Sierra National Forest Credit: USDA

July 27, 2019 - USDA Forest Service - Forest Plan Revision - July 31 Virtual Office Hours Update

Good afternoon,

The Sequoia and Sierra National Forests released our revised draft land management plans that provide long-term forest management direction for drought-devastated central and southern Sierra Nevada. These revised draft plans are accompanied by a combined revised draft environmental impact statement. We are asking for your formal written comments on all three documents by September 26, 2019. The documents can be found on the project website at: https://tinyurl.com/USFS-r5planrevision.

To help you better understand the content of our revised draft documents, we invite you to join our online only Virtual Office Hours session on Wednesday, July 31st from 11:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. (Pacific). Virtual Office Hours are a chance to engage in a conversation with plan revision team members. We'll gather your questions, ask clarifying questions to better understand your concerns, point you to key places in the documents where you can learn more about your interests, and respond to your questions during the call or in follow up notes.

Previous emails on the Virtual Office Hours requested you submit questions in advance for our team's consideration. Thank you to all who submitted questions by yesterday's deadline - they will be addressed during the July 31st session. If you have not yet submitted your questions, we encourage you to send them to Plan Revision Team Lead, Fariba Hamedani, at fariba.hamedani@usda.gov as soon as you can. We may be able to respond during the call or in our Virtual Office Hours notes that will be posted on the project website following the session. All other questions will be addressed during the August 14th Virtual Office Hours session or follow up notes.

To facilitate a smooth conversation, we organized the Virtual Office Hours discussion into segments. Segment One from 11:00-12:00 will cover Wildfire, Timber, and Wildlife Management. Segment Two from 12:00-1:00 will cover Aquatics, Recreation, and Other Management. Each segment will start with a short introduction to the topics followed by a gathering of all related questions from participants. The planning team members may ask clarifying questions to better understand the nature of your concerns and will provide responses on the call or in writing in the follow up notes. Your engagement during these sessions will help us better understand where we can improve our analysis and plan direction.

We will be sharing visual aids via WebEx webinar platform. If you have not already done so, please register for the July 31st webinar: here. To ensure you are connected to the webinar meeting room on time, please sign in 10 minutes before the session starts. It is important that you first sign into the webinar platform via the registration link, then connect to audio using your attendee ID. To connect to audio, follow the directions after entering the webinar meeting room or use this Webinar Connection Guide (pdf). If you choose to join by conference call only, please use the following connection information: 888-844-9904, Access code: 4798605#. Technical issues can be directed to Alice Lee at alice.lee@usda.gov.

Please note that questions, comments or concerns shared during the Virtual Office Hours sessions do not qualify as a formal written comment for the record. Please visit the Public Involvement and Outreach section of the project website at https://tinyurl.com/USFS-r5planrevision for more information on how to submit formal written comments. We will also share this information during the office hours sessions. 

This isn't your last opportunity to engage with us during the 90-day comment period. We will host another online only Virtual Office Hours session on August 14th from 11:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. (Pacific). In addition, the Sequoia National Forest is hosting an in-person public workshop on August 20th, 5:30-8:30 p.m., at The Station by Kern County Fire Fighters, 7900 Downing Ave., Bakersfield, CA 93308. The Sierra National Forest is hosting an in-person public workshop on August 21st, 5:30-8:30 p.m., at Clovis Veteran's Memorial District building, 808 4th St., Clovis, CA 93612. For further information, you can also reach out at any time to Plan Revision Team Lead, Fariba Hamedani, at 707-562-9121 or by email to fariba.hamedani@usda.gov.

Thank you for your continued interest in the management of your public lands.

Sincerely,

Dean Gould, Forest Supervisor, Sierra National Forest

Teresa Benson, Forest Supervisor, Sequoia National Forest
Source: USDA

Related: Sierra and Sequoia National Forests Plan Revision Update - Public Webinar Today, July 10, on Revised Draft Environmental Impact Statement and Revised Draft Land Management Plans