"For nearly 25 years, the Roadless Rule has frustrated land managers and served as a barrier to action prohibiting road construction, which has limited wildfire suppression and active forest management,"
"The law of unintended consequences is a very real law,"
"One of the most fundamental concepts in fire, especially in terms of fire geography, is that roads are the dominant place where you see ignitions,"
The Trump administration seeks to rescind the 2001 Roadless Rule to allow road construction across nearly 60 million acres of national forest. The rollback is presented as a means to improve access for wildfire suppression and enable more active forest management. Road creation typically increases human presence, which raises ignition risk, and alters canopy and ground vegetation, favoring non-native plants. A 2020 Forest Service Rocky Mountain Research Station study found non-native plants are about twice as common within 500 feet of roads. Fire scientists warn that expanding road networks can unintentionally increase wildfire frequency and ecological disruption.
Read at www.npr.org
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