2020 Land Management Plan (Final Plan)

Updated: October 14, 2020

The Custer Gallatin National Forest began working on Forest Plan Revision, January 2016.

The 2020 Land Management Plan, Final Environmental Impact Statement and draft Record of Decision reflects four plus years of interactive involvement with public, stakeholders, other agencies and local, state and tribal governments. Public engagement throughout the multi-year process, included 62 public meetings, 43 webinars, two official public comment periods, various feedback and community kiosk opportunities, a youth poster contest, a science symposium, ranger meetings and various other outlets for information and knowledge sharing, collecting and learning.

The Custer Gallatin National Forest wants to extend their greatest thanks for all the robust public invovlvment to date, your involvement truly helps to build a better forest plan into the future. The objection period closed September 8, 2020. Interested Persons Filing Period is closed and ran from Sept 18-28, 2020.

Final Plan Documents Available

Letter from Forest Supervisor, Mary Erickson

2020 Land Management Plan (Forest Plan) Appendices A - G - Final Plan

Summary - Final Environmental Impact Statement

Draft Record of Decision

Navigate to MAPS in detail (maps are also available in Appendix A of FEIS); GIS Datasets

Final Environmental Impact Statement - Chapters 1, 2, 3 - Part I (Purpose and Need for Action, Alternatives, Affected Environment and Environmental Consequences - Part I)

Final Environmental Impact Statement - Chapter 3 (PART II), Chapter 4 and 5 (Affected Environment Continued, Other Disclosures & Distribution, Glossary and References)

Final Environmental Impact Statement Appendices A - E - Volume 3 (maps, vegetation and timber analysis process, species of conservation concern, plan components, sentative species lists, recommended wilderness analysis, compatablity of the plan with relavant plans of other public agencies)

Response to Comments - Volume 4 of Final Environmental Impact Statement - Appendix F

Biological Assessment of Threatened, Endangered, Proposed and Canidate Species - Volume 5 of Final Environmental Impact Statement - Appendix G

Regional Forester's list of Species of Conservation Concern (link will navigate to regional office webpage, please scroll about half-way down page to respective Forest of interest).

(*please keep in mind some documents are large and may take a moment to load)

Federal Register Notice

Legal Notice in papers of record: Billings Gazette, Rapid City Journal, Bozeman Daily Chronicle (will be uploaded soon)

News Release

Videos - Forest Supervisor & Rangers

A Vision for the Next Decade

By District: Uniqueness of the Forest Plan

Ashland Beartooth Bozeman Gardiner Hebgen Lake Yellowstone

Responsible Officials

The responsible official for the Custer Gallatin Revised Plan is

Mary Erickson, Forest Supervisor

Custer Gallatin National Forest

The responsible official for the Regional Forester's species of conservation concern is

Leanne Marten, Regional Forester

Northern Region, (MT, ID, ND, northwestern SD)

Objection - Resolution Public Meetings information can be found here.

The objection process provides individuals and entities who submitted substantive comments during prior public comment periods an opportunity to bring forward any unresolved concerns shared during formal comment periods, or concerns related to information not available during those comment periods. The objection period ended September 8, 2020.

Understanding Objection & Resolution Meetings

The Forest Service objection process allows the Agency to consider public concerns early on, before a decision is made, aligning with the Forest Service’s collaborative approach to forest management and increasing the likelihood of resolving ongoing concerns. The release of the 2020 Land Management Plan, draft Record of Decision and the Final Environmental Impact Statement (FEIS) on July 9, 2020 initiates the 60-day objection period. Filing an objection period is now closed.

Understanding the Interested Persons Status (closed ran SEPTEMBER 18 - SEPTEMBER 28, 2020)

In order to ensure potential objection resolution discussions are open and transparent, interested persons may participate in those discussions.

To be formally recognized as an interested person and participate in the objection resolution discussions with the objector(s) and the reviewing official, you must request this status within 10 days of the legal notice listing the objections. You do not need to have objected to the plan decision to request to be an interested person. However, you must have provided substantive comment during the opportunities provided during the planning process

Interested Parties Template and Submission Form (closed Sept. 18 - Sept 28, 2020).

Go to main interested person submission page.

Based on objections, the Regional office then has 10-days to review objections and display in paper of record, publish September 18, 2020.
From this date of objections posted in the paper of record, the public (with standing) has 10 days to file as an interested party.
Regional Office will reach out to people who file as Interested Person for objection/resolution details (dates TBA - late fall/early winter 2020).

“Interested persons” may include any party not named in the objection and who submitted substantive formal comments demonstrating their participation during the planning proces.

Review the Objections process Chapter 50 for more detail.