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Supes to have first road plan powwow with Forest Service |
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Thursday, 15 January 2009 |
 As the U.S. Forest Service prepares to move forward with its Route Designation and Travel Management Plan, which aims to assess and designate more than 3,000 miles of roads in the Inyo National Forest, the Inyo County Board of Supervisors is preparing to meet with the federal agency to coordinate work on the project. File photo By Mike Gervais
Register Staff
1-13-2009 Months of correspondence and planning will pay off today as the Inyo County Board of Supervisors and U.S. Forest Service meet for the first time to coordinate on the Inyo National Forest Travel Management Plan and other operations involving the two entities.
The coordination meeting will take place at 2 p.m. today, during the regularly scheduled Board of Supervisors meeting in Independence.
By the board invoking coordination, a federal stipulation that ensures local governments are involved in decision making on the federal level, the U.S. Forest Service is required to give the supervisors a seat at the table as it prepares to move forward with its Travel Management Plan.
“We’ll be there as a resource, to answer any questions,” said Inyo National Forest Public Information Officer Nancy Upham.
The meeting will open and close with public comments, providing residents and visitors who have concerns about the route management process to go on record. Following public comment, the two agencies will dive right into business.
To kick things off, the Forest Service will provide an update on the Travel Management Plan.
With the county and many interested and/or concerned residents eagerly awaiting the release of the Draft Environmental Impact Statement on the Travel Management Plan, the board hopes to get a first-hand look at where the Forest Service is at in the process of cataloging and designating more than 3,000 miles of roads in the Inyo National Forest.
According to Upham, the DEIS on the Travel Management Plan will not be available to the public until next week, at the earliest, so the Forest Service will not comment on “any of the specific contents of that document.”
The earliest the Forest Service will be able to discuss the specific contents of the document “will be Feb. 3, that’s when we can really start delving in,” Upham said.
After the review from the Forest Service, the board has agendized a discussion regarding the Travel Management Plan’s consistency with the county’s General Plan – its guidelines and goals for everything from planning and development to recreation and housing.
In the past, the board has expressed concern regarding negative effects the plan can have on cultural activities in the Owens Valley, in direct contrast to the county General Plan.
“It just doesn’t make any sense,” then-Fourth District Supervisor Jim Bilyeu said late last year during a discussion with Inyo National Forest Supervisor Jim Upchurch. “People have been using these roads for hundreds of years” and now they are slated for closure.
“By God this is un-American,” Third District Supervisor Beverly Brown said earlier this year, noting that some road closures will prevent Native Americans and others from reaching traditional hunting and pine nut gathering areas.
The roads are being considered for closure as the result of a federally-mandated assessment of all tracks on the forest that began more than two years ago. The Forest Service cataloged every road it could find in the Inyo National Forest, and made a map of those that will remain open. Those slated for closure were thrown onto a list.
Many Inyo County residents, as well as the Bishop City Council and Inyo County Board of Supervisors, have protested the fact that their favorite roads were not included in the Inventoried Motorized Travel Management Plan, or route designation plan.
Next on the agenda is a discussion about private property acquisitions by the Forest Service
According to First District Supervisor Linda Arcularius, the county hopes to open the lines of communication with the Forest Service when it comes to the federal agency’s land swaps.
The board would like to know “how the Forest Service does its trades, and if it results in private property reduction in Inyo County,” Arcularius said yesterday. “We’d just like to be informed.”
The final topic of discussion on the agenda will be a talk about recovery operations following the Inyo Complex Fire in July 2007 and the resulting Inyo Complex Flood in July 2008.
The Forest Service had a large hand in the mop-up operations following the fire, and, after the flood this year, the agency had questions and concerns about the culvert replacement on Oak Creek.
“We just want an update on where they’re at because they had a big role in that,” Arcularius said.
The Forest Service and Board of Supervisors are also scheduled to discuss future meeting schedules, which the board has said it would like to conduct on Tuesdays, during its regular meeting, and future agenda items, which will likely include a review of the DEIS on the Travel Management Plan.
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Last Updated ( Saturday, 25 April 2009 )
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