Jacqueline C. Banks
Public Affairs Officer
Kaibab National Forest
928-635-8314
cell 928-606-7490
jcbanks@xxxxxxxxx
Forest Service To Host Public Meeting
Related To Four Forest Restoration Initiative
WILLIAMS, Ariz. – The Forest Service
plans to host a public meeting June 7 from 9 a.m. to noon at the Coconino
National Forest Supervisor’s Office in Flagstaff related to the initial
Four Forest Restoration Initiative (4FRI) Proposed Action.
Specifically, the members of the 4FRI
team will present an overview of the comments received on the initial proposed
action and will display how those comments have been addressed and used
to refine the proposed action. The comments were gathered as part
of scoping, which is required by National Environmental Policy Act procedures.
Scoping is an early and open process for determining key issues to
be addressed in the environmental analysis. The final proposed action
is expected to be released in late June for additional public comment.
The goal is to publish a Draft Environmental Impact Statement in
late fall of 2011.
The June 7 public meeting will be in
the Large Conference Room of the Coconino National Forest Supervisor’s
Office, 1824 S. Thompson St., Flagstaff. For additional information
on the public meeting, please contact Paula Cote, pcote@xxxxxxxxx, (928)
226-4686.
The overall goal of 4FRI is to create
landscape-scale restoration approaches that will provide for fuels reduction,
forest health, and wildlife and plant diversity, at no cost to the government.
A key objective is doing this while creating sustainable ecosystems
and industries in the long term. Appropriately-scaled businesses
will likely play a key role in the effort by harvesting, processing and
selling wood products. The restoration-based work opportunities are
expected to create good jobs across northern Arizona. Additional
information on 4FRI is available at www.fs.usda.gov/4fri.
