Comments needed on Forest Salvage and Sanitation Project

Bighorn National Forest officials are inviting comments as they evaluate possible environmental effects associated with small salvage, sanitation or recovery treatments such as limited commercial harvesting, non-commercial tree thinning, and tree planting to respond to future forest mortality events, developing insect activity, and ongoing chronic forest health issues across the Forest. 

According to a news release, the area of potential activities would include National Forest System lands excluding inventoried roadless areas and those management areas which do not align with the proposed actions.

About 290,000 acres of the 1.1-million-acre Bighorn National Forest could be considered as potential project areas, excluding wilderness areas, recommended wilderness areas, research natural areas, inventoried roadless areas, and non-Forest Service lands. Although the potential project area is large, proposed activities would be limited to modest applications, anticipated to be no more than 250 acres per treatment type.

Please submit your written comments to comments-bighorn@usda.gov with “Salvage Sanitation” in the subject line within 30 days of the legal notice publication that will be noted on the Forest projects webpage, https://www.fs.usda.gov/projects/bighorn/landmanagement/projects.  

For more information, please contact Matt Rathbone, 2013 Eastside 2nd Street, Sheridan, WY 82801; telephone 674-2686; or email matthew.rathbone@usda.gov.