Unless you have buried your head in the sand — easier to do nowadays with the dust from the Great Salt Lake — you will know that the earth is getting hotter and the heat has repercussions: hotter days, more fires, drought, less snow, diminished and possibly lower quality water supply. The list goes on.
Regardless of this, Trump continues to slash wind and solar projects in favor of coal and fossil fuels, the dirtiest fuels and those most responsible for our current weather and droughts. But in his disregard for the climate, he’s added another threat: the rescission of the Roadless Rule, a 2001 rule protecting our local watersheds and old growth forests (those amazing structures that store carbon, provide beauty and homes for many species, and actually help protect us from fires).
Roads also cause more fires as most fires happen near roads. If the roadless rule is rescinded, you will find some of your favorite areas — in places like Big, Little, Mill Creek and American Fork canyons; in vast sections of the Uinta Mountains; in southern Utah, near Moab and Monticello in Dixie, Wasatch, Uinta National forests — crossed with trucks full of logs (estimates of 75,000 nationally each year) bumping down the mountain sides, the noise of chain saws and limited access.
Trump wants to increase timber production 25% under the guise of another emergency and the false claim to protect from fires, but the forest service may access roadless areas for fire mitigation work. And roads are expensive to maintain. The forest service already has more than 386,000 miles of system roads with a budget to maintain 20 - 40%.
Tell our Utah delegates you want them to protect these iconic areas across the nation. Vote for the Roadless Rule Conservation Act, not rescission, to secure the RR into law.
Patricia Becnel, Ogden
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