STURGIS, S.D. – Meade County Commissioners accuse the Forest Service of rushing their process for their new forest plan.
The agency announced recently that comments on the plan would be accepted for 45 days.
The commission, however, says the Forest Service is rushing the process to meet a pre-determined schedule rather than encouraging a process that properly engages stakeholders or properly assess the current resources of the Black Hills National Forest.
Their resolution discussed at Tuesday’s meeting calls for a second draft of the assessments be completed by the Forest Service which address data gaps, utilize best available scientific information, refrain from including obsolete data, and omit or acknowledge conflicting statements between assessments, and refrain from bias and/or unsupported statements.
Other counties, including Lawrence, Fall River, Custer and Pennington are listed in the resolution.
Commissioners say Black Hills area counties have been meeting regularly to work on responses to the Forest Revision Draft Assessments. They say the time-frame to complete an assessment is hampered by the volume of information to be reviewed.
Black Hills National Forest officials initiated the process to revise the current Land and Resource Management plan in October 2021, otherwise referred to as the Forest Plan. Forest Plans guide all resource management actions on the Forest.
