The San Juan National Forest, Columbine Ranger District, is accepting public comment on a pre-decisional draft Environmental Assessment for the Baldy Mountain Vegetation Management Project. The project area encompasses about 3,000 acres in the Beaver Meadows area northeast of Bayfield.
The proposed action is to conduct salvage and sanitation harvest of dead and beetle-infested spruce trees within harvest units totaling about 2,400 acres within the larger Baldy analysis area. Activities could occur year-round. The project could also include associated system road maintenance; temporary use, construction and decommissioning or rehabilitation of nonsystem roads and skid trails; treatment of noxious weeds; reforestation planting; and off-site trail mitigation for the improvement of watershed conditions.
The EA, including maps, is available online at www.fs.usda.gov/project/?project=55305.
Written comments should be submitted by no later than Aug. 2 to the Columbine District Ranger, P.O. Box 439, 367 Pearl Street, Bayfield, CO 81122, or by email to comments-rocky-mountain-san-juan-columbine@fs.fed.us.
For more information, or for a hard copy of the EA, contact the Columbine Ranger District at 884-2512, or visit the above website.
