Comment deadline for revised logging proposal at Buffalo project BHNF

Forest Service says:

Due to changes in the planning process and proposed action for this project, an additional comment period will be conducted. . Additional information is available on the Buffalo project website: https://www.fs.usda.gov/r02/blackhills/projects/67248

 

In notice says:

” The 30-day public comment period for the Buffalo project was initiated on March 4, 2025, via a legal notice published in the Black Hills Pioneer, the newspaper of record for the Northern Hills Ranger District. On April 3, 2025, US Department of Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins issued Secretarial Memo 1078-66: Increasing Timber Production and Designating an Emergency Situation on National Forest System Lands. This memo makes an Emergency Action Determination (EAD) under section 40807 of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act. Per direction issued by Jacqueline Emmanuel, Acting Deputy Chief of the Forest Service, relating to the Secretarial Memo: All actions eligible within the lands covered will use this EAD authority as the default approach including ongoing actions. Because the entirety of the Buffalo project area is within an area identified as being in an emergency situation, the EAD authorities will be used for the Buffalo Project. As such, the Buffalo Project will not be subject to the pre-decisional objection process provided by 36 CFR 218, and the decision on this project, when rendered, will be final. 

In response to the Secretarial Memo referenced above and Executive Order 14225: Immediate Expansion of American Timber Production issued on March 1, 2025, the proposed action for the Buffalo project has been modified. Prior to finalization of the environmental assessment for the Buffalo project, we will collect additional comments on the modified proposed action for a period of ten (10) days, beginning the day after the date of this letter. A modified project description is available online at https://www.fs.usda.gov/r02/blackhills/projects/67248. Comments may be submitted online at: https://cara.fs2c.usda.gov/Public/CommentInput?Project=67248, via email to NorthernHillsComments@usda.gov, or via hardcop