United States Department of Agriculture Forest Service Rio Grande National Forest Land Management Plan Final Environmental Impact Statement: Volume II Appendix D: Public Involvement and Response to Comments Alamosa, Archuleta, Conejos, Hinsdale, Mineral, Rio Grande, Saguache, and San Juan Counties, Colorado April 2020 Crestone Peak viewed through the Natural Arch In accordance with Federal civil rights law and U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) civil rights regulations and policies, the USDA, its Agencies, offices, and employees, and institutions participating in or administering USDA programs are prohibited from discriminating based on race, color, national origin, religion, sex, gender identity (including gender expression), sexual orientation, disability, age, marital status, family/parental status, income derived from a public assistance program, political beliefs, or reprisal or retaliation for prior civil rights activity, in any program or activity conducted or funded by USDA (not all bases apply to all programs). 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Rio Grande National Forest Land Management Plan Final Environmental Impact Statement: Volume ll Appendix D: Public Involvement and Response to Comments i Contents Contents ........................................................................................................................................ iii Public Involvement and Response to Comments ...................................................................... 1 Introduction .................................................................................................................................. 1 Air Quality (AIR) ......................................................................................................................... 14 Climate Change (CC) ................................................................................................................. 16 Congressionally Designated Trails (CDT) ................................................................................. 19 Cultural Resources (CR) ............................................................................................................ 39 Fire (FIRE) ................................................................................................................................. 41 Fisheries (FISH) ......................................................................................................................... 43 Geology, Energy, and Minerals (MIN) ....................................................................................... 47 Infrastructure (INFR) .................................................................................................................. 53 Aquatic and Terrestrial Nonnative Invasive Species and Noxious Weeds (NNIS) .................... 60 Lands and Special Uses (LAND) ............................................................................................... 65 Management and Geographic Areas (MGA) ............................................................................. 66 Monitoring .................................................................................................................................. 74 National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) ................................................................................ 77 National Forest Management Act (NFMA) ................................................................................. 82 Plan Components (PC) .............................................................................................................. 84 Public Participation .................................................................................................................... 92 Range (RNG) ............................................................................................................................. 96 Recreation (REC) ..................................................................................................................... 106 Riparian .................................................................................................................................... 118 Roadless .................................................................................................................................. 126 Socioeconomics and Ecosystem Services (SOCIO) ............................................................... 127 Soils (SOIL) .............................................................................................................................. 133 Special Interest Areas and Research Natural Areas (SIA) ...................................................... 135 Vegetation (VEG) ..................................................................................................................... 139 Water (WA) .............................................................................................................................. 175 Wilderness (WILD) ................................................................................................................... 188 Wildlife (WLDF) ........................................................................................................................ 198 Wild, Scenic, and Recreational Rivers (WSRR) ...................................................................... 232 iii List of Tables Table 1. Name of commenters to the draft environmental impact statement and draft forest plan ................. 1 Table 2. Treatment of nonnative invasive species on the Forest, 2004–2018 ...............................................62 Table 3. Primitive and semiprimitive motorized route miles by alternative ...................................................111 Table 4. Recreation opportunity spectrum class acres in upper tier roadless areas (percentage) ...............111 Table 5. Existing motorized and nonmotorized trail miles, by alternative .....................................................113 Table 6. Regional guidelines for old forest criteria .......................................................................................151 Table 7. Criteria used to determine old forest ..............................................................................................152 List of Figures Figure 1. Comparison of annual forest products production estimates between the 1992 plan, 2017 DEIS, and 2019 FEIS .............................................................................................................................................145 iv Rio Grande National Forest Land Management Plan Final Environmental Impact Statement Volume II: Appendix D Public Involvement and Response to Comments Public Involvement and Response to Comments This document contains the responses to the public comments that were received for the Rio Grande National Forest Draft Revised Land Management Plan. Introduction The draft environmental impact statement and forest plan were released for public review for 90 days. The Notice of Availability of the draft environmental impact statement and draft forest plan appeared in the Federal Register on September 29, 2017. Some of the specific changes made to the selected alternative based on public and interagency engagement includes: • Combining and correcting direction in the forest plan; • Reframing management approaches and how they are used in the direction; • Refining direction for Canada lynx based on the best available science that became available after the public comment period. Other components of the involvement and transparency of the public involvement efforts associated with this planning effort include the information made available to the public through the forest plan revision website. As a result of this review, approximately 465 letters of comment were received. People who submitted comments on the draft environmental impact statement and draft forest plan are listed in Table 1. Table 1. Name of commenters to the draft environmental impact statement and draft forest plan Letter Signatories Title/Organization Number 1 Brady Van Matre 2 C. Howes 3 Ian Nelson 4 Stu Mennitt 5 David Spencer 6 Meryl Ennis 7 Douglas W. Camp DMA 8 James 9 Kristina "Kay" Crowder Project Coordinator, Solid Waste Management/San Luis Valley 10 Kelsey Urie Ecosystem Council 11 Ana Ruiz 12 Dan and Liz Murray 13 Karl Ford 1 USDA Forest Service