Rescinding the Roadless Rule would remove safeguards on cold, clean water and healthy, intact forests
When a steelhead angler is floating their home river or wading deep to reach the heart of their favorite run, they are trying to cross paths with powerful ocean-going fish returning to the stream where they were born and reared.
If it is a particularly big steelhead, there is a good chance they’ve made that incredible between the Pacific Ocean and freshwater multiple times, too.
In many watersheds throughout steelhead country, those critical spawning streams are protected by roadless areas on National Forests. And even if a steelhead isn’t returning that far upstream, there is a good chance that the water quality they need to thrive depends on intact, public roadless forests.
Background
Earlier this summer, the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) announced its intent to rescind the 2001 Roadless Area Conservation Rule, a federal protection tool that safeguards over 45 million acres of national forest lands across the United States, or almost 30 percent of all national forests.***
Steelheaders should use the opportunity to have their voice heard.
What’s At Stake?
The Roadless Rule is an administrative regulation that was established under the Clinton Administration in 2001 that prohibits new road construction and industrial-scale logging within the designated National Forest lands.
Think of roadless areas as the “in-betweens” to the wildness found in backcountry Wilderness areas and the front country in our national forests, where motorized trails and roads allow for easy and abundant access. Roadless areas can provide some of the best solitude and quality fishing and hunting opportunities, along with conserving intact habitat and protecting cold, clean water.
Many steelhead streams along the West Coast originate or are fed by flow from roadless areas within their watersheds. For example, this includes miles of streams and creeks in Alaska’s famed Tongass National Forest, the mountainous regions that make up many of the productive tributaries in the Skagit River watershed, and Oregon’s Rogue and North Umpqua summer steelhead fisheries.
How to Take Action
Now through September 19, the U.S. Forest Service is taking comments on the proposed repeal of the Roadless Rule. Please take a moment today to urge the USDA to keep the 2001 Roadless Rule in place and support the intact steelhead habitat and cold, clean water found throughout steelhead country.
TAKE ACTION: Protect Roadless Areas Throughout Steelhead Country
**While both Idaho (9.3 million acres) and Colorado (4.2 million acres) had federal lands that were protected under the original 2001 rule, since then both states have adopted their own state-specific roadless rules in 2008 and 2012, respectively, which are insulated from any potential impacts of the federal Roadless Rule repeal.