The U.S. Forest Service, Brush Creek-Hayden (BCH) Ranger District, is seeking public input to help develop future proposals for the West Side Snowy Range Travel Management Project.
The analysis area for the project is located on the west side of the Snowy Range and encompasses approximately 210,000 acres on the Medicine Bow National Forest.
The purpose of this project is to provide safe motorized access to and through the National Forest, minimize user conflicts as well as travel and recreation impacts to natural resources, and to provide additional ATV-only designated trails.
Also, there is a need to address increasing demand for a wide variety of recreational opportunities while recognizing limitations in the amount of roads and trails that can be maintained.
It is important to note that no finalized proposals or determinations have been made by the BCH District on this topic. The hope is for substantive comments from the public regarding specific access needs or resource concerns on the Forest. Those comments will be combined with upcoming Forest Service assessment to determine future proposed actions.
Preliminary proposed actions include determining where existing roads/maintenance levels can be sustained, designation of ATV/UTV-only trails, changing maintenance levels of some Forest roads to better reflect current and future use, seasonal closures on some roads to prevent resource damage, decommissioning roads that are causing resource damage or are duplicative, and possibly adding select user-created (unauthorized) roads into the official (authorized) road system.
Comments will be most useful if received by January 31, 2014. Please be as specific as possible with comments or in expressing concerns so that they can be effectively addressed. This is not the official comment period, as the public will be provided an official 30-day comment period after the proposed action is sent out. During the official comment period any proposed actions will be fully developed for public comment. If you wish to receive project updates as they becomes available, please state such and provide either your mailing or email address.
Written comments should be sent to Brian Waugh, Recreation Program Manager, Brush Creek/Hayden RD, PO Box 249, Saratoga WY, 82331. Comments may also be hand delivered to the BCH office at 2171 Highway 130 during regular business hours of 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., Monday-Friday, excluding federal holidays. Electronic comments should be sent to: comments-rm-medicine-bow-routt-brush-creek-hayden@fs.fed.us (acceptable format for electronic comments: rtf, pdf, word).
Jeff
RockyMountainHikingTrails.com
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