The Quartz Enhancement Project Draft Environmental Assessment (EA) is now available for comment. The McKenzie River Ranger District is proposing to actively manage stands on approximately 1,337 acres on the Willamette National Forest. This will be done to provide a sustainable supply of timber products, improve stand conditions as they relate to density, diversity, and structure, increase vegetative habitat complexity along streams and sustainably manage the network of road systems used for this activity. To accomplish this project, the district proposes to harvest about 21 million board feet (MMBF) from 35 managed stands ranging in age from 28 to 77 years old. In these stands, proposed treatments include about 844 acres of commercial thinning while 270 acres would be retained as skips. In addition, 145 acres would be harvested as openings (gaps) and 79 acres of dominant tree releases (DTRs) ranging from 1/4 to 3 acres in size. Although the treatments identified in this project are tracked separately (commercial thinning, gaps, DTR, skips), they will all use variable density thinning treatments to increase variability within any given stand. Accessing harvest units would require about 3.1 miles of temporary road construction, which would utilize previously impacted areas when possible. There would also be approximately 31.8 miles of road maintenance, and approximately 5.3 miles of road decommissioning. The total Quartz project area encompasses 14,508 acres and is located off of Forest Service Road 2618 approximately 10 miles south of the community of Blue River, Oregon. The Quartz Creek 6th Field boundary consists of approximately 27,090 acres within the McKenzie River Ranger District (Figure 2). The legal description for the project area is: T18S, R4E Sections 1-6, 9-15 and 22-24; T18S, R5E Sections 6,7,18 and 19; and T17S, R5E Section 31 Willamette Meridian, Lane County, Oregon. The Draft EA and other related documents are available on the Forest Service Website at: http://www.fs.usda.gov/project/?project=52566 Electronic, written, and oral comments will be accepted. Electronic comments will only be accepted through the Forest Service online comment system available at: https://cara.ecosystem-management.org/Public//CommentInput?Project=52566 Written comments must be submitted to the Responsible Official Darren Cross, McKenzie River Ranger District, at 57600 McKenzie Hwy, McKenzie Bridge, OR 97413. Comments hand delivered (or phoned in to the Ranger at 541-822-7200) to this address will be accepted during normal business hours from 8:00am to 4:30pm Monday through Friday, excluding federal holidays. Comments (including attachments) must be postmarked or delivered within 30 days of the legal notice being published in the Register-Guard, Eugene, OR, the McKenzie River Ranger District’s official newspaper of record. It is the responsibility of persons providing comments to submit them by the close of the comment period and insure that their comments have been received. Only those who submit specific written comments that meet the requirements under Forest Service regulations 36 CFR 218 during the comment period designated by the responsible official will be eligible to participate in the administrative review (objection) process. Specific written comments should be within the scope of the proposed action, have a direct relationship to the proposed action and must include supporting reasons for the responsible official to consider. Comments submitted anonymously will be accepted and considered, but do not meet the requirements under 36 CFR 218 and will not be eligible for administrative review. Comments received in response to this solicitation, including names and addresses of those who comment, will be considered part of the public record for this project, available for public inspection, and released if requested under the Freedom of Information Act. If you have any questions concerning this project, please contact Dean Schlichting, Project Lead at (541) 822-7214 or Darren Cross, McKenzie River District Ranger at (541) 822-7200 or visit the above EA project website. This ad was posted to the Eugene Register Guard on Monday May 14th, 2018 .