The National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) is the bedrock of environmental advocacy. The Forest Service has proposed a major revision that weakens its NEPA procedures.
See https://www.fs.fed.us/emc/nepa/revisions/index.shtml
Join us in making lots of noise to prevent agency decision-makers from implementing methods to evade the required disclosure of impacts and cutting out the public from the review process. Submit your comments by August 12.
Here are some of the reasons that you can use in your own words.
The proposed rule cuts the public out of many decisions about activities on national forest lands, contrary to the NEPA law's clear direction to involve the public.
Large areas could be logged or burned without any consideration of the possible impacts, and in some cases, without any opportunities for public input!
Many miles of new roads and trails could be constructed and existing roads reconstructed with no analysis of impacts.
Potential impacts from projects and activities must be analyzed before approving and implementing them.
COWPL will host an evening event in mid-late July to explain the issues and provide talking points.
Submit comments via:
Public participation portal: https:// www.regulations.gov/. Go directly to the page for the proposed regulation at: https://www.regulations.gov/document?D=FS-2019-0010-0001
OR Postal mail: NEPA Services Group, c/o Amy Barker; USDA Forest Service, 125 South State Street, Suite 1705, Salt Lake City, UT 84138
OR Email: nepa-procedures-revision@fs.fed.us.