Local opinion: Arizona’s roadless forests deserve lasting protection

I write as a resident of Southern Arizona who looks at our mountains and forests and sees the legacy we are obligated to project.

Recently, the Trump Administration moved to rescind the 2001 Roadless Area Conservation Rule, a bedrock policy protecting over 45 million acres of national forest land from road construction and extractive industry. This commonsense rule was created by the US Forest Service 25 years ago with enormous public support to conserve our wildest national forests and stop frivolous spending. It’s not just environmental conservation; it’s also a fiscal conservation policy: the Forest Service faces a nearly $10 billion backlog in deferred maintenance for existing roads it cannot afford to maintain.

Congressman Juan Ciscomani now faces a choice that will define his legacy: stand up for the constituents and wildlands of Arizona’s 6th District, or remain silent while corporate interests carve up our heritage.

Representative Ciscomani joined the House Public Lands Caucus, but since doing so, he seems to have forgotten its purpose — to coalesce around protecting and defending public lands. He can demonstrate he understands that by working now to protect our national forests.

The proposed Roadless Rule repeal is a direct threat to the 1.17 million acres of roadless areas in Arizona, including precious landscapes within the Coronado and Tonto National Forests that fall under Congressman Ciscomani’s representation. If this rule falls, it will be a backroom deal for extractive industries.

This isn’t about our forests; it is about subsidizing logging and mining companies at the expense of some of our wildest landscapes. The administration has framed this as a wildfire prevention measure, yet the Forest Service’s own environmental review casts doubt on whether repealing the Roadless Rule would mitigate wildfires, and even suggests it could exacerbate ignitions ... Humans cause the majority of all wildfires, and of those, human-caused fires in national forests start within half a mile of a road. Roads do not stop fires; they facilitate starting them.

Building roads would fragment habitat in some of the most biologically diverse ecosystems in the Southwest, putting at risk threatened and endangered species including the Mexican spotted owl and the elusive jaguar. Building roads would threaten our water supply in the most arid state in the country. Our forests serve as important water filters and help to hold soil in place to limit erosion. Roads have the opposite effect. Excessive sediment could affect water intake locations that supply water to over 2 million people, including Native Tribes, putting Arizona’s drinking water at risk in some locations.

We ask Congressman Ciscomani to look beyond the current political moment and consider the principle of seven generations. As Indigenous teachings remind us, the decisions we make today must sustain the people who will walk this land seven generations from now. Do we want our great-grandchildren to inherit more landscapes lost to clear cuts and mining claims or one where the Gila monster still roams, and the waters run clean?

Congressman Ciscomani should try to be an “active member” of the Public Lands Caucus — he has a duty to protect Southern Arizona’s lands, air, and water. He should oppose the dismantling of the Roadless Rule and support legislation to codify these protections permanently. Southern Arizona deserves a real representative for our wild places and for the constituents who value them, not a representative in name only who stands aside while our natural heritage is sold to the highest bidder.