Legal Notice Comment Period Large Snag Removal Forest Plan Amendment
The Sierra National Forest notice announces a new combined scoping and comment period for the Large Snag Removal Forest Plan Amendment ("plan amendment") to the Land Management Plan for the Sierra National Forest (LMP) as additional potential substantive requirements have been identified. The purpose of the plan amendment is to remove heavy fuel loading from the designated treatment areas to allow for effective reforestation to move the area towards desired conditions, prevent future reburns which would move the project area away from Wildlife Habitat Management Area (WHMA) desired conditions and to allow for cost effective timber removal that defrays the cost of treatment and allows treatment to occur. To address the purpose and need, the proposed amendment would amend Standard MA-WHMA-STD 01 of the LMP. This amendment would allow the removal of 45 inch and greater snags in strategic areas of the Garnet Post Fire Restoration Project (Project) area. Additional information about the proposed amendment, including the specific change, is available on the Sierra National Forest website at: https://www.fs.usda.gov/r05/sierra/projects/68972. The Sierra National Forest Supervisor is the Responsible Official for approval of the plan amendment. The scale of this plan amendment is project specific. The scope of this plan amendment is for the Project only. The related substantive requirements of 36 CFR 219.8 through 11 including those that have been newly identified are as follows: 36 CFR 219.9 (a) Ecological sustainability (1) Ecosystem Integrity (i)Interdependence of terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems in the plan area; (v) Wildland fire and opportunities to restore fire adapted ecosystems; (vi) Opportunities for landscape scale restoration; 36 CFR 219.9 (a) Ecosystem Plan Components; (1)Ecosystem integrity; (2) Ecosystem diversity (i) Key characteristics associated with terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems types; (b) Additional, species-specific plan components related to California spotted owl and Pacific fisher; (c) Species of conservation concern related to northern goshawk, great gray owl; 36 CFR 219.10 (a) Integrated resource management for multiple use (1)….fish and wildlife species, ….habitat and habitat connectivity, ,..timber…. and other relevant resources and uses and 36 CFR 219.11 (c) Timber harvest for purposes other than timber generation. The Forest Service will accept comments on this proposal for 30 days following publication of this legal notice, which is the exclusive means for calculating the comment period. This new 30-day comment period is the only public participation opportunity during which substantive formal comment, as defined in 36 CFR §219.62, may be submitted for the substantive requirements proposal. Written comments may be submitted via postal mail to Dean Gould, Forest Supervisor, c/o Judi Tapia, 1600 Tollhouse Road, Clovis, CA 93611. Electronic comments must be submitted as an email message, plain text (.txt), rich text (.rtf), Word (.doc) or portable document format (.pdf) to comments-pacificsouthwest-sierra@usda.gov. with subject line: Garnet Amendment. Please include in written comments: your name, address, telephone number, and organization represented, if any; title of the project; and specific facts, concerns, or issues, and supporting reasons why they should be considered. Emergency authority has been requested using the Secretary of Agriculture's Memorandum titled "Increasing Timber Production and Designating an Emergency Situation on National Forest Lands" (https://www.usda.gov/directives/sm-1078-006). The Project area falls within the EAD, and using 1078-006 will increase efficiency while still maintaining compliance with all federal laws and regulations. The EAD allows the Project and the plan amendment to be exempt from the objection procedures in 36 CFR §219 Subpart B. For further information, contact Judi Tapia, judith.tapia@usda.gov.
IPL0339657
May 13 2026