Wilderness Recommendation Process

As a part of developing a revised plan, the forest has started its Wilderness Recommendation Process 2012 Planning Rule Final Directives as required under the 2012 Planning Rule. The purpose of this process is to determine which (if any) forest lands would be appropriate to recommend to Congress for Wilderness designation. A pamphlet that summarizes the Carson National Forest Wilderness Process is now available in English and Spanish.

William Dauer

The Wilderness process is made up of four steps as depicted in the image on the right. The Carson NF is currently starting the third step. Public involvement and meetings were held in January and April 2016 to provide information on the wilderness process, its steps, and to seek public comments on the Inventory and Evaluation steps.

The completed Wilderness Evaluation is now available and incorporates information and feedback from the public. Extensive public comment has been considered to complete the Evaluation, but, comments that may affect the Evaluation conclusions will be accepted and considered throughout the forest plan revision process. As part of forest plan development a preferred wilderness recommendation will be created from a selection of these evaluated areas. The potential effects of that preferred recommendation and alternative recommendations will then be Analyzed as part of an environmental impact statement. The evaluation map and supporting documentation may be viewed on the Wilderness Evaluation page and as an interactive map on the Carson Wilderness Process page.

Inventory

The Carson NF Wilderness Inventory was completed in March 2016. To review the inventory process, please see the video that explains the inventory step and how it fits into the wilderness process. There is also an associated handout describing the inventory criteria in more detail.

The comment period for the inventory criteria and inventory map closed on February 23, 2016. The final inventory map may be:

Evaluation

The Carson NF Wilderness Evaluation has been adjusted based on public feedback. This video gives a detailed explanation of the Evaluation step and how the Carson National Forest approached that step. The associated handout provides a list of the five wilderness characteristics along with some considerations that were applied during the evaluation of each characteristic.

Comments that may affect the Evaluation conclusions will be accepted and considered throughout the forest plan revision process. Moving forward, comments will be most useful if submitted during the formal comment period and if they address effects that would result were any of these areas to become wilderness. Those comments will be used to help select the preferred alternative , and will inform the analysis of effects of any of these areas being recommended for wilderness designation.

How to comment:

Analysis

The inventory and evaluation have resulted in 13 areas, totaling 67,996 acres, which are evaluated as having wilderness characteristics. These lands have characteristics that could make them appropriate to include in the National Wilderness Preservation System. The third step in the wilderness process is to analyze the effects that any wilderness recommendation would have on the ecological, social, and economic landscape (FSH 1909.12, Chapter 70).

Based on the evaluation and input from the public, the Responsible Official has determined that the 13 areas with wilderness characteristics will be carried forward for analysis in one or more of the alternatives in the Draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS) . See this document  describing how each of the 13 areas evaluated as having wilderness characteristics has been incorporated as a recommended wilderness management area in one or more alternatives.



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