Jemez; Santa Fe National Forest

[MountainDon]

This is aimed directly at NM members, in particular those in the mid to northern NM area. Anyone who likes to play in the Jemez Recreational Area of the Santa Fe National Forest. If you live somewhere else your local NF district may also be working on, or have already completed closing miles and miles of roads. You can comment here too.

The Santa Fe National Forest is rigging another project for more road closures. The Santa Fe National Forest has released a draft Purpose and Need for the 'Southwest Jemez Mountains Landscape Restoration Project.  The draft Purpose and Need statement says this:

"Purpose 2 - Improve watershed conditions and reduce road-related impacts to natural and cultural resources.  To achieve this, there is a need for fewer roads." 

This draft Pupose and Need Statement clearly shows that they are already "setting up" the project to close even more roads. There are TWO BIG REASONS why it is SO important to get this fixed:

1.  The draft Purpose and Need Statement for this project "stacks the deck" to ensure the Forest Service will get to close more roads.  This is how it works:

Step 1: (Where we are now)  They issue a Purpose and Need Statement that includes road closures as one of the "needs" for the project.

Step 2: Next, the Purpose and Need statement will be used as the basis for creating the plan, which is called the Proposed Action.  The Proposed Action and any alternatives MUST meet the Purpose and Need statement.  First they stack the deck and then they deal it out.

Step 3: Then the Forest Service will release an environmental document with various alternatives. Since the alternative MUST meet the Purpuse and Need, every single one of the choices presented will close more roads.

Step 4: They choose one of the alternatives as the decision. The Preferred Alternative (representing the Proposed Action) is the one they want, and the one they almost always choose.

2. The Santa Fe National Forest is proposing to close more roads and they haven't even announced the decision on the Travel Management Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) yet!!!  We know that their proposed action in the Travel Management EIS closes more than 50% of the roads in the SFNF including many hundreds of miles in the same area as the 'Restoration Project'.

Let me repeat:  The Forest Service hasn't even announced how many roads they will close under Travel Management and they are already scheming to close even more!  And they are loading the dice to make sure they get want they want.

What can we do?  STOP THEM NOW.  We must get the road removal "need" out of the Purpose and Need statement before it is locked into the project.

There are two things you can do to stop this outrageous proposal:

1.  Show up in force at the two public meetings NEXT WEEK.  Tell the Forest Service clearly that we have had ENOUGH road closures and the loss of public access must stop NOW! Don't hold back, tell them what your really think and feel.

Here are the two meetings:

Date and time:
Thursday, March 29, 2012 | 1:00 - 3:00 pm
Location:
Santa Fe National Forest Supervisor's Office
11 Forest Lane. Santa Fe NM 87508


Date and time:
Saturday, March 31, 2012 | 10:00 am - 12:00 pm
Location:
Valles Caldera Science and Education Center
90 Villa Louis Martin. Jemez Springs, NM 87025

2. Send in a short comment.  Tell the SFNF that they have closed ENOUGH roads already.  Tell them that you want ALL the existing roads left open to ALL of the public.  You can send in an electronic comment by going HERE.

The email address for comments is:
jemezrestoration@fs.fed.us

The postal mail address is:
Susan Bruin
Southwest Jemez Mountains Landscape Restoration
Santa Fe National Forest
11 Forest Lane
Santa Fe, NM  87508

Please do as much as you can. The form is easy, email just about as easy...

Thanks.