On July 22, after the comment period had already started, the Forest Service posted an errata stating that the DEIS had mistakenly referred to supplemental information on five pages. The errata said supplemental-information documents were not published with the DEIS and that the substantive analysis needed for public comment was already contained in the DEIS. That is where this went from a shell game to something that operates like a bait-and-switch.

Active Restrictions

You might be asking yourself: why is Forest Access For All so concerned that the Blue Mountains Forest Plan Revision could restrict motorized access? Agency staff have repeatedly said this plan does not directly address access or travel management. We have been told travel management will come later, after the forest plan revision, so access is not really an issue in this plan. That sounds reassuring. Until you start digging into the documents. Access may not always show up u

The Forest Service released the DEIS and opened the public comment period, but there are still support records and background materials we need in order to fully understand how some of these conclusions were reached. That matters because the public cannot make strong comments if the key assumptions, data, maps, and comparison materials are hard to find or missing from the public review record.