Public Comment Period Extended on DSEIS for Stonewall Vegetation Project

Beginning Friday, March 1, 2019 members of the public will have an additional 24 days to submit substantive comments on the Draft Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement for the Stonewall Vegetation Project, located on the Lincoln Ranger District. If people have already submitted comments, there is no need to re-submit those comments.

This extension is to offset the impacts that the partial government shutdown (December 2018-January 2019) had on the project's original comment period. During the shutdown, forest employees were not available to answer questions or inquiries from the public; therefore, the Forest is providing an additional 24 days (the number of days impacted by the partial government shutdown) for members of the public to submit their comments on the SDEIS for the Stonewall Vegetation Project.

Public comments should be submitted no later than Monday, March 25, 2019.

The DSEIS contains a new proposed alternative: Alternative 4. The 2017 Park Creek Fire burned more than 13,000 acres of the project area, about four miles north and west of Lincoln, Montana. The fire changed conditions in the project area analyzed in the original Final Environmental Impact Statement (FEIS) to the extent that a supplemental analysis was needed.

The new proposed action alternative, Alternative 4, consists of 1,435 acres of treatments. These treatments include a variety of treatments, including: 760 of commercial harvest, 406 acres of pre-commercial thinning and 269 acres of prescribed burning. To facilitate those treatments, less than one mile of temporary road construction, and road maintenance on about 27 miles of established roads is included in the decision. There is a site-specific forest plan amendment for elk habitat as well.

All of the project documents, maps and supplemental documents are on the Forest website at http://www.fs.usda.gov/hlcnf; select "Land and Resource Management" then click on "Projects."

Comments can be submitted one of three ways:

Regular Mail: Lincoln Ranger District, 1569 Highway 200, Lincoln, MT 59639;

Hand Deliver: Lincoln Ranger District Office from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m .; or

E-mail: [email protected] with "Stonewall DSEIS" in the subject line.

Comments, including names and addresses, will be part of the public record for this proposed action.