Dismantling the Roadless Rule threatens to disrupt wildlife and water in US
Lands free of roads are under threat from the Trump administration’s proposed rollback.
Lands free of roads are under threat from the Trump administration’s proposed rollback.
The short version
- Chances are, somewhere in the background, is the ever-present hum of a road.
- More than 4.2 million miles of public roads crisscross the lower 48 states—enough to reach the Moon and back almost nine times.
- This vast network of roads spiderwebs its way across the contiguous US, leaving only about 5 percent as an inventoried roadless area or wilderness .
What happened
Now, some of those last remaining lands free of roads are under threat from the Trump administration’s proposed rollback of the 2001 Roadless Rule . That includes southeast Alaska’s Tongass National Forest , where eagles, bears, salmon, and many other species thrive in old-growth coastal forest along the Inside Passage.
Why it matters
In announcing its plan , the administration said rescinding the rule would remove prohibitions on road construction and logging on nearly 59 million acres of national forest, arguing that the rule slowed economic development.
Summary by Nerd News Network. Read the full article at Ars Technica via the links above and below.