Yep, Broken Record, get them in folks. You can cut my pay later for being so pushy.
Comment Deadline: October 2nd, 2009
Send Comments to:
Kamiah Ranger Station
Attn: Lois Foster, Travel Planning lOT Leader
Rt. 2, Box 191
Kamiah, ID 83536
Or, Email: comments-northern-clearwater@fs.fed.us
Be sure to add "Travel Planning" to the Subject line.
SAWS Members,
Below is the alert that SAWS sent out asking for your input on the
DEIS for the Clearwater NF travel plan. SAWS recommended that you support
"Alternative A" in our original Clearwater DEIS Action Alert sent out August
18, and have verified with Forest Service managers that this is a perfectly
legal and valid alternative. Since then new facts, feedback, and lengthy
discussion between SAWS volunteer directors, has resulted in a more precise
equivalent alternative, "Modified Alternative B". SAWS would like for our
membership to include in their comments that the Forest Service has not
demonstrated that an early season forest wide closures is scientifically
imperative to the needs of big game animals during their seasonal migration
to wintering grounds. For all intensive purposes this is saying the same
thing as Alternative A, but adding a challenge to an unproven attempt to
limit snowmobiling. No net loss of riding terrain or season. SAWS finds
either alternative to be acceptable. What is critical, and this has been
repeatedly expressed by the Forest Service Managers, is that you write good
substantive comments in your own words. The comments are what the Forest
Service records and acts on; not the alternative you select.
If you have not sent your comments to the Forest Service please do so in the
next few days. The comment deadline is this coming Friday.
Thanks. Scott
Here's the original SAWS alert.
http://www.snowmobile-alliance.org/A...lan_-_DEIS.htm
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Here's some comments to throw in your email.
The Forest Service should not close Great Burn. It is a historical snowmobile area, and very important to snowmobilers. It is remote, and has no user conflicts.
The Forest Service should not close RWA (recommended wilderness areas), you are violating the Wilderness Act, by making all RWAs Defacto Motorized Wilderness. This is not what Congress intended.
Closing RWAs is nothing but a thinly veiled attempt to create Wilderness.
The Winter Portion of the Travel Plan, should not be completed until the Forest Plan is completed. Following region ones own rules, historical snowmobile areas will be removed from the Great Burn RWA once completed. Saving this great destination for generations to come.
The Great Burn area is the last alpine riding area left for motorized travel. The environmentalist have already closed half of the Great Burn, on the Montana Side. Snowmobilers need the other half.
Snowmobiles cause no damage to the forest. They are less destructive than hikers. They are an appropriate way to visit our Multiple Use, Public Lands.
The Forest Service says they are only closing only 11 percent of the Clearwater National Forest. When in fact Great Burn is all the good off trail snowmobiling in the Clearwater National Forest; and represents nearly half of the rideable terrain in the Clearwater National Forest.
Closing Great Burn will only increase winter user conflict within the Clearwater National Forest.
There are 4 million acres of National Forest, closed to snowmobilers, on the south side of the Clearwater National Forest. The snowmobile community only want 150,000 acres of Great Burn to ride in. Why does the snowmobile community not receive equal reciprocity, acre for acre, for ever acre that only skiers can use? Snowmobilers should have their own areas, just as skiers and snowshoers do.
The Clearwater National Forest has closed 40% of the motorcycle acreage since the 1987 Forest Plan, and appears to be ready to close another 40% of the motorcycle acreage in this Travel Plan, it also appears that snowmobiles will loose 40% of their usable acreage in this travel plan. How many 40% losses of acreage, can a sport survive? It appears the Clearwater National Forest has a trend developing.
Snowmobiles where using the Great Burn area before it became a Recommended Wilderness Area in 1987. And, when the State Petitions (State Roadless Area Plan) was submitted for the Clearwater National Forest, the Forest Service had no problem designating the area potential wilderness. But now, suddenly the area is under threat. Yet snowmobile registrations are going down, and general usage is on the decrease.
The Great Burn area is nearly 20 miles from the nearest parking lot, there are no other users that can use this area. It has no conflict, no damage from snowmobiles. One can only assume this move is designed to keep the public out of it's public lands.
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Comment Deadline: October 2nd, 2009
Send Comments to:
Kamiah Ranger Station
Attn: Lois Foster, Travel Planning lOT Leader
Rt. 2, Box 191
Kamiah, ID 83536
Or, Email: comments-northern-clearwater@fs.fed.us
Be sure to add "Travel Planning" to the Subject line.
SAWS Members,
Below is the alert that SAWS sent out asking for your input on the
DEIS for the Clearwater NF travel plan. SAWS recommended that you support
"Alternative A" in our original Clearwater DEIS Action Alert sent out August
18, and have verified with Forest Service managers that this is a perfectly
legal and valid alternative. Since then new facts, feedback, and lengthy
discussion between SAWS volunteer directors, has resulted in a more precise
equivalent alternative, "Modified Alternative B". SAWS would like for our
membership to include in their comments that the Forest Service has not
demonstrated that an early season forest wide closures is scientifically
imperative to the needs of big game animals during their seasonal migration
to wintering grounds. For all intensive purposes this is saying the same
thing as Alternative A, but adding a challenge to an unproven attempt to
limit snowmobiling. No net loss of riding terrain or season. SAWS finds
either alternative to be acceptable. What is critical, and this has been
repeatedly expressed by the Forest Service Managers, is that you write good
substantive comments in your own words. The comments are what the Forest
Service records and acts on; not the alternative you select.
If you have not sent your comments to the Forest Service please do so in the
next few days. The comment deadline is this coming Friday.
Thanks. Scott
Here's the original SAWS alert.
http://www.snowmobile-alliance.org/A...lan_-_DEIS.htm
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Here's some comments to throw in your email.
The Forest Service should not close Great Burn. It is a historical snowmobile area, and very important to snowmobilers. It is remote, and has no user conflicts.
The Forest Service should not close RWA (recommended wilderness areas), you are violating the Wilderness Act, by making all RWAs Defacto Motorized Wilderness. This is not what Congress intended.
Closing RWAs is nothing but a thinly veiled attempt to create Wilderness.
The Winter Portion of the Travel Plan, should not be completed until the Forest Plan is completed. Following region ones own rules, historical snowmobile areas will be removed from the Great Burn RWA once completed. Saving this great destination for generations to come.
The Great Burn area is the last alpine riding area left for motorized travel. The environmentalist have already closed half of the Great Burn, on the Montana Side. Snowmobilers need the other half.
Snowmobiles cause no damage to the forest. They are less destructive than hikers. They are an appropriate way to visit our Multiple Use, Public Lands.
The Forest Service says they are only closing only 11 percent of the Clearwater National Forest. When in fact Great Burn is all the good off trail snowmobiling in the Clearwater National Forest; and represents nearly half of the rideable terrain in the Clearwater National Forest.
Closing Great Burn will only increase winter user conflict within the Clearwater National Forest.
There are 4 million acres of National Forest, closed to snowmobilers, on the south side of the Clearwater National Forest. The snowmobile community only want 150,000 acres of Great Burn to ride in. Why does the snowmobile community not receive equal reciprocity, acre for acre, for ever acre that only skiers can use? Snowmobilers should have their own areas, just as skiers and snowshoers do.
The Clearwater National Forest has closed 40% of the motorcycle acreage since the 1987 Forest Plan, and appears to be ready to close another 40% of the motorcycle acreage in this Travel Plan, it also appears that snowmobiles will loose 40% of their usable acreage in this travel plan. How many 40% losses of acreage, can a sport survive? It appears the Clearwater National Forest has a trend developing.
Snowmobiles where using the Great Burn area before it became a Recommended Wilderness Area in 1987. And, when the State Petitions (State Roadless Area Plan) was submitted for the Clearwater National Forest, the Forest Service had no problem designating the area potential wilderness. But now, suddenly the area is under threat. Yet snowmobile registrations are going down, and general usage is on the decrease.
The Great Burn area is nearly 20 miles from the nearest parking lot, there are no other users that can use this area. It has no conflict, no damage from snowmobiles. One can only assume this move is designed to keep the public out of it's public lands.
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