We Showed Up For Our Wild, Roadless Forests!
150+ Central Oregonians take collective action to protect beloved roadless landscapes.
Pro alpinist Graham Zimmerman spoke to the importance of protecting roadless public forestlands for recreation, community, and climate.
Central Oregon Daily News covered the event and interviewed Communications Manager Alex Hardison about the importance of creating civic space for public lands decision-making.
April 6 was a night for wild, roadless forests.
The Central Oregon community rocked up to OSU-Cascades en masse to learn about, celebrate, and take action for roadless areas at home and across the country.
Around here, that includes 200,000+ acres of national forestland and places like the Tumalo Creek watershed, the Eastern Cascade foothills west of Bend, Lookout Mountain in the Ochocos, and the forest surrounding Paulina and East Lakes (just to name a few).
Roadless 101
Since 2001, the Roadless Rule has protected nearly 60 million acres of our wildest and most intact public forests.
But now, the U.S. Department of Agriculture is moving to repeal this overwhelmingly-supported cornerstone of national forest policy—a move that would open roadless wildlands to road construction, development, and industrial logging.
Roadless areas support important wildlife habitat and migration corridors, preserve drinking water quality and watershed health, carry significant cultural value, and offer some of the finest outdoor recreation opportunities anywhere on our public lands.
Eight advocacy organizations representing a broad coalition of roadless user groups and public lands stakeholders collaborated to host this event and engage attendees who were coming to this roadless advocacy opportunity from unique perspectives:
Backcountry Hunters and Anglers
Central Oregon LandWatch
Great Old Broads for Wilderness
National Parks Conservation Association
Native Fish Society
Oregon Wild
Protect Our Winters
Sierra Club
Roadless Round-Up
We packed the Edward J. Ray Hall Atrium to hear from professional athletes, elected leaders, and generate a wave of meaningful public comments ahead of the upcoming Roadless Rule comment period.
Featured speakers included:
Former USFS Field Ranger Liz Crandall
Pro alpinist Graham Zimmerman
Pro skier Brody Leven
Pro cyclist Barry Wicks
Bend City Councilor Steve Platt
Oregon Senator Anthony Broadman
A special Roadless message from Representative Janelle Bynum via Field Staffer Mickey Harvey
Action Hour
After hearing from our speakers, attendees took the time to write over 150 unique and compelling public comments in support of roadless protections during a Community Action Hour.
We'll be submitting these comments to decision makers at the US Forest Service and US Department of Agriculture when the public comment period for the soon-to-be-released Draft Environmental Impact Statement on the proposed rescission of the Roadless Rule opens later in April.
What’s your favorite roadless area in Central Oregon?
Writing a public comment just hits different when you get to drop it into an oversized mailbox.
Couldn’t make it?
We’ll also make it possible for you to submit a comment online during the public comment period. It will likely be another intentionally short comment period designed to minimize public input—so we’ll need your help spreading the word and generating as many advocacy messages as possible!
Stay tuned, stay engaged, and stay hopeful for the future of our roadless forests and public lands!
Safe to say, this crew is wild about roadless forests!
