August 2000
White River National Forest Plan Update
The comment period for the White River National Forest draft Forest Plan and Draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS) ended May 9, 2000. Over 14,500 comments were received during the nine-month comment period. The comments within each letter were identified and consolidated into "public concern statements". The final forest plan documents will include written responses to the statements. Based on these responses and the Forest Service's expertise, one of the draft alternatives will be chosen as the final plan--likely with modifications.
Much of the attention in the comments on this forest plan was given to travel management. There will be a travel management plan associated with the new plan. However, the Travel Management Plan will be a separate document. When forest plans are revised, the travel management plans are always separate documents, so this is not a change in procedure. The WRNF put the two together for the draft portion of the process to avoid doing two separate draft environmental impact statements; therefore the time period for implementation will be faster. When the new Forest Plan and Final Environmental Impact Statement comes out (in approximately May 2001), it will contain a Travel Management Plan for each of the alternatives. The public will have 90 days to comment on this. The Forest Service will then finalize the Travel Management Plan within approximately 45 to 60 days according to Martha Ketelle, Forest Supervisor.
Many groups wanted more time to do some field work on the Travel Management Plan; thus this provides them with that extra time to conduct studies. The BSA will let you know when the new comment period occurs so that you may make comments (likely next summer). Thanks to everyone who made comments on the plan and attended meetings with county commissioners, etc.