Hells Canyon Comprehensive Management Plan

December 17, 2003

The Record of Decision for the Hells Canyon National Recreation Area Comprehensive Management Plan was released July 22, 2003 and was implemented August 29, 2003. The appeal period on the decision ended October 6, 2003. Six appeals were received and are currently under review by the Regional Forester. A decision on the appeals is anticipated sometime in early spring 2004.

These following links provide electronic access to all documents related to the decision. Read a description of these documents. The documents are available in Adobe Acrobat (.pdf) format that are exact representations of the printed publications. Acrobat Reader version 4.0 or higher is necessary to view these files correctly (see additional information below).

• Executive Summary hi-resolution version (1202kb))
• Record of Decision (1315kb) (text version)
• Summary (1943kb)
• Table of Contents to all documents including the Final Environmental Impact Statement (968kb)
• News Release
• Folder list of all documents

Printed copies of the documents will be available for review at Forest Service offices in Enterprise, Baker City, and Halfway, Oregon; Clarkston, Washington; and Riggins, Idaho; and at public libraries in Enterprise, Halfway, La Grande, and Baker City in Oregon; and Lewiston, Riggins, and Council in Idaho. A compact disc containing the above documents is also available to the public. Send requests for information or documents to Katie Countryman, Environmental Coordinator, via e-mail at [email protected] phone 541-523-1264, or write to:

Katie Countryman, Environmental Coordinator
Wallowa-Whitman National Forest
P.O. Box 907,
Baker City, OR 97814

Description of Documents

Executive Summary (12 pages) contains brief summary of background and need for change, public involvement and issues, highlights of the decision and rationale for the decision. It briefly describes the implementation strategy, how to appeal the decision, and how to get more information. It lists libraries and Forest Service offices at which complete sets of printed documents are available for review.

Record of Decision - (82 pages) provides background on the planning process and describes in detail the decision and the rationale for the decision. It describes in detail the implementation strategy and appeal process.

Summary (64 pages) summarizes the existing direction, purpose and need for change, significant issues, alternatives considered and developed in detail, and the environmental consequences of the alternatives.

Final Environmental Environmental Impact Statement (FEIS), Volume I - (848 pages) describes in detail the purpose and need for change, existing management direction, the significant and other issues, and public involvement efforts. It describes the five alternatives developed in detail and other alternatives considered. It includes a description of the affected environment for the HCNRA and the environmental consequences of the alternatives. Appendices, Volume 2 - (580 pages) includes the detailed management direction for the areas needing change. Response to Public Comments, Volume 3 - (262 pages) contains the more than 2,000 comments received from the public and the Forest Service response to the comments based on how they were integrated into the FEIS.

Top

A note about the Adobe PDF files:
These documents are posted as Adobe PDF files, which require the use of the free Acrobat Reader, available from the Adobe website. If you have Adobe's free Reader installed on your system, then simply click on the PDF links above. If you do not have the Reader, please visit the Adobe website to download the free Reader plugin.
Also note: you must have the Acrobat Reader version 4 or higher to view these files correctly.

You can navigate within each PDF document and between PDF documents by clicking on one of the bookmarks which will appear on the left of your screen after you open any of the documents. A bookmark list will be visible on the left side of the screen when the documents are open. If you do not see the bookmark window after opening the document, change the bookmark setting by selecting the window tab, then select show bookmark in the pull down menu. The bookmark list is the most convenient method of navigating to locations within the documents. It is essentially a linked table of contents for each document. Click on a bookmark to move to a specific document or location within a document. Click on the plus sign or triangle to the left of bookmarks to expand and view sub-topics.

After viewing linked material, use the back arrow or back menu command to return to the previous location. To move to a specific page within the current document, drag the vertical scroll bar on the right until the number of the page you want is displayed in the pop-up window, and then release the mouse button to move to that page. To return to the overall table of contents, click on the "Home/Table of Contents" bookmard at the top of each document's bookmark list.

The PDF documents contain a find function for specific words. Click on the edit tab on the top of the screen and select find in the pull down menu. See the Acrobat Reader help menu for additional tips on browsing the documents.

Top