DEIS Review Update: What FAFA Is Seeing So Far

We wanted to give folks a quick update on where things stand with our review of the Blue Mountains Forest Plan Revision DEIS.

This is not just one document. The DEIS package includes the main DEIS, draft plans, appendices, maps, GIS layers, supporting reports, and other materials spread across multiple locations. We are working through it as fast as we can, but we also want to make sure what we share is accurate and useful.

Here is what we are seeing so far.

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.

Forest Access For All has already sent a support-record request asking for the documents, data, links, or confirmation needed to understand the DEIS. That includes records tied to access, travel management, route baselines, grazing, timber, socioeconomic claims, BIC/EOU reliance, alternatives development, monitoring, and other issue areas.

We are currently reviewing several major issue families:

• Access and travel management sideboards

• Grazing and working lands

• Timber and economic assumptions

• The 1990 baseline comparison

• Local household and community impacts

• Socioeconomic analysis and BIC/EOU reliance

• Old growth, large trees, and the 21-inch rule replacement

• Wildlife, SCC, elk, and access-related metrics

• Mining, materials, route rights, and local access

• Monitoring and accountability

• Whether the public has enough information to make meaningful comments

  
  

Access remains one of the biggest concerns. The agency may say travel management comes later, but plan language written today can still shape future travel management, route decisions, recreation settings, wildlife sideboards, scenery limits, roadless area effects, and other access restrictions.

That is why this matters now.

What can you do while we keep reviewing?

Start documenting what matters to you.

Write down the roads, trails, campsites, firewood areas, hunting access, grazing areas, gathering areas, work routes, and other places you use. Note how you use them, who relies on them, and what would happen if access became more limited or more controlled.

Also think about local impacts: fuelwood, livestock movement, small businesses, elderly or disabled access, emergency response, timber work, mining/material sources, and family traditions tied to the forest.

We are not asking everyone to read thousands of pages alone. That is part of why we are doing this work. Our goal is to identify the issues that are nonstarters for our communities and help people turn their own knowledge into strong written comments.

We will keep sharing updates as we work through the documents.

The comment clock is running. Now is the time to pay attention, ask questions, and start writing down what the Blue Mountains mean to you.