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County adopts comments on Forest Service's Buffalo project, urges better coordination and cooperating-agency status
Summary
Lawrence County's natural resources committee presented and the commission adopted draft comments on the U.S. Forest Service's Buffalo environmental assessment, urging targeted treatments for high-risk stands, flexibility for on-the-ground adjustments and reinstatement of formal cooperating-agency status for the county.
Lawrence County commissioners accepted and authorized the chairman to sign county comments on the U.S. Forest Service's Buffalo environmental-assessment (EA) project after a Natural Resources Committee briefing.
Committee members and county staff told the board the EA includes opportunities to treat stands at medium-to-high risk for mountain pine beetle but that some proposed treatments seemed misaligned with the highest-risk structural stages. "There was anywhere from 300 to 5,000 acres of heavily stocked stands, which is probably about a third of the project that is in medium to high risk for mountain pine beetle," a committee member said, urging treatments focused on those stands.
County commenters also urged the Forest Service to allow greater flexibility for on-the-ground adjustments and to limit impacts to existing permittees. Committee members said the district ranger has been receptive to field-based modifications and that the county appreciated that willingness.
A second, recurring concern raised in the meeting was cooperation status. County staff and committee members said the Forest Service has shifted toward developing EAs without producing a draft EA stage in some cases and that the county's formal cooperating-agency status has been inconsistently granted; committee members urged renewed cooperating-agency involvement to enable earlier consultation and reduce surprises on project decisions.
Ending: The board approved the comments and authorized the chairman to sign; staff said they will continue to press for formal cooperating-agency status to secure earlier, field-level coordination on future projects.
