How to Submit Comments on Forest Plan Revision

Outside formal comment periods, engagement opportunities to consult, involve, and collaborate with you will be offered. The team and responsible official will consider this input in the development of the proposed plan for scoping. Input gathered during engagement opportunities after scoping will be considered in the development of alternatives, the environmental analysis, and decision.

Formal comment periods will be offered as required by regulation at key milestones in the process and will be advertised in advance. Comments submitted during these periods give parties standing to participate in the objections process. Below is a list of key milestones, and the anticipated timing and length of the comment period. Milestones that align with comment periods include:

Wilderness and Wild and Scenic Rivers Inventories (Spring 2023)

Comments received will be used to refine the inventories, which will then be presented as part of the draft assessment.

Draft Assessment (Summer 2023)

Comments on the draft assessment will be used to develop the final assessment. A potential species of conservation concern list will also be made available for comment concurrently with the draft assessment.

Scoping on Proposed Action (Winter 2023/24)

The scoping package will include a complete draft revised plan and monitoring plan, preliminary need to change, wilderness evaluation, wild and scenic rivers eligibility, and potential species of conservation concern list. Comments will be used to develop alternatives and the draft environmental impact statement (EIS).

Draft Environmental Impact Statement and Plan (Winter 2024/25)

The review package will include a draft plan, revised based on scoping comments, as well as a draft environmental impact statement with alternatives and effects analysis. Comments will be incorporated into a content analysis and reflected in the final environmental impact statement and plan.

Final Environmental Impact Statement and Plan, Draft Record of Decision Objection Process (Fall 2026)

The release of the final environmental impact statement and revised plan will begin the objections process. Those that have commented previously will have standing to object. Following the period to file objections, the process includes an administrative review and response as well as objection resolution meetings. Following the completion of the objections process, the Final Decision and Plan will be released.

The comment process invites you to share your perspective and knowledge to help the responsible official make an informed decision. The comment process does not constitute a vote. Comments are most useful when the provide the “why”. This helps us better understand the underlying interests and context for comments. For example, voicing your preference for a given option is less useful than also providing information on your rationale. Similarly, if you submit scientific literature, it helps if you let us know how it relates to the review material.

Staff assigned to the Lolo revision will read each comment submitted. The content of each letter or message is summarized into themes that help identify issues, areas of commonality, and areas of disagreement. Each comment is responded to in some fashion, and the method of response is recorded. Methods of response can include actions such as the development of an alternative or an adjustment to the effects analysis. The process of summarizing and identifying appropriate responses to comments is known as a “content analysis.”

Your comments become part of the public record for the plan revision. The Revision Team publishes a Public Reading Room online that allows everyone to review submitted comments. In addition, the content analysis and response to public comments will be published in the final environmental impact statement.

The public reading room is not activated during the comment period because of the need to screen comments for inappropriate and/or sensitive information (e.g. public identification of sensitive archeological sites, threats, personally identifiable information, etc.). At the close of the comment period, the revision team reviews the comments that were submitted and completes the manual upload of all comments received via email or hardcopy.

The CARA database automatically masks personal addresses, phone numbers, and email addresses when the information is entered appropriately in the commenting form. It also automatically flags other text that may be inappropriate in the body of the comment. As the team reviews comments, they validate that these automated processes worked appropriately and review comments for any personally identifiable information in the body of the comment. In many cases, this review allows the team to publish comments that were inadvertently flagged by the system. When the presence of inappropriate and/or sensitive information is found in a comment, it is not published to the CARA public reading room but remains part of the official project record and incorporated into the analysis. Comments are not redacted or altered as part of the process to publish the online reading room.

You will find that the reading room displays the commenter's name, their organization if applicable, the date the comment was submitted, the comment text, and attachments that were submitted. If you have questions about locating a specific comment, please reach out to the Revision Team via email.

The CARA platform and reading room is not the official project or administrative record. Having the reading room publicly available is a courtesy to promote transparency in the process. The full and original content of all comments is filed in our official Forest Service filing system and subject to Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) procedures.

The best way to submit your comments is through our online comment database, the Comment Analysis and Response Application (CARA). When comment periods are open a link to CARA will be posted at the top of this page. CARA allows us to collect, organize, and consider many comments efficiently. This is an important process and can be quite lengthy. It helps us if you consider the following tips:

• While we accept comments via email or mail, our preferred method is the CARA webform.
• You can write comments into the field provided in CARA or attach a document. If you attach a document, please convert it to a PDF format if possible.
• Please refrain from using italic, bold, highlighted, or underlined text. This formatting is often removed in the upload process.
  • If CARA does not work for you, you may come into to our office or mail your comments to us:
    Lolo National Forest Supervisor’s Office
    Attn: Lolo Plan Revision Team
    24 Fort Missoula Road Missoula, MT 59804

If necessary, you may also email us at the Revision Inbox to send us your comments