From the Allegheny — Blue Ridge Alliance (ABRA)

Forest Service Proposes Limiting Public Comments in NEPA Reviews

A proposal by the U.S. Forest Service (NFS) would severely limit the opportunities for the public to comment on environmental analysis conducted by the agency in accordance with requirements of the National Environmental Protection Act (NEPA). The proposed public comment restriction is part of a proposed rule by the NFS “to increase efficiency in its environmental analysis.” Public comments on the proposed rule are due August 12.

In an op-ed in the August 8 New York Times entitled “Why is the Forest Service Trying to Evade the Public?”, Sam Evans of the Southern Environmental Law Center argued:

The law requires every government agency to look for less harmful ways of meeting its goals. To that end, agency decisions must be based on solid science and made in the sunlight of public accountability. Each federal agency has some leeway to implement the law, but the Forest Service’s newlyproposed rules would instead circumvent it, creating loopholes for logging projects, road construction and even permits for pipelines and other utilities.

By eliminating the opportunity for public comment, the Forest Service is abandoning the chance to get meaningful advice for free. In the short run, the proposal will be bad for forest users, bad for wildlife and bad for local economies that depend on recreation. In the long run, it will hurt timber economies too. The public tolerates commercial logging on public lands only because passionate forest advocates have found ways, working with industry representatives and agency professionals, to minimize harm and even to harness logging for ecological good. If the Forest Service abandons the process that makes this possible, it will undermine the cooperation that allows us to share our public lands.

ABRA Update readers are urged to submit comments about this wrong-headed proposal. Be sure to act by Monday, August 12. 2019. The process is simple and straightforward.