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Release No. FS-0422 |
Contact: |
Heidi Valetkevitch, (202) 205-1089 |
FOREST SERVICE EXTENDS TIMEFRAME FOR PUBLIC TO COMMENT ON PROPOSED ROADLESS RULE
WASHINGTON, Sept. 8, 2004 --
U.S. Department of Agriculture Forest Service today extended its
public comment period 60 additional days for a proposed rule on
protecting roadless values in national forests and grasslands based
on several requests from the public. The original comment period
was slated to end Sept. 14; comments must now be received in writing
by Nov. 15.
On July 16, the Forest Service published a proposed
rule to revise regulations concerning the Roadless Area Conservation
Rule published on January 12, 2001, which was struck down in July
2003 by the District Court for the District of Wyoming. The proposed
rule would allow governors to petition the Secretary of Agriculture
to establish or adjust management direction that exists in forest
plans for inventoried roadless areas within their state.
The proposed rule is available at www.roadless.fs.fed.us.
Written comments on the proposed rule may be mailed to: Content
Analysis Team, ATTN: Roadless State Petitions, USDA Forest Service,
P.O. Box 221090, Salt Lake City, UT 84122; faxed to (801) 517-1014;
or e-mailed to statepetitionroadless@fs.fed.us.
Comments also may be submitted from: http://www.regulations.gov.
To send comments in batched e-mails from the same server, please
call (801) 517-1020 to facilitate the transfer of the comments.
The Forest Service will issue a final rule after it evaluates public
comments.
An interim directive remains in effect to conserve
inventoried roadless areas until the new rule is promulgated.
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