Dear Interested Citizen,
The George Washington & Jefferson National Forests is providing the draft Environmental Assessment (EA) for the Forest-wide Open Lands Vegetation Project for a 30-day notice and comment period. The project area includes open and semi-open lands, extended road corridors, and utility corridors that occur within the George Washington & Jefferson National Forest’s Ranger Districts and Recreation Areas. There are 60,838 acres of extended road corridors, 10,239 acres of open and semi-open lands, and 3,754 acres of utility corridors in the project area. The project proposal includes a suite of activities by which the Forest can manage early successional habitat in these resource areas. The project also proposes to expand the 2010 Forest-wide Non-native Invasive Plant project to allow herbicide application on native plant species using the same herbicides, application techniques, and acreage limits described in that project. These proposed activities would maintain current desired conditions and move project areas towards desired conditions outlined in the Land and Resource Management Plans for both Forests. The draft EA documents the site-specific analysis for implementing the proposed action, as required by the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969 (NEPA). The proposed project is an activity implementing a land management plan and is subject to pre-decisional objection process at 36 CFR 218 Subparts A and B.
Information on the proposed action and associated analysis documents can be viewed online at:
https://www.fs.usda.gov/r08/gwj/projects/66727 ]
We welcome your involvement and encourage your review of and comments on this analysis. Specific comments on how to improve the proposal, what you prefer in other alternatives, or important things you think we missed, are very helpful. We can better respond to your comments if you are as specific as possible and if you cite the location(s) in the document to which you are directing your comments. If you reference other documents in your comments, please attach complete copies, or links to them. If complete copies are not available, please provide the cover page and applicable pages from them.
Substantive comments provide factual information, professional opinion, or informed judgment that is relevant to the action being proposed. Substantive comments are specific, comparative, or solution oriented. A substantive comment provides reasons why and goes beyond just expressing an opinion. While all comments will be considered, substantive comment related to the alternatives are the most useful.
Comments may be submitted through the project comment page located here:
https://cara.fs2c.usda.gov/Public/CommentInput?project=66727
Electronic comments may be uploaded as Microsoft Word documents (.doc or .docx), portable document files (.pdf), rich text format (.rtf), text (.txt), or hypertext markup language (.html) files. Comments may also be mailed to George Washington & Jefferson National Forests, Supervisor’s Office, 5162 Valleypointe Parkway, Roanoke, Virginia, 24019.
Comments must be submitted within 30 calendar days following the publication of this notice in the Roanoke Times. The first day is counted the day after the legal notice publishes. Only those who submit timely and specific comments during one of the comment periods will be eligible to object. In order to file an objection, each individual or representative from each organization submitting comments must each sign the comments or verify identity upon request. Any individual or entity that provided timely, substantive, specific written comments during the scoping period that began in October 2024 or during this 30-day notice and comment period will meet the eligibility to object.
Please contact Jay Garcia, Forest Wildlife Biologist, by phone (540) 265-5114, or by email at jay.garcia@usda.gov if you have questions concerning this project. Thank you for your continued interest in the management of the George Washington and Jefferson National Forests.
Jay Garcia
