The Forest Service is seeking public comments as it works to modernize its National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) regulations for the first time in a quarter century. Here’s your chance to help reduce the “analysis paralysis” that keeps more work from being done on our national forests.
Current NEPA guidelines have been in place during an era in which the National Forest System has experienced massive declines in forest health, matched with massive increases in catastrophic fire and smoke, and a decline in timber harvests that have decimated rural communities across the country. It’s time to make the NEPA process more responsive to the needs of our forests and communities.
You can register an official comment in just two minutes by clicking here. The letter is pre-loaded with specific recommendations on how the agency can improve its NEPA process, but we encourage you to customize the message to your liking. The agency is taking public comments on its rulemaking through February 2, 2018. More information on the rulemaking can be found here.
NEPA was intended to give the American public a voice in public land management decision making. That’s a good thing. But after more than four decades of implementation, the well-intentioned law has provided professional “No Management” groups with a powerful tool to bring responsible, science-based, active management to a screeching halt. The results have been devastating: less healthy forests, more taxpayer dollars spent on endless paperwork, expensive lawsuits, and rural communities that cannot provide good paying jobs or essential services like law enforcement.
To improve the health of our forests and communities, please submit a comment by clicking to our web site comment by clicking to our web site.
