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Show i , .. ... i. .- - v ; K: .... ' . . . - . .-... ? -v"-' ii ? , ' - - -j Both movie sets and irrigation ditches, although they appear no common ground, are examples of uses of National Forests which require special use permits. The Forest Service tries Forest Service Issues Special Permits for Special Use This is the 5th in the series of 14 articles concerning Forest Service activities and areas of interest on the LaSal Mountans. By Jerry Hofer Special use permits are another an-other of the many jobs of the Forest Service. Special use permits are issued to private persons, companies, or other agencies for a variety of uses. us-es. Some of the uses on the LaSal Mountains include: irrigation ir-rigation ditches and reservoirs, reser-voirs, communcation sites, access roads for mining properties, pro-perties, gravel pits, hor.se corrals, power and telephone lines, access roads to private property across National Forest For-est land, missile tracking stations, sta-tions, and motion picture lo- cations. The objective of special use permits is to be responsive to public and private needs for National Forest lands and resources through their authorized auth-orized occupancy and use. The Forest Service tries to encourage those uses which are necessary to satisfy the public need and cannot be served by development en private land. The various uses us-es are allowed only on those lands suitable for that use and under the conditions which protect the public interest, in-terest, including the proper consideration of environmen. tal quality and landscape integrity. in-tegrity. An example of this is to place limitations on the size and color of transmitting towers on the Bald Mesa Communications Site. No permits will be issued for uses which are: not administered admini-stered by the Forest Service w s n ' " fk Mr . i 4--. i f i . S to encourage those uses which are necessary to satisfy the public need and cannot be served by development on private land. in conformity with Multiple-Use Multiple-Use Objectives and Plans. The amount of land obligated obli-gated for each special use permit is kept to a minimum and the period of the permit is no greater than needed to exercise the privileges granted. grant-ed. A fee is required, commensurate com-mensurate with the value of the use, except when a nominal nom-inal fee or free use is justified. justi-fied. When a party has a need to obtain a special use permit, per-mit, an application must be filed with the local Fore.st Service District Ranger. Before Be-fore a permit is issued, many factors are considered. The foremost of these is abiding with the existing law, regulations, regu-lations, and public interest. An Environmental Analysis Report is prepared for each application. This report de- scribes the impact the proposed pro-posed use will have on the other resources and lists the recommendations wlTich are necessary. The first recommendation recom-mendation is to approve or disapprove the proposed use. Other recommendations are for specific requirements ta minimize the impact on the other resources. An example of this would be: Limit the height of any fences constructed con-structed to 42 inches to permit per-mit easy passage for deer. Detailed plans are submitted sub-mitted and approved before construction can take place. This is done to make sure the improvements will be structurally sound and also to conform with the surrounding surround-ing area. Because of the many factors fac-tors which are considered through an Environmental Analysis Report, processing a special use application may take from a few weeks t several months, depending on the type of proposed use The decision on most special to applications is the Forest Su pervisor's responsibility. ' |