The Forest Service is in the final stages of gathering public comment on the Nez-Perce Clearwater Forest Plan revision.
On Saturday at the USFS Northern Rockies Training Center in Missoula the group backing the plan held an open house.
Organizers wanted to hear from community members about their hesitations or questions in a more casual manner as well as to be there to help make the 2,000-page document easier to understand.
The proposed plan itself was split into four sections fire management, recreation, aquatics and fisheries, and forestry and timber. These sections had tables to represent each main goal as well as other areas of focus of the revised plan such as grazing and wildlife.
The open house public hearing allows for people to anonymously comment using the application system they have online. Cheryl Probert, the Supervisor for the forest, says this allows for everyone to be heard and that it is valuable to hear the concerns.
“It’s really really important, to hear from folks and for people to comment, to get in on the documents, we are here to help ya to understand whats in there and that’s why we are here, and we really need to hear that why, behind your comments so we can develop the best final alternative that we can,” said Probert.
The 90-day public comment period of the Nez Perce-Clearwater Forest Plan started right before Christmas and will wrap up in March.
The USFS will hold open houses in St. Regis on Friday Feb. 21 from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. and on Saturday, Feb. 22 at the USFS headquarters in Missoula at 10 a.m. Another meeting on Feb. 22 will take place from 3 p.m. to 5 p.m. at the USFS headquarters in Hamilton that same day
To make a comment on the revision or to learn more about the plan here.
-Correction: a previous version of this article indicated the meeting dates as being on March 21 and March 22. The correct dates are Feb. 21 and Feb 22.
