Mary O’Brien: The newest Forest Service idea: Exclude public comments

(Leah Hogsten | Tribune file photo) From left, Kevin Mueller, program director of Utah Environmental Congress, Stanley Kitchen, a botanist with the U.S. Department of Agriculture and Mary O'Brien with the Grand Canyon Trust inspect an aspen tree cutting to determine the newest growth and the health of the stand in the area of Upper Box Creek Reservoir in Fishlake National Forest in Utah in August 2017. I saw a sign last February for a fire prevention meeting with the Bureau of Land Management in our rural Castle Valley of southeastern Utah. At the meeting, the BLM told us they were going to issue an environmental assessment for removing up to 75% of the pinyon and juniper trees on 1,300 acres in the valley to protect our town from wildfire. A public comment period would start soon.

…