Deadline to Comment on National Forest Rule making

The Forest Service (Agency), United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), published an advance notice of proposed rulemaking in the Federal Register on April 21, 2023 initiating a 60-day comment period. The advance notice invited public comment on the following topic and additional questions:

“Given that climate change and related stressors are resulting in increasing impacts with rapid and variable rates of change on national forests and grasslands, how should the Forest Service adapt current policies to protect, conserve, and manage the national forests and grasslands for climate resilience, so that the Agency can provide for ecological integrity and support social and economic sustainability over time?”

In response to feedback from prospective commenters stating that they would benefit from additional time to adequately consider and respond to the advance notice, USDA’s Forest Service has determined that an extension of the comment period by an additional 30 days, from June 20, 2023 to July 20, 2023, is appropriate.  PHAS is not sure of the time-of-day the comments are due, so we suggest use EST – DC time to be safe..

Here is the link to Federal Register with the questions the Forest Service is asking all of us to answer –

https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2023/04/21/2023-08429/organization-functions-and-procedures-functions-and-procedures-forest-service-functions

For Commenting:

Preferred: Federal eRulemaking Portal www.regulations.gov . Mail: Director, Policy Office, 201 14th Street SW, Mailstop 1108, Washington, DC 20250–1124.

All comments received will be posted to www.regulations.gov, including any personal information provided. The public may inspect comments received at www.regulations.gov . Do not submit any information you consider to be private, confidential business information, or other information, of which the disclosure is restricted by statute.

The Forest Service is planning public engagement sessions. For additional information related to the advanced notice of the questions asked and the public engagements visit: https://www.fs.usda.gov/managing-land/sc/policy-initiatives 

https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2023/06/08/2023-12267/organization-functions-and-procedures-functions-and-procedures-forest-service-functions