The Brush Creek/Hayden Ranger District hosted and open house at the Platte Valley Community Center Thursday night to present maps and three alternatives for the proposed West Side Snowy Range Travel Management Plan. Open houses were held earlier in Elk Mountain and Rawlins.
While attendance was poor in Elk Mountain, seven people, and Rawlins, about one dozen citizens, 35 people came to view maps and a road by road breakdown of the travel management plan alternatives in Saratoga.
Dave Gloss, Hydrologist and Acting District Ranger along with six other district staff were on hand to discuss the project one on one with members of the public. Gloss noted that, “The public wanted copies of the alternatives that we’re considering while they can still access the forest (i.e. before winter sets in).”
Up for consideration are a No Action Alternative (NAA), the Modified Proposed Action (MPA) and a Less Roads Alternative (LRA). The MPA differs from the March 2015 Proposed Action and has addressed some of the concerns after “more than 250 individuals and organizations commented on the original proposal.” State, county and local entities including the Wyoming Game and Fish Department, Carbon County commissioners, Carbon County Planning, the Medicine Bow Conservation District and the Saratoga Encampment Rawlins Conservation District, reviewed the public comments and added their own thoughts and concerns about the project to create the MPA.
According to a summary of the alternatives, “Based on those comments the Modified Proposed Action was developed and includes keeping some roads ‘as is’. Many more roads would be left ‘as is’ in the No Action Alternative.” The USFS has also provided an itemized list of changes to the March 2015 Proposed Action as a result of the public comment process.
The actual analysis of potential impacts of the actions proposed in the alternatives is ongoing and will be completed this winter according to Gloss. The analysis of the alternatives will cover 516 miles of currently open roads, 191 miles of roads already closed to public use and 49 miles of motorized trail. All of the alternatives would leave more than 320 miles of road in the analysis area “as is”.
The MPA includes closing 62.5 miles of currently open road and the LRA includes closing 64 miles. Additionally the MPA considers decommissioning (obliterating) 31.6 miles of currently closed roads.
“The alternatives try to provide the range (of options) for individual roads. So, the alternatives won’t go as a whole, there can be mixing and matching,” Gloss said.
Other actions considered for roads in the analysis area include: converting roads from one level to another, adding unauthorized roads to the official road system, closing unauthorized roads, building new ORV trail and converting roads to ORV trail.
For those who could not make the open house, the materials presented are available online at http://www.fs.usda.gov/project/?project=40299. If you are not an internet user you can contact the Brush Creek/Hayden Ranger District directly at 307-326-5258.
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