USFS to release travel management alternatives

The U.S. Forest Service (USFS) will be holding three open houses in the upcoming weeks to release the three proposed alternatives for the West Side Snowy Range Travel Management project. The three locations will be in Elk Mountain, Rawlins and Saratoga.

According to Monique Nelson, Environmental Coordinator at the Laramie District Office, this is in response to the high number of comments as well as stakeholder response.

“We released the Notice of Proposed Action earlier this spring and we received more than 250 public comments on that prosed action for West Snowy Range Travel Management,” said Nelson. “We met as an interdisciplinary team and went through all of those public comments, and drafted some alternatives. We welcomed our cooperators to come and consider those alternatives and help us improve those alternatives at the end of June.”

According to Nelson, cooperators invited included the Saratoga Encampment Rawlins Conservation District, Wyoming Game and Fish and the Bureau of Land Management. Nelson wanted to note that others were invited but unable to attend.

The coordinators recommended that the public should be given time to look at each alternative in an open house setting. Maps with each alternative will be shown. In addition, USFS employees will be present to answer any questions.

“This release is not the start of a public comment period, we just wanted to make sure the public had the alternatives in hand to see what we are considering when we start writing the Environmental Assessment this fall,” Nelson stated.

These three alternatives will be used in the Environmental Assessment that they are expecting to start this fall.

“We won’t be changing the alternatives, so this will not be a public comment opportunity it’s only a discussion opportunity,” said Nelson.

The Elk Mountain open house is from 5-8 p.m. this Thursday at the Elk Mountain Town Hall, Rawlins is from 5- 8 p.m. Aug. 5, at the BLM Rawlins Field Office, and Saratoga is from 5-8 p.m. Aug. 6, at the Platte Valley Community Center.

The alternatives will be posted this week and will be available prior to the first open house at http://www.fs.usda.gov/project/?project=40299, according to the USFS press release.