Your Opinion On Rim Timber

Sonora, CA — Stanislaus National Forest Officials want your thoughts on the final draft of the plan for removal of timber charred by the Rim Fire. Something they hope to have started by April.

The Draft Rim Fire Hazard Tree Project Environmental Assessment has been issued. Yesterday a 30-day public comment period began. The goal is to improve public health and safety. The plan is to remove hazardous trees along 194 miles of high use roads and across 1,329 acres of National Forest lands within and adjacent to developed facilities. The project would also include road maintenance on over 170 miles of roads.

Forest Service Spokesperson Don Ferguson says, “It would be great to recover cost and to get the economic value from those trees, and that value is decreasing rapidly because they’re dead [trees] and beginning to rot, ” said Ferguson.

 

Ferguson adds they hope to have the final decision on the project’s environmental assessment by mid-April and then they can start cutting down the trees. “It will be offered for timber sales, probably more than one sale. We’re out looking at those prospective timber unit sales now and just getting our prep work done in the hope that we have our record of decision pretty quick, so we can offer that wood for sale,” said Ferguson.

 

To comment on the draft you can mail letters to the Stanislaus National Forest; Attn: Rim HT; 19777 Greenley Road; Sonora, CA 95370 or you can fax a letter to FAX (209) 533-1890. You can also comment online at comments-pacificsouthwest-stanislaus@fs.fed.us with Subject: Rim HT.

Click here to view the draft.