Proposed decommissioning of 255 mi. of roads in Mt. Hood NF

[Oregon72]

Got this email moments ago

Dear Interested Citizen,

The Mt. Hood National Forest is seeking comments and input from the public at this time for the Clackamas Road Decommissioning for Habitat Restoration, Increment 2 Project. The project is located in the Collawash Watershed and Pot Creek-Clackamas River Subwatershed on the Clackamas River Ranger District, Mt. Hood National Forest, Oregon.

A Preliminary Assessment including maps for this project is available for review at http://www.fs.fed.us/r6/mthood/projects. The primary purpose of this project is to improve hydrologic function and reduce adverse impacts to aquatic and terrestrial habitat associated with unneeded roads. The proposed action is to decommission approximately 255 miles roads.
Currently, there are about 440 miles of roads in the project area. The proposed action would decommission about 58% of these roads. The proposed action also includes converting one road (Forest Road 6340-140), about one half mile in length, into a non-motorized trail.

The Clackamas Road Decommissioning for Habitat Restoration, Increment 2 Environmental Assessment (EA) is still in the process of being completed and no decision has been made yet. The Forest is requesting your comments on this project to help guide the final decision. Upon completion of the EA, there will be no further public comment period. As such, this 30-day comment period represents the final pre-decisional opportunity for public review for the project. Comments must be received or postmarked within 30 days of the date that notice for this comment period is published in The Oregonian. If the comment period ends on a Saturday, Sunday or Federal holiday the comment period shall be extended to the close of business of the next Federal working day. In order to have standing to appeal a decision under 36 CFR 215, comments must be submitted during this 30-day comment period. Comments must be signed, or in the case of electronic or telephone submissions, commenters must verify their identity upon request to be eligible to appeal.

Comments received in response to this solicitation, including names and addresses of those who comment, will be considered part of the public record for this project, available for public inspection, and released if requested under the Freedom of Information Act.

Electronic comments must be submitted as part of the actual e-mail message, or as an attachment in Microsoft Word (.doc), rich text format (.rtf), or portable document format (.pdf) only. E-mails submitted to email addresses other than the one listed above, or in formats other than those listed, or containing viruses, will be rejected.

Comments and/or requests for additional information on the Preliminary Assessment should be addressed to Michelle Lombardo at:

Mail: 16400 Champion Way, Sandy, Oregon 97055
Phone: (503) 668-1796; office hours: 8:00 am – 4:30 pm, M-F
Fax: (503) 668-1413
Email: comments-pacificnorthwest-mthood@fs.fed.us

In addition, the Clackamas River Ranger District will host an open house to present and answer questions about this project on Tuesday, December 7th between 4:00 pm and 7:00 pm. Since there will be no formal presentations at the open house, please feel free to come at any time. The open house will be at the Clackamas River Ranger Station at 595 NW Industrial Way, Estacada. Based weather conditions and the level of interest from the public, a site visit may be considered.

Sincerely,

Andrei Rykoff (Clackamas River District Ranger)