The Willamette and Deschutes National Forests want to remind people that the public comment period on the draft environmental analysis for the Central Cascades Wilderness Strategies Project will end next week.
The 30-day comment period on the draft analysis of the project will end at midnight on Monday, May 21. The project is analyzing a range of recreation management approaches for the Mt Jefferson, Mt Washington, Three Sisters, Diamond Peak and Waldo Lake Wilderness areas. Four public open houses and a Wilderness Pub have been held in Sisters, Bend, Eugene and Salem to discuss the project in addition to numerous stakeholder group presentations.
The Central Cascades Wilderness Management Strategies Project is responding to extreme growth in visitor use and its resulting impacts to the wilderness landscapes. Five alternative strategies have been analyzed, which range from lesser to broader changes in management. The Draft Environmental Assessment (EA) on the Project can be found at this link: https://data.ecosystem-management.org/nepaweb/nepa_project_exp.php?project=50578 When people get to the webpage they need to scroll to the bottom and click on the Analysis tab to get the most recent information.
Comments may be submitted electronically to comments-pacificnorthwest-deschutes@fs.fed.us. Please put “Central Cascades Wilderness Project” in the subject line of your e-mail. Comments must be submitted as part of the actual e-mail message, or as an attachment in Microsoft Word, rich text format (rtf), or portable document format (PDF) only. If using an electronic message, a scanned signature is one way to provide verification. E-mails submitted to e-mail addresses other than the one listed above, in other formats than those listed, or containing viruses, will be rejected.
Comments may also be submitted in writing by mail or in person. Written comments should be sent or delivered to John Allen, Forest Supervisor, Deschutes National Forest, 63095 Deschutes Market Road, Bend, OR 97701. Hand-delivered and oral comments may be delivered to the same address during normal business hours: 8am-4:30pm Monday through Friday, excluding holidays.
For more information about the project the public can contact Beth Peer, Deschutes National Forest (Bend) at 541-383-5554 or Matt Peterson, Willamette National Forest (Eugene) at 541-225-6421.
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