Forest Service Sifts Through Thousands of Public Comments

By LEAH DEITZ, Staff Writer

Most Residents in Favor of Alternative 3 Plan for Monongahela National Forest

The future of the Monongahela National Forest is soon to be in the hands of Congress as officials tally up comments concerning the Mon Forest Plan.

The plan dictates how the Forest Service will manage the forest for the next 10 years, and following a lengthy public comment period last year, they received much feedback about what the public wants and what their concerns are.

Matt Keller with West Virginia Wilderness Coalition said approximately 13,000 individuals commented on the Monongahela Forest Plan, an overwhelming response.

The 1986 plan got only 3,500 comments, he said. To the best of my knowledge, nothing else has come close to what happened this time on the Mon.

Keller said the input was unprecedented compared to other national forests in the Eastern United States . National forests in Vermont and New Hampshire recently went through their plan revisions and got less than 10,000 (responses) a piece, he said. A few years back, national forests in the Southwest went through their planning periods and the combined totals for the forests in Virginia, South Carolina, Tennessee, Georgia and Alabama was only just over 13,000.

Forest service public relations specialist Kate Goodrich-Arling said that although the forest service has received approximately 13,000 comments, many of those are form letters and it will be several weeks before the forest service has a complete count of actually comments.

The Wilderness Coalition obtained copies of the comments from the forest service and has estimated that approximately 90 percent of the comments favored Alternative 3, a plan which provides more emphasis on the passive conservative and restoration of soil, water, riparian and aquatic resources.

Goodrich-Arling said the comments, which are not part of a vote, are being tabulated to find comments, concerns and information that the forest service did not previously have. She said as officials go through the comments they are finding that concern statements have developed and are being addressed by various staff specialists.

According to Keller, individuals and more than 70 West Virginia businesses came out in support of Alternative 3, but that does not mean the forest service will recommend this plan to Congress.

Because of the overwhelming support for more wilderness during the public comment period, I think the public assumes that major changes will be made to the drafted plan and perhaps even that Alternative 3 will be adopted. This is far from true, Keller said. The forest service seems to feel justified in their choice of preferred Alternative 2 just because a relatively small number of individuals agree with them. Their complete disregard for the desire of the public to see special places on the Mon protected is incomprehensible.

Goodrich-Arling said the plan was not based on a vote counting process. She said the forest service published the four alternatives as a way to broach the subject and induce responses. We put a range of alternatives out there to give people a place to start, she said.

As far as making a recommendation to Congress concerning the plan, Goodrich-Arling said the forest service will combine elements from all of the plans into its recommendation. It is going to be a blending of sorts, she said. A refinement of what we already have.

The forest service conducted the public comment in accordance with federal law. The forest service was looking for scientific information it had not previously considered. The comment period was aimed at bringing out information we may not have had, she said.

And that is what the forest service received, Goodrich-Arling said.

The concern statements which the forest service is currently addressing and questions that were brought up in the comments will be used to make a final draft of the Monongahela Forest Plan.

The draft is expected to be completed by late July or August, Goodrich-Arling said.

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