|
BLUERIBBON COALITION, INC.
NEWS RELEASE
CONTACT: Don Amador
PHONE: 925.625.6287
DATE: April 16, 2001
COALITION FILES AN APPEAL - SAYS SIERRA FRAMEWORK
DECISION IS FLAWED
OAKLEY, CA -- A national recreation group filed
an appeal today of a Clinton administration planning
effort that could affect public access to national
forests in the Sierra Nevada mountain range. The
deadline for appealing the Sierra Nevada Forest
Plan Amendment Final Environmental Impact Statement
(FEIS) is April 17, 2001.
 The
BlueRibbon Coalition, a non-profit multiple-use
advocacy organization, is asking that the FEIS be
withdrawn because it failed to include the topic
of "recreation" as one of the five issue areas addressed
by this Forest Service environmental document. The
National Environmental Policy Act requires that
the agency produces a coherent and meaningful proposal.
According to Don Amador, the western representative
for the Coalition, "I think the agency's willful
omission of the 'recreation issue' is reason alone
for our organization to ask the Forest Service to
withdraw the document and start a new process that
includes various recreational activities."
"I think the FEIS in its current form presents
a great risk to developed and dispersed recreational
activities on the ski slopes and snowmobile trails
at Mammoth Lakes and other areas. It also could
impact the summer and winter recreation programs
that exist in places like the Gold Lakes Recreation
Area on the Plumas and Tahoe National Forests,"
Amador concludes.
|
