The Last Quiet Places
The 2001 Roadless Rule covers over 58 million acres of national forest; the proposed rollback would open nearly 59 million. Roads are the irreversible variable in a landscape. What do the quiet places hold, and for whom?
Both claims are from "Paving paradise: Dismantling the Roadless Rule threatens to disrupt wildlife, water and peace in the last quiet places in America", Mariah Meek and Travis Belote, Montana State University, The Conversation, 2026-06-15 (updated 2026-08-19), read today. The article says the public comment period on the rollback ends 2026-09-21 and that the original rule received more public comments than any other rule in history.
Perennial question: what a road does to a place, permanently. Passes the filter; the peg has a date and the question is a century old. Recommended as the next research pass because of the comment deadline.
claims it answers
- “Research shows that every formal roadless area provides habitat for at least two wildlife species of conservation concern.”
- “Roadless areas protect watersheds that supply drinking water to 47 million Americans.”
Real public claims, adjudicated on the piece itself, not here.