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Show Environments Draft Readied The U.S. Forest Service at Cedar City announced today that the RARE II (Roadless Area Review and Evaluation) Draft Environmental En-vironmental Statements are now availble for public review. This is the continuation con-tinuation of the process that began last summer with workshops held at Cedar City and many cities across the nation. The Dixie National Forest is responsible for the best future management of 10 roadless areas that represents 344,225 acres of land that will later be recommended to Congress for either non-wilderness, wilderness, or future planning classification. The Forest Service welcomes comments from the public on any part of the RARE II process. Of particular value will be public comments and recommendations on the following three items: 1. Individual roadless areas - You should identify specific areas, or portions of areas, and tell us why you think they should be: A. recommended for wilderness; b. used for non-wilderness non-wilderness purposes; c. subject to further planning for all mangement options. These specific areas are described in geographic supplements which you can secure from your nearest Forest Service Regional Office. 2. Approaches for developing a decision - The alternatives displayed in this Draft Environmental Statement show several ways to approach allocating the total roadless area inventory. in-ventory. These are intended to illustrate how a final recommendation on a national scale might be developed when various criteria are used in different ways. We urge you to study these examples, and then tell us what criteria you believe to be most important and how these might be applied in reaching a decision on what areas to recommend for wilderness or non-wilderness non-wilderness purposes. 3. Criteria to be used for developing a proposed course of action Seven criteria are included in the evaluation section (Sec. VI) of the Draft Environmental Statement. Our present intention is to use these criteria to develop the proposed action in the Final Statement. But you may have other ideas. We ask that you review and comment com-ment on these important elements to be used in the decision making process. The public will have from now until October 1, 1978 to make their specific written recommendations for those areas that they are particularly par-ticularly concerned about. In addition, there will be a number of open houses throughout the summer and fall where they will have the opportunity to discuss and express their views openly. The first open house will be held on June 26 through July 1 between 3 and 8 p.m. at Cedar City in the District Ranger's Office, 82 North 100 East. The public is also encouraged en-couraged to check with their local forest service office for information regarding sites specific and how they may physically inspect those areas that are of special importance to them. |