Roadless Rule: Impacts to Wildlife and Wildlife Habitat

• National Wildlife Federation
• Nov 12, 2004

This report describes how the decision to allow development of roads in previously roadless areas of our public lands will have lasting impacts. The change in protection status of these nearly 60 million acres will result in development that will not only change the landscape, but will have serious consequences to wildlife. The inevitable consequences of this decision is that lands which currently provide prime habitat for a multitude of wildlife will soon be carved by roads, clearcuts, power lines, pipelines, off-road vehicles trails, and other incidents of human development. The impacts of this decision are far reaching and will have a cumulative effect on our landscape. Ecologists studying the cumulative effects of development on wildlife have found that while each single land use change results in a negligible impact, the accumulation of these individual changes over time and within a landscape or region may constitute a major impact.