The DEIS Is Coming. It Is Time to Get Ready.

The Blue Mountains Forest Plan Revision will guide management of the Malheur, Umatilla, and Wallowa-Whitman National Forests for years to come. The next major step is the Draft Environmental Impact Statement, commonly called the DEIS. Once it is released, the public will have a limited amount of time to review it and comment.

That comment period is not the time to begin figuring out what the plan says, why it matters, or how to write a useful comment. We need to start preparing now.

Forest Access For All has spent the past several weeks reviewing the preliminary draft plan, supporting documents, agency presentations, and public meetings. We are working to separate the facts from the sales pitch and identify the issues the public needs to watch.

Here are some of the basic questions we believe the DEIS needs to answer:

• Where does access show up in the plan, even though it is no longer presented as one main issue?

  
  

• When a clear rule is replaced with agency discretion, what firm limits remain?

  
  

• Is the Forest Service using an honest baseline when it describes changes in grazing, timber, recreation, and other uses?

  
  

• Does the DEIS clearly explain the effects on rural communities, local economies, and public access?

  
  

• Do the alternatives give the public real choices, or different versions of the same outcome?

The forest plan will not close a particular road or approve a particular timber sale. It will set the rules and framework used to make those decisions later. That means language about transportation, recreation, wildlife, roadless areas, waterways, scenery, minerals, and other resources can still affect public access and how our forests are managed.

That is why the details matter.

What Forest Access For All Will Provide

In the weeks ahead, we will use this website to explain the major issues in plain language. We will tell you what the documents say, why it matters, and what we believe the Forest Service needs to fix. We will also show you the sources behind our concerns.

When the DEIS is released, we also plan to provide a commenting tool to help people:

• Find the parts of the DEIS that matter to them;

  
  

• Turn a general concern into a useful public comment;

  
  

• Connect personal experience to specific plan language and effects; and

  
  

• Tell the Forest Service what needs to change and why.

The tool will not replace your voice or hand everyone the same form letter. It will help you make your own comment clear, specific, and useful.

What You Can Do Now

You do not need to become a planning expert. Start with what you know.

Think about the places you use, how you reach them, and what changes would affect your family, business, community, or way of life. Write down the roads, trails, grazing areas, hunting access, gathering places, and management issues that matter to you. Your firsthand knowledge can become an important part of a strong public comment when it is tied to the plan.

Then bookmark this website, follow Forest Access For All, and share these posts with someone who uses the Blue Mountains national forests. By the time the DEIS arrives, our goal is for you to know where to look, what questions to ask, and where to find help putting your concerns on the record.

The comment period will be limited. Our preparation does not have to be.