Forest Service explains new objection policy

SUPERIOR – At the weekly meeting of the County Commissioners, Forest Service representatives detailed a new system for how to voice objections to projects.

The speakers were Chris Partyka, environmental coordinator of the Lolo National Forest, and Tawnya Brummett, district ranger at the Superior Ranger Station. The new system was outlined in a PowerPoint presentation.

The core of the new objection regulations is expected to draw people into the discussion process and allow the Forest Service to make better decisions with more accurate information. The changes should also help prevent repeat situations of what has happened with the Cedar Thom project.

The Cedar Thom project is a forest reclamation project designed to eliminate overgrown brush and dead plant life. The goal of the project is to hinder the spread of wildfires and preserve the environment. For the last several months, the project has run into numerous hurdles as people have made claims the project will cause problems for trout populations in the nearby streams.

The issue in Cedar Thom, as described by Partyka and Brummett, has been with how people have been able to enter the debate to raise objections. According to Brummett, some of these objections have been issues, which were never mentioned before in meetings.

Another problem has been with people who raise objection, which have no relevance with the previous objections they raised. The hope is for the new process to lessen some of these problems.

“It does increase the likelihood of resolving concerns rather than having to go to litigation at the tail end of the process,” said Partyka. “It doesn’t eliminate litigation…but it hopefully allows us a little more transparency to work through issues before we make a decision.”

Brummett said some groups would send a large packet of information to any environmental projects where public comments were accepted. This would cause problems and slow down the process because the Forest Service would be required to address all the information in the packet before they could move forward.

Brummett believes this may be the main purpose behind the tactic’s use. She said the new process would allow the Forest Service to disregard the unrelated information.

Under the new objection process, only people who have given specific comments can continue to raise objections. These continued comments must be relevant to the project under discussion, relevant to a past objection raised and clearly explains how the plan breaks any rules. Objections must also have a link to a prior comment raised in the discussions.

“The public comes in and they make a comment on forest planning issues that are outside the scope of what we proposed to do in this project, that eliminates those comments…from the objection process,” said Partyka.

The new regulations also allow objections to be rejected. If a person missed a deadline or it is determined the comment is unrelated to what is discussed, the objection can be dismissed and no longer needs to be considered by the Forest Service planners.

According to Partyka, once an objection is filed, the information is reviewed and then either deemed valid or dismissed. After the review has been completed, a meeting can be scheduled to determine possible solutions to the issues. Once final decisions have been made on a comment’s validity, the person who raised the comment will be notified of the decision and, if the objection is a valid problem with an agreed upon solution, any necessary action will be taken.

The hope is for the new system to make the objection process more efficient. Partyka described it as a way to funnel objections and comments to project organizers and allow only relevant information to be considered.

“We’re hoping that this objection process will help us get it all out on the table early on where we can all talk about it,” said Brummett.

For more information on the new regulations, contact Partyka or Brummett. To contact Partyka, call 826-4355/329-3791 or email  cpartyka@fs.fed.us. To contact Brummett, call 822-3928 or email tbrummett@fs.fed.us.