Forest to showcase travel plan
HELENA - Helena will host one of seven open-house meetings on the Lewis and Clark National Forest's travel plan for the Rocky Mountain Front and forest ...

lands in the Castle, Crazy and Little Belt mountains. One of them will be held in Billings next week.

The open houses are intended to provide people with a chance to discuss the recently released plan with forest personnel and ask any questions they may have regarding the decisions or their implementation. No presentations or other activities are planned, but people are invited to drop in, ask questions and leave as they please.

"We want to give people the chance to look at the maps, which are a little larger in scale, and have someone there they can ask questions of," said Dave Cunningham, forest spokesperson. "This way, they can see if the loop they wanted to ride is still there, things like that."
The final travel plan proposal was released to the public on Oct. 1. One portion of the multifaceted plan addresses the non-wilderness portion of the Rocky Mountain Ranger District south of Birch Creek along the Rocky Mountain Front, a total of about 390,000 acres.

Another part of the plan addresses an area that includes the Little Belt, Castle and north half of the Crazy mountains.

A separate decision will be released that covers the Badger-Two Medicine area.

The plans guide all travel, recreation, and other uses on the Front for the next two decades, specifying routes for hikers and horseback riders, snowmobiles and off-road vehicles.

The long-awaited travel plans were developed using public input gathered during a six-year period.

During that time, 58 public meetings were held, which were attended by about 1,900 people, and more than 45,900 written public comments were received.

Input from those meetings and comments were used to develop the decision by Forest Supervisor Spike Thompson.

Cunningham said that while the decision released earlier this month is the final document, it's in the midst of a 45-day appeal period, so the travel plan will not be implemented until this winter at the earliest, adding, "It won't affect hunters this season."

While he hopes the plan won't be appealed to the regional forester, Cunningham anticipates that someone, somewhere probably will take issue with some of the road closures.

"So our implementation, to a certain degree, is dependent on when we get through the appeal and potential litigation process," he said.

The open house in Helena is set for 4 to 8 p.m. Thursday at the Lewis and Clark Public Library on Last Chance Gulch.

Other meetings are as follows:

• Today - 5:30 to 7 p.m. at the Stage Stop Inn in Choteau.

• Tuesday - 4 to 8 p.m. at the Lewis and Clark Interpretive Center in Great Falls.

• Wednesday - 5:30 to 7 p.m. in the Augusta Youth Center.

• Oct. 22 - 4 to 8 p.m. in the White Sulphur Springs elementary school gym.

• Oct. 23 - 4 to 8 p.m. at the Custer National Forest Supervisor's Office in Billings.

• Oct. 30 - 4 to 8 p.m. at the BLM District Office in Lewistown.

For more information about the open house meetings, contact the Lewis and Clark National Forest Supervisor's Office at 791-7700.