Keep Our Rivers Roadless
The 2001 Roadless Rule is one of the most important conservation protections in American history. By limiting new road building and logging on nearly 60 million acres of national forest land, it has safeguarded the pristine backcountry, clean water, and intact ecosystems that define much of the West. Here in Southern Oregon, those protections are directly tied to the health of rivers like the Wild and Scenic Rogue and Illinois.
Today, efforts to eliminate the Roadless Rule put both our environment and our local economy at risk.
The North Fork of Rough and Ready Creek
Why It Matters to Our Industry
As a river outfitter, I see every day how much people value wild landscapes. Guests don’t travel from across the country—or around the world—to raft past road cuts and logging slash. They come for solitude, wildness, and clean water. Road building undercuts all of that. Once a road is punched into a pristine canyon, it no longer feels remote or wild.
New roads on steep slopes cause landslides that send sediment into streams, choking salmon habitat and muddying water that should run clear. Logging leaves unstable slopes vulnerable to debris flows that erode fragile soils, washing trees and boulders into rivers, degrading watersheds, and creating new hazards for boaters.
For communities like Grants Pass, Merlin, and Gold Beach, this isn’t just an environmental issue—it’s an economic one. Rafting supports restaurants, hotels, shops, and guide services. The quality of our rivers is directly tied to the livelihoods of countless small businesses.
Chetco Road
Rough and Ready Creek: A Local Example
One place where the stakes are especially high is Rough and Ready Creek, a unique wild watershed in the headwaters of the Illinois River. Its rare serpentine soils host plants found almost nowhere else on Earth. Ancient Port Orford cedar line its banks, and springs feed rare plant wetlands that dot its watershed, providing cool, clear water to this beautiful pristine creek in the late summer. Equally important, its exceptionally clear waters flow into the Illinois River, one of Oregon’s most treasured Wild and Scenic Rivers.
For decades, Rough and Ready Creek has faced pressure from mining and road construction. The Roadless Rule has helped keep it wild and free and its waters clean and crystal clear, as it has many of the Wild and Scenic Illinois’ large, mostly roadless direct tributaries.
For those of us who run trips on the Illinois River, the elimination of the Roadless Rule is not an abstract concern. It’s a direct threat to the river’s character and what makes it so remarkable. The Illinois River is famous for its pristine emerald green water and as one of the most challenging and beautiful multi-day rafting trips in the country. If its headwaters are compromised, so is its water quality and reputation—and the business that depends on it.
Preparing to kayak Rough and Ready Creek
What’s at Stake
Rolling back the Roadless Rule isn’t just a policy debate in Washington, D.C. It’s a decision that would affect the health of our rivers, the resilience of our salmon runs, and the strength of our rural economies here in Southern Oregon.
River outfitting businesses like mine are on the front lines. We see firsthand how protected landscapes draw visitors back year after year, how clear water and intact forests create unforgettable experiences, and how river trips support local communities. Removing the Roadless Rule puts all of that in jeopardy.
The Illinois River in Southern Oregon
A Call to Action
We have a choice. We can trade away the integrity of irreplaceable wild watersheds for short-term development, or we can invest in the long-term health of our rivers and the communities that depend on them. For Rough and Ready Creek, for the Illinois River, for the Rogue River, and for rivers across the West, the right choice is clear. Permanently protecting our nationally outstanding rivers and streams and their watersheds is the right thing to do.
