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Resource Name (Heading 1) Forest Plan Amendments for Motorized Access Management within the Selkirk and Cabinet-Yaak Grizzly Bear Recovery Zones Kootenai, Lolo, and Idaho Panhandle National Forests (Montana and Idaho) Summary of Public Comments Received on Draft Supplemental EIS November 2011 Forest Service Enterprise Unit 1602 Ontario St. Sandpoint, ID 83864 208-265-6621 The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) prohibits discrimination in all its programs and activities on the basis of race, color, national origin, age, disability, and where applicable, sex, marital status, familial status, parental status, religion, sexual orientation, genetic information, political beliefs, reprisal, or because all or part of an individual's income is derived from any public assistance program. (Not all prohibited bases apply to all programs.) Persons with disabilities who require alternative means for communication of program information (Braille, large print, audiotape, etc.) should contact USDA's TARGET Center at (202) 720-2600 (voice and TDD). To file a complaint of discrimination, write to USDA, Director, Office of Civil Rights, 1400 Independence Avenue, S.W., Washington, D.C. 20250-9410, or call (800) 795-3272 (voice) or (202) 720- 6382 (TDD). USDA is an equal opportunity provider and employer. Summary of Public Comments on the DSEIS for Motorized Access Management Within the Selkirk and Cabinet-Yaak Grizzly Bear Recover Zones Table of Contents Introduction ..................................................................................................................................... 1 Content Analysis Process ................................................................................................................ 2 List of Commenters ......................................................................................................................... 2 Public Concern Statements (PCs), Response to PCs, and All Public Comments Associated with each PC ............................................................................................................................................ 6 Air Quality ....................................................................................................................................... 7 Alternatives ..................................................................................................................................... 8 Best Available Science .................................................................................................................. 39 Fire ................................................................................................................................................ 43 Fish ................................................................................................................................................ 46 Forest Plan ..................................................................................................................................... 49 Management Indicator Species...................................................................................................... 53 NEPA............................................................................................................................................. 53 Plants ............................................................................................................................................. 62 Public Involvement ........................................................................................................................ 65 Recreation ...................................................................................................................................... 69 Roads ............................................................................................................................................. 82 Social Economic ............................................................................................................................ 92 Soils ............................................................................................................................................... 97 Threatened, Endangered and Sensitive Species ............................................................................ 98 Timber ......................................................................................................................................... 158 Watershed .................................................................................................................................... 160 Outside of Scope ......................................................................................................................... 162 Vote ............................................................................................................................................. 165 Appendix A – Content Analysis Process ..................................................................................... 167 Appendix B – Coding Structure .................................................................................................. 169 Appendix C - Demographics ....................................................................................................... 172 Appendix D – List of Preparers ................................................................................................... 174 Introduction The Idaho Panhandle, Kootenai, and Lolo National forests released the “Motorized Access Management within the Selkirk and Cabinet-Yaak Grizzly Bear Recovery Zones” Draft Supplemental EIS in the Federal Register on May 8, 2009 to begin the official comment period, which ended on June 22, 2009. The Forests received a total of 86 comment letters from Tribes, individuals, organizations, agencies, business owners, and elected officials and were received by U.S. Post Office or email. All of the comment letters were analyzed using a process called content analysis, which was completed by a third-party contractor (see detailed process in the project record). In addition to the reports that were produced from the content analysis process, the Interdisciplinary Team (IDT) members read all of the comment letters. Of the 86 comment letters that contained unique and substantially different comments, there were 857 comments that were coded, analyzed, addressed, and entered into an Access database. The 857 comments were then associated with Public Concern statements (PCs) and the IDT then developed responses to each of the PCs. There were 167 PCs and they begin on page 7. 1 Summary of Public Comments on the DSEIS for Motorized Access Management Within the Selkirk and Cabinet-Yaak Grizzly Bear Recover Zones Content Analysis Process The Forest Service followed a systematic process of carefully logging-in, numbering, reading, coding and summarizing all viewpoints and concerns that were submitted. The comments that were most helpful were those that were unique, substantially different, and were specifically related to the analysis disclosed in the DSEIS. In addition to capturing unique and substantially different comments, this report attempts to reflect the emotion and strength of public sentiment in order to represent the public’s values and concerns as fairly as possible. When an individual raised multiple concerns within the same letter, each unique comment was numbered and tracked separately. Each comment was assigned a unique tracking number and coded by subject or topic (see Appendices for the detailed content analysis process and for the coding structure). Once the unique and substantially different comments were coded, concerns raised by different commenters on the same subject and with the same intent and issue were grouped and summarized into public concern statements that capture the essence of those like-concerns. In this way, multiple comments may be addressed by one response. In some cases, more nuanced or complex concerns may be answered through multiple responses to multiple concern statements, or they may have a single response dedicated to just that specific commenter. It is important to keep in mind that even though the public concern statements attempt to capture the full range of public issues and concerns, they should be reviewed with the understanding that there is no limitation on who submits comments. Therefore, the comments received do not necessarily represent the sentiments of the public as a whole. This report attempts to provide fair representation of the wide range of views submitted. Every comment has the same value, whether expressed by many, or by one respondent. Analyzing comments is not a vote-counting process. The Forest Service response to the public comments, which in some cases resulted in changes to the DEIS, was not determined by majority opinion but rather by the substance of the comments. The content analysis process ensured that every comment was read, analyzed, and considered. List of Commenters Each public concern statement is accompanied by a response that was developed by subject matter experts. In addition, each PC and response is accompanied by all of the public comments associated with each PC. The public comments provide commenter’s specific perspectives and rationale regarding that concern. For each public comment, it indicates the letter number after the comment, enabling the reader to track and review the original comment letters, if desired (see the column Letter No. in Table 1). The primary purpose is to provide a topical review of voluminous comments
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