You might have run across this story in which a Forest Supervisor was quoted as saying that the Forest was going to switch from email lists for notification of projects to folks having to check the website.
This seems like it lies at the intersection of “what the FS is required to do” vs. “what the FS should do to make life easier for the public.” But there is more information in this later story in the Hungry Horse News.
The Forest confirmed Tuesday that few people were notified of a proposed timber project near Blacktail Mountain that was released during the government shutdown.
Flathead National Forest spokeswoman Kira Powell said the Forest Service had switched over to a new third-party vendor for bulk email distribution and it was unavailable during the government shutdown.
So just a few people on an email list that the Swan Ranger District had were notified of the timber harvest project.
The Forest Service has about 13,000 emails on a database that’s used to notify people of projects.
That database was not used in this instance, but will be moving forward, Powell noted, making it clear that the Forest Service is interested in public comments.
People can also still sign up for email notifications on projects if they haven’t done so previously.
Having said that, Powell noted that the primary source of information on Forest Service projects is still on the Flathead National Forest website, www.fs.usda.gov/r01/flathead. Click on “projects” at the top of the page.
The West Truman project is a logging and timber harvest project on the Swan Lake Ranger District near Blacktail Mountain.
It was released in mid-October during the government shutdown and the comment period ended Nov. 1 before the shutdown was over.
The shutdown ended just last week. It was the longest shutdown in U.S. history.
Powell said the intent is notify people of most projects, but not all projects will see a notification under a new executive order by President Donald Trump issued in July.
Inquiring minds would want to know… “if I’m on the email list, what kind of projects should I look for on the website?” Does this new EO say “you can’t” or “you don’t have to.”
Another thought, in the ancient times when I worked in NEPA and on E-Gov, keeping up mailing lists was enough of a workload that it was on our list to address making it easier via some national application.
Finally, I do think that there is a middle way.. conceivably there are nuggets of info that might not be in the info and maps presented during scoping that people think are important to give them context to comment. These could potentially be identified and included in scoping documents.
The Schedule of Proposed Actions (SOPA) system has also bitten the dust.
As NEPA is whittled away, collaboratives and defunded and stakeholders and the public are boxed out of Forest Service planning, skepticism of agency motives and decisions is going to skyrocket. The “timber and nothing but timber” direction from above is not going to end well.
You’re gonna miss us when we’re gone.
-Americans who love public lands
George- how do you know that? I went on the national website and also some forest websites, and the SOPAs seem to be there.
PS many of us with divergent views all love public lands.
At a time when I am on countless mailing lists that fill up my inbox daily with things I don’t want to see, a government that doesn’t give its people information they said they do want to see is not interested in serving its people.