A Record of Protest

Let’s leave a record that we care about our forests and lands.

Please post a comment to support Roadless Rules.

There are numerous reasons why we shouldn’t be building additional roads through our forests!

Here’s a revised version of my comment on the Federal Register.

What will yours say?

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Note: if you’ve previously been in a car accident or have lost someone, the following text may bring up strong emotions and feelings.

Motor Vehicle Accidents to Increase Without Roadless Rules

Vehicle  fatalities are a particularly layered consequence of turning back the Roadless Rule.

In the long run, rescinding the Roadless Rule will have an adverse impact on animals and humans.

Many families depend on hunting animals for food. Hunting, hiking, camping, and fishing create family bonds. Humans use existing forest roads frequently for these activities. More roads will dramatically increase the incidence of death for animals and humans.

Crossing Safely is Possible

Animals frequently cross highways to get to adjacent habitats. A study done by Chequamegon-Nicolet National Forest Service in 2023 documented twenty-two elk deaths after getting hit by a car between 2015 and 2022 in the Black River Elk Range. In contrast, a study was done in Utah, where they actually built a forest-bridge over a highway, among other crossings.  The success of the bridge is astounding as it considerably cut down on vehicle crashes and deaths since its construction in 2018. Moose, who use the bridge, reduced 100% of their species’ deaths by routing themselves across this bridge. Utah’s Division of Wildlife Resources documents how many animals cross the highways in and around their national parks. Utah and other states also use tunnels and fences to help protect wildlife and humans.

The data collected from cameras tells us that animals learn where to cross and that new highways will cause confusion to already established patterns of migration for different species, causing more unsafe road conditions.

Without such measurements, wildlife has no protection against cars and trucks, other than not building new roads.

Widespread Impacts of Road Safety on Human Social and Health Issues

For humans, accidents on any new road are more frequent as drivers adjust to turns and blind spots. Traffic fatalities continue to be the leading cause of human deaths in the United States according to the Department of Transportation’s 2025 Progress Report. The DOT reported that the traffic fatality rate in 2021 per million miles traveled was 1.5 times higher in rural areas than in urban areas, higher speed limits of the rural routes leave drivers and animals vulnerable on the roadways. 

Opening more roads through the forest will put our loved ones in jeopardy. In July of this year, an 18-year-old girl in Wyoming died when her friend’s car hit an elk, three others in the car were admitted to the hospital. The fatality was the 59th highway death in Wyoming, which has a very low human population. The kids in the car, their families, and classmates will face new challenges. There is never true preparation for grieving the death of a loved one, even when it is expected with illness.

Tragedies propel addiction and grief. Family deaths lead to poor life outcomes says a study done by the National Library of Medicine, July 2021 (Linked Lives and Childhood Experience of Family Death on Educational Attainment). These poor outcomes lead to higher unemployment rates.

Drivers that survive car accidents can undergo crippling medical costs, incur a disability, and endure trauma. These traumas prevent survivors from returning to the workplace and supporting their families, causing further community hardships as outlined in the Science Direct study Psychological   Consequences of motor vehicle accidents: a systematic review, from 2022.

Consequences include post traumatic stress disorder including flashbacks that interrupt quality of sleep, the ability to drive to appointments and jobs, and performance at employment they’ve previously been successful at.

Conclusion

I strongly urge the agency to implement stronger measures to protect wildlife and humans. Using and improving well known routes will help keep all families—humans and wildlife—intact and their communities thriving. I urge the creation of more crossing structures such as the ones in Utah to dramatically decrease incidents. Please keep forests intact and do not allow animal and human deaths to skyrocket.

Further Considerations

Continuous impacts on commerce result from roadways shutting down due to large accidents and create hazards for highway workers.

Check out Utah structures here!

Opinion

Rolling back protections for these lands and wildlife is an act of anthropocentrism at its worst. When humans feel they are superior to other life, decisions are made that in turn cause humans more suffering. We are treading the path of taking the ecosystem and all living creatures down with us.

(Authors note: It’s not suggestive in the The U.S. Department of Agriculture proposal that we will be building crossings along with the new plans for this land that include mining and logging, which practices fall short of protecting old growth trees and water. The site says “Project decisions must comply with applicable Federal and State laws, such as the Clean Water Act, the Clean Air Act, Endangered Species Act, National Historic Preservation Act, and the Wilderness Act.” But many sacred things in the woods are not labeled nor inventoried, and Indigenous People’s religious sites are not included in this list—so this does not promise enough protections, especially when they use ominous and vague words like Unleashing Alaska’s Extraordinary Resource Potential. The truth is we are deforesting and polluting this planet. Focusing our efforts on reusing, recycling, reducing waste, and switching to sustainable resources instead of seeking new ones at such high costs is part of what will help all life flourish.)

If you’ve read my whole post, all I have left to say is please, please put your comment in now. Let’s record how much we oppose these ideas. Let’s record that we understand what’s at stake. This is much broader than DOT stats, everyone has at least one reason why they want to protect the Roadless Rule. What’s yours?

There are only 102,000 comments. Please comment before 9/19/2025.