SAWS Action Alert
SAWS members,
You previously received our SAWS Alert (copied below) regarding the Beaverhead-Deerlodge National Forest Plan Revision and FEIS about a month ago. At that time, the comment period was scheduled to end April 1. We hope that you already submitted you comment prior to April 1. SAWS, along with several other organizations and Montana elected officials, asked for an extension to the April 1 date. The Regional Forester approved an extension of the comment period to April 30.
Here is a link to the official notice:
http://www.fs.fed.us/r1/b-d/forest-plan/index-plan-details.shtml
I strongly encourage you to take advantage of this opportunity to submit a comment on this very important issue if you have not already done so. This proposal will close 329,000 acres as Recommended Wilderness Area (RWA) to snowmobile use that is currently open for that use today. Some of these proposed closures are very popular snowmobile areas. And one of the most important and possibly illegal proposed changes in management by the Forest Service, is to manage ALL RWA as de-facto wilderness. We can not let that happen here. If they succeed here, other RWAs in other forests across the western United States could fall to closures like dominos. So if you think that what happens in this one forest in Montana, where you might not ride, will not affect you in your state and in your favorite riding area, you would be WRONG.
Below is a link to the comments SAWS submitted on this proposal. They are for your information and use, but as always, please do not copy our entire comment word for word. The FS will not treat duplicate copies of the same comment as a separate comment.
http://www.snowmobile-alliance.org/08/misc/SAWS_Comments_BDNF_FEIS.pdf
Here is a link to our previous alert on this proposal:
http://news.snowmobilealliance.org/2008/03/beaverhead-deerlodge-national-forest-plan-revision-and-feis/
Thank you in advance for taking the time to comment on this very important issue.
Dave
Snowmobile Alliance of Western States