, politicians will see that people across the nation want to see the end of clearcut logging in the Tongass. Hopefully this will dissuade pro-development politicians from trying to undo conservation protections for the last stands of ancient trees in the Tongass.
Here are some tips for submitting public comments:
Reference the proposed action. If you can take the time, look at the draft Environmental Impact Statement. At the very least, make sure to state that you “support reinstating Roadless Rule protections for the Tongass”
Make your comments specific, and focus on facts over feelings. Here are some examples. If you care about climate change: describe how climate change is impacting your life and community, and include facts/statistics about how Roadless forests in the Tongass plays a role in regulating the climate. If you eat wild salmon from Alaska: explain how protecting salmon streams in Roadless forests in the Tongass is critical to the sustainable future of commercial fishing in Alaska (and keeps delicious wild salmon on your plate!).
Bring your expertise to the table. If you are an economist, a scientist, or a student of indigenous or environmental law, do your best to bring informed perspective to the process. Look at the section of the Environmental Impact Statement that addresses your area of expertise, and try to bring additional information to build on the facts in the EIS.
Remember the public record is important! Don’t be intimidated by the process just because you don’t have specific expertise or an easily defined relationship to the Tongass. These are public lands, and adding your voice to the public record is important.
