Dismantling the Roadless Rule threatens to disrupt wildlife and water in US
Dismantling the Roadless Rule threatens to disrupt wildlife and water in US
废除“无路规则”威胁到美国的野生动物与水资源
Pause for a moment and listen. What do you hear? Chances are, somewhere in the background, is the ever-present hum of a road. More than 4.2 million miles of public roads crisscross the lower 48 states—enough to reach the Moon and back almost nine times. This vast network of roads spiderwebs its way across the contiguous US, leaving only about 5 percent as an inventoried roadless area or wilderness. 停下来听一听。你听到了什么？很有可能，在背景中总能听到道路那永不停歇的嗡嗡声。超过420万英里的公共道路纵横交错于美国本土48州——其长度足以往返月球近九次。这张巨大的道路网像蜘蛛网一样覆盖了美国本土，仅剩下约5%的土地被列为“无路区域”或荒野。
Now, some of those last remaining lands free of roads are under threat from the Trump administration’s proposed rollback of the 2001 Roadless Rule. That includes southeast Alaska’s Tongass National Forest, where eagles, bears, salmon, and many other species thrive in old-growth coastal forest along the Inside Passage. In announcing its plan, the administration said rescinding the rule would remove prohibitions on road construction and logging on nearly 59 million acres of national forest, arguing that the rule slowed economic development. 如今，其中一些仅存的无路土地正受到特朗普政府提议废除2001年《无路规则》（Roadless Rule）的威胁。这其中包括阿拉斯加东南部的通加斯国家森林（Tongass National Forest），那里是老鹰、熊、鲑鱼以及许多其他物种在内航道（Inside Passage）沿岸原始沿海森林中繁衍生息的家园。政府在宣布该计划时表示，废除这项规则将取消在近5900万英亩国家森林中禁止修路和伐木的限制，并辩称该规则阻碍了经济发展。
A 30-day public comment period on the formal proposal starts once it is published in the Federal Register. Instructions on how to submit comments are included in the proposal. In Congress, another effort is underway to try to change the law through an amendment to the Wildfire Prevention Act. That change, if approved, would both remove the Roadless Rule and prevent the US Forest Service from reinstituting it in the future, despite overwhelming public support for the rule. 一旦该正式提案在《联邦公报》上发布，将开启为期30天的公众意见征询期。提案中包含了提交意见的说明。在国会，另一项试图通过修改《野火预防法案》（Wildfire Prevention Act）来改变法律的努力正在进行中。如果该修正案获得通过，它不仅会废除《无路规则》，还将阻止美国林务局在未来恢复该规则，尽管公众对该规则的支持率极高。
As ecologists who have spent decades studying wilderness and the animals and ecological functions that depend on undisturbed habitats, we believe it’s important to understand that preserving roadless areas has value for environmental health, clean water, wildlife survival and people’s own well-being. 作为研究荒野以及依赖未受干扰栖息地的动物和生态功能数十年的生态学家，我们认为，理解保护无路区域对于环境健康、清洁水源、野生动物生存以及人类自身福祉的价值至关重要。
What is the Roadless Rule?
什么是《无路规则》？
The National Forest Roadless Area Conservation Policy, better known as the Roadless Rule, was issued in January 2001 by President Bill Clinton. It has had overwhelming public support and received more public comments than any other rule in history. The rule prohibits road construction, maintenance and commercial timber harvest in inventoried roadless areas within the National Forest System. It applies to over 58 million acres across the country, excluding Idaho and Colorado, which have their own state-specific roadless rules. 《国家森林无路区域保护政策》，即广为人知的《无路规则》，由比尔·克林顿总统于2001年1月发布。它获得了压倒性的公众支持，收到的公众意见数量超过了历史上任何其他规则。该规则禁止在国家森林系统内的已清查无路区域进行道路建设、维护和商业木材采伐。它适用于全国超过5800万英亩的土地，爱达荷州和科罗拉多州除外，因为这两个州拥有各自的州级无路规则。
The primary goal of the Roadless Rule is to maintain forest health and productivity for future generations. It also helps avoid exacerbating the US Forest Service’s road maintenance backlog by not making new roads. The Roadless Rule prohibits new road construction, with very limited exceptions, as well as commercial logging in designated roadless areas. It does not restrict other uses that are compatible with the management plan, such as hiking and mountain biking, or resource uses such as grazing livestock and working existing mining claims. 《无路规则》的主要目标是为子孙后代维护森林的健康和生产力。它还通过不修建新道路，帮助避免加剧美国林务局的道路维护积压问题。《无路规则》禁止在指定的无路区域进行新道路建设（极少数例外情况除外）以及商业伐木。它并不限制与管理计划相兼容的其他用途，如徒步旅行和山地自行车运动，也不限制放牧牲畜和经营现有采矿权等资源利用方式。
The problem with roads in national forests
国家森林中道路带来的问题
While roads can provide benefits, such as access to forests, they can also do ecological harm. Roads enable invasive weeds to spread by being carried on vehicle tires and deposited in exposed soils, erode sediments into streams and fragment habitat that wildlife rely on. Vehicles directly kill and injure animals through collisions. They occasionally start fires, too. A recent study found that fires are more likely to start in areas with roads than in areas without. 虽然道路可以提供便利（例如进入森林），但它们也会造成生态破坏。道路通过车辆轮胎携带杂草种子并将其散布在裸露的土壤中，从而助长了入侵杂草的蔓延；道路还会导致沉积物侵蚀进入溪流，并分割野生动物赖以生存的栖息地。车辆通过碰撞直接造成动物死亡和受伤。它们偶尔还会引发火灾。最近的一项研究发现，有道路的地区比没有道路的地区更容易发生火灾。
Studies show that road noise displaces wildlife, increases stress, and can affect wildlife behavior patterns at distances of over a mile from the road. And roads don’t just cause problems for species on land. Most roads cross streams and rivers, which requires building a way for those waters to keep flowing under the road (structures called culverts). While culverts can be designed to allow fish to pass through and maintain ecological connections, they are rarely built to do so. This leads to declines in the health of fish populations and can leave some species locally extinct. 研究表明，道路噪音会驱逐野生动物，增加其压力，并可能影响距离道路一英里以外的野生动物行为模式。道路不仅给陆地物种带来问题，大多数道路还会穿过溪流和河流，这需要建造一种让水流在道路下方持续流动的通道（即涵洞）。虽然涵洞可以设计成允许鱼类通过并维持生态连接，但很少有涵洞是这样建造的。这导致鱼类种群健康状况下降，并可能导致某些物种在局部灭绝。
The benefits of roadless areas
无路区域的益处
Inventoried roadless areas are among the most ecologically intact and wildest places left in the United States, yet—unlike Wilderness Areas and National Parks—there are no signs acknowledging their boundaries when you enter one. Most are part of larger ecosystems, directly adjacent or ecologically connected to better known national parks and wilderness areas. Removing Roadless Rule protections would erode ecological buffers to these more famous protected lands. 已清查的无路区域是美国境内生态最完整、最原始的地方之一，然而——与“荒野保护区”和“国家公园”不同——当你进入这些区域时，没有任何标志来确认它们的边界。大多数无路区域是更大生态系统的一部分，与更著名的国家公园和荒野保护区直接相邻或在生态上相连。取消《无路规则》的保护将削弱这些更著名保护地的生态缓冲带。