Sample Comment Letter for the Santa Catalina Ranger District
ATTN: Travel Management
Coronado National Forest
300 W. Congress
Tucson, AZ 85701
Dear Ms. White:
The Coronado National Forest is home to more threatened and endangered species than any other National Forest in the United States. The Santa Catalina Ranger District should not be a haven for lawless off-roaders, but rather a sanctuary for species like the Mexican spotted owl, mountain lion, lowland leopard frog and Gila chub. Off-road vehicles are known to spread invasive species of plants such as bufflegrass and tamarisk, making our deserts more prone to fire and destroying cottonwood and oak stands. I am very concerned that the Coronado National Forest is planning to close just 1.2 miles of motorized routes in the Santa Catalina Ranger District, an area that already has 284 miles of roads open to vehicles. We need to be more serious about protecting our National Forests from noise and pollution. (Insert personal stories here about areas you enjoy being degraded, or your enjoyment of the Forest being disrupted by motorized vehicles.)
I am asking the Forest Service to take another look at the problems caused by off-road vehicles in the Santa Catalina Mountains. Please consider additional restrictions on motorized dispersed camping in the Happy Valley area to protect wildlife habitat and watershed quality.
The Coronado National Forest should develop a fiscally responsible travel-management plan that the Forest is able to enforce and that protects forest resources. Please develop a plan that will address the trash, crime, and user-created routes that are growing each day in Redington Pass, making this an area that I now avoid because it is so degraded. (Insert personal experiences here about areas you no longer enjoy visiting because of degradation.)
Routes should be designated as open to vehicles only when doing so will not further degrade the Sonoran Desert and oak savannah, harm our heritage, or destroy fragile and rare riparian areas. The Travel Management Plan must ensure there are areas close to Tucson where I can recreate in the forest and escape the sights and sounds of motorized vehicles.
Because this plan is so important to me and to so many others in Arizona, please allow the public the opportunity to comment on the draft environmental assessment and please fully address the impacts of designating more than 260 miles of motorized routes in addition to the existing 2,200 miles of roads in the forest.
Given the diversity of wildlife in the Coronado and in the Santa Catalina Ranger District, the high level of crime and destruction in the Redington Pass area, and the growing demand for quiet recreation opportunities, the Coronado National Forest can certainly identify more than a single mile of route for closure and decommissioning. I recommend the Forest Service focus on closing routes that traverse, cross, or follow streams, arroyos, or riparian areas and sensitive wildlife habitat to reduce route density in the district to no more than one mile per square mile.
Sincerely,
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Let the Forest Service know what you think!
Send comments to Ms. Laura White at (520) 388-8419 or comments-southwestern-coronado@fs.fed.us.
If you can't send comments call her and tell her what you think.
Please submit written or verbal comments by April 15. If you do not make this deadline you should still submit comments. They will be considered until the Forest Service completes the next step in the process.
For more information about Travel Management Planning click here.