Bend-Fort Rock Ranger District seeks comments on 35,000-acre vegetation project south of Bend
Plans include thinning, fuels reduction, prescribed burns and road closures
BEND, Ore. (KTVZ) -- The Bend-Fort Rock Ranger District released Friday a draft environmental assessment for the nearly 35,000-acre Klone Vegetation Management Project south of Bend for a 30-day public comment period.
The 34,636-acre planning area is located south of Bend and east of Sunriver. About 10,550 acres on the west side of the planning area are within the wildland urban interface designated by the Upper Deschutes River Community Wildfire Protection Plan. The east side of the planning area borders Newberry National Volcanic Monument.
The purpose of the project is to improve forest resilience against uncharacteristically large disturbance events such as wildfire, insects, and disease through treatments such as thinning and fuels reduction. The project proposes to manage vegetation through silviculture techniques and prescribed fire, and to restore areas through road closures.
The Forest Service’s environment assessment can be accessed on the Deschutes National Forest project website at: https://www.fs.usda.gov/project/?project=57735. A copy of this environmental assessment is also available by contacting Sasha Fertig at sasha.fertig@usda.gov.
Comments may be submitted electronically to comments-pacificnorthwest-deschutes-bend-ftrock@usda.gov. Please put “Klone” in the subject line of your email. Comments must be submitted as part of the actual e-mail message, or as an attachment in Microsoft Word (.doc or .docx), rich text format (.rtf), or portable document format (.pdf) only.
If using an electronic message, a scanned signature is one way to provide verification. E-mails submitted to e-mail addresses other than the one listed above, in other formats than those listed, or containing viruses will be rejected.
Comments may also be submitted in writing by mail and sent to Holly Jewkes, Forest Supervisor, c/o Sasha Fertig, Deschutes National Forest, 63095 Deschutes Market Road, Bend, OR 97701. Hand-delivered comments are discouraged at this time.
Anyone wishing to obtain additional information on the project should contact Sasha Fertig (Environmental Coordinator) by email, sasha.fertig@usda.gov or phone at 541-383-5563.
