TUSAYAN, Ariz. - Officials with the Tusayan Ranger District of the Kaibab National Forest said they plan to prepare a new environmental assessment for the Tusayan Ranger District's Travel Management plan. The decision came following two appeals, filed in response to the district's April Decision Notice and Finding of No Significant Impact for the environmental assessment. A new 30-day comment period on the assessment is scheduled to begin in January.
Kaibab National Forest Public Affairs Specialist Jackie Banks said that officials with the Forest Service would look at a range of alternatives to determine their next step in re-evaluating the environmental assessment.
"The good news is that we are not starting from square one," Banks said. "A substantial amount of environmental analysis has already been done. All of that work will be brought forward into our new planning effort."
According to Banks, two appeals were filed in relation to the Travel Management plan.
"One was filed by an individual wanting expanded motorized big game retrieval. The other was filed by a group of organizations, including the Center for Biological Diversity, the Sierra Club, Grand Canyon Wildlands Council, and WildEarth Guardians," Banks said. "While several minor concerns were raised during this appeal review, the major issue seems to be that the Forest did not develop and analyze an alternative that prohibited motorized big game retrieval. The Tusayan Travel Management decision would have allowed motorized big game retrieval for elk during all seasons."
Following the comment period, forest officials said they would prepare a new Decision Notice and that a Finding of No Significant Impact would be published, or a Notice of Intent to prepare and Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) would be published in the Federal Register. Officials said that comments prepared during the previous public involvement phase of the Tusayan Travel Management's Environmental Assessment would be considered in preparation of the new assessment, but that comments would have to be submitted during the new notice and comment period in order to attain appeal status for the new analysis and decision.
The Tusayan Travel Management plan included an evaluation of motorized travel on roughly 331,427 acres of the Kaibab National Forest's Tusayan Ranger District. Under the most recent decision, the plan would have eliminated 143 miles of road from the existing forest road system. Roughly six miles of unauthorized routes would have also been added to the system, according to Forest Service officials.
For more information on the new environmental assessment, contact Paul Hancock, NEPA coordinator for the Kaibab National Forest's South Zone, at 742 S. Clover Street, Williams, Ariz. 86046 or call (928) 635-5649.
