Commenting on Specific Draft Plans

The comment period for the Draft Forest Plans and accompanying DEIS has been extended from April 5, 2012 to May 7, 2012. Comments need to made specific to each draft plan and sent to the individual forest. Be sure to send comments to the appropriate address (Kootenai or Idaho Panhandle).

For comments specific to each draft plan, please use one of the methods listed in the following table (listed in order of preference for ease of processing and cost to the taxpayer in the content analysis process):

*Comments may be submitted directly in the body of the email, word document format (.doc or .docx), portable format (.pdf), rich text format (.rtf), text (.txt) or hypertext markup language (.html). The sender should receive an automated electronic acknowledgement from the agency as confirmation of receipt. Only the first email from each sender will receive an email confirmation. If the sender does not receive this confirmation on the first email, it is the sender's responsibility to ensure timely receipt of comments by other means.

Tips for Reviewing and Providing Commments

• Start by looking at the summary of the DEIS in the front of that document.
• Look over parts of the DEIS. Chapter 1 describes why we are updating management direction, Chapter 2 describes the alternatives, and Chapter 3 describes environmental consequences of implementing each of the alternatives. A good way to become familiar with the alternatives is to compare how they vary in terms of land allocations (management area descriptions and maps).
• The Draft Land Management Plan describes management direction for the preferred alternative in detail.
• The DEIS Appendices contain further detail on analysis that was conducted in developing the DEIS. It includes additional detail on specific topics, including Wilderness Evaluation and Wild and Scenic Rivers.
• Specific comments on how to improve the preferred alternative, what you prefer in other alternatives, or important things that you think were missed in alternatives are very helpful.
• We can better respond to your comments if you are as specific as possible and if you cite the location(s) that you are commenting on.
• If you reference another document(s) in your comments, please attach a complete copy of the document(s). If complete copies are not available, please provide the cover page and applicable pages from the document.

Note: Comments received, including names, addresses, email addresses and phone numbers of those who comment, will be considered part of the public record and will be available for public inspection.

Final Land Management Plans and Final Environmental Impact Statements will be shared with the public after consideration of comments and changes are made.