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Comments needed on Forest Service regulations!

Under the Clinton/Gore administration,
the Forest Service revised its
regulations regarding how they go about
the process of revising their
individual Forest Plans. The Clinton
regulations were thought to be so
cumbersome and unmanageable that even
"environmentalist minded" Forest
Service employees objected. Wilderness
Advocacy Groups were delighted,
however, at the prospect of ending
nearly all active human management on
most National Forests by using the new
regulations in appeals, protests and
lawsuits.

The Bush administration, at the behest
of many Forest Service professionals as
well as multiple use recreation
interests, began the process to revise
the Clinton era planning regulations.
The new revisions go a long way toward
addressing some of the problems in the
previous regulations. HOWEVER, the new
regulations contain a few land mines
that need to be corrected before made
final.

What You Can Do:

Send a quick email, letter or fax to
the Forest Service.
E-mail address is 
planning_rule@fs.fed.us
Letters or faxes to:
USDA FS Planning Rule
Content Analysis Team
P.O. Box 8359
Missoula, MT 59807

Sample talking points:

USDA FS Planning Rule
Content Analysis Team
P.O. Box 8359
Missoula, MT  59807
via e-mail:  planning_rule@fs.fed.us
via facsimile: (406) 329-3556

Dear Planning Team:

Please accept my comments regarding the
proposed planning rule published on
December 6, 2002 in the Federal
Register, Volume 67, page 72769.

* Please adopt Option 1 in the final
rule for Section 219.13(b).

* All actions that constitute a plan,
revision, or amendment must be subject
to NEPA and its implementing
regulations.

* The public must be able to rely on a
uniformity of process from unit to unit
of the national forest system. 
Therefore, a uniform process for public
involvement in planning must be
provided in the final rule.

* Do not permit any extension to the 1
year duration for Interim Amendments.

* The proposed rule does not include a
specified comment period for plan
initiation.  The rule should, at a
minimum, require the Responsible
Official to tailor the comment period
for initiation of plan revision to the
scope and complexity of planning issues
and opportunities for the unit.

ACTION REQUESTED BY APRIL 7, 2003!

Please take just a moment and respond.
This issue will have seismic
repercussions. We'll need your help
fighting this one so PLEASE take a
minute to send a quick email!

A NOTE OF THANKS
Special thanks to Carla Boucher, United
Four Wheel Drive Association's legal
counsel (http://www.ufwda.org/2K/).
Boucher has waded through the over 300
pages of new Forest Planning
regulations and found the 'devil in the
details' that may lead to ROAD CLOSED
signs popping up in a Forest near you.

Additional thanks go out to Brian
Hawthorne of the Utah Shared Access
Alliance for crafting the original
version of this alert, and for bringing
the matter to our attention!

ASK BLM TO SUPPORT MULTIPLE-USE IN KING RANGE!  

Currently, the Bureau of Land
Management (BLM) is in the process of
creating a new vision for the
management of the King Range National
Conservation Area. In the early 1970s,
Congress created this 60,000 acre
region that was based on traditional
multiple-use with access for all trail
groups.

Since then, the BLM has gradually
restricted responsible off-highway
vehicle (OHV) recreation from the many
existing roads and trails that were
historic access routes to a point where
they banned all OHV use in 2000 on
Black Sands Beach.

Because the State of California only
recognizes about 7 miles of OHV sand
based recreation on 1,100 miles of
state coastline, it is important that
the BLM consider reopening a portion of
the King Range to historic motorized
access.

To send a comment letter today, visit
the BlueRibbon Coaliton’s Rapid
Response Center at...

http://capwiz.com/share/issues/alert/?alertid=1546671

Thanks you for your support!

Don Amador
Western Representative
BlueRibbon Coalition, Inc.
brdon_a@sharetrails.org