by Catarina Conran

Since June, the USDA has been working to rescind the 2001 Roadless Area Conservation Rule (better known as the "roadless rule"), a landmark protection that has safeguarded nearly 45 million acres of the nation’s last undeveloped forest lands from roads and logging for a quarter of a century. Despite USDA's claims that the roadless rule hinders wildfire prevention and restricts economic development in rural areas, environmental advocates view this rollback as a serious threat to conservation efforts. Rescinding the roadless rule would fragment essential wildlife habitats, putting hundreds of endangered species at risk, polluting drinking water relied upon by millions of Americans, and quadrupling the risk of human-caused wildfires. Removing the protection of the roadless rule places national forests—the very heart of biodiversity in the US—at significant risk and will have serious consequences for many of the threatened species that are close to our hearts, including the gray wolf and the grizzly bear.

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Coming Soon!

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