JOHN DAY — The Malheur, Umatilla and Wallowa-Whitman national forests are providing the opportunity for public input on the Blue Mountains Forest Plan revision in a series of meetings this month, including one held April 16 in John Day.

Forest officials are in the process of revising their forest plans, which provide the strategic management direction and guidance for each of the three forests in the region. The process is currently in its early “assessment” phase.

Revising the plans represents a commitment to keeping forests productive and sustainable, officials said. Public involvement will help the Forest Service gain local knowledge about existing forest conditions to help shape the assessment phase of the process, according to officials.

“What we’re trying to do is look over a multitude of resource areas and say, hey, what’s going on, what’s good, what’s bad, what’s maybe working or not working, and the assessment is a high-level overview of these various resource areas,” said Michael Neuenschwander, lead for the Blue Mountains Forest Plan revision team under the three regional forests, during his part of the public presentation in the Trowbridge Pavilion at the Grant County Fairgrounds.

Public input, Neuenschwander said, is key.

“So one of the things we want you to be able to do is to read that document and review it and say, ‘Hey, you got this right’ or maybe ‘Here are some things we need to change.’”

The assessment phase (more information can be found at https://tinyurl.com/mr2x6j3u) is step two of 10 in the forest plan revision process, with a formal public comment period to occur in future steps.

A draft version of the assessment can be found online at https://tinyurl.com/4kufufrb

The purpose of the assessment phase is to gather relevant information on forest conditions and trends and use this information to rapidly evaluate the sustainability of existing ecological, economic and social conditions and trends within the context of the broader landscape, officials said.

The Forest Service aims to complete the three forest plans for the Malheur, Umatilla and Wallowa-Whitman National Forests within two to three years. Malheur Supervisor Ann Niesen, Umatillia Supervisor Eric Watrud and Wallowa-Whitman Supervisor Shaun McKinney spoke at the meeting.

Niesen emphasized the importance of gathering public input for every step of the process.

“We are very early in the process, and we’re in what’s called the assessment phase,” she said. “We’re looking at what the current conditions are on the forest and we’re here to talk with you all to see if we’re getting it right and to listen to you to see if there’s things that we haven’t considered.”

The forest plans will be comprehensive documents that guide forest resource management, use and protection and are intended to balance multiple uses and sustained yield of forest resources, officials said.

“I think it’s fair to say we have another two years ahead of us if it goes as scheduled, which would certainly put us at a great place to consider changes to the forest plan that would allow us to do management that will put our landscapes in a better place,” Niesen said.

The plans will set forth a vision for land management, describe the desired conditions within each forest, and lay out specific objectives, standards and guidelines for how to achieve those desired conditions. The documents will be strategic in nature and will not approve projects or actions on national forest lands, officials said.

At the meeting, local residents voiced concern over future forest access and travel management.

“The Umatilla has travel management in place,” Niesen said. “The Wallowa-Whitman and the Malheur do not. We are not going to do travel management until the forest plan revision is done.”

Frances Preston, a Prairie City resident who has been an employee of the Forest Service and is a candidate for Grant County commissioner, spoke at the John Day public meeting.

In an interview afterward, Preston said she is concerned the process will ultimately “close our forest” and would mean the public would “be told where to go.” She urged the public to be part of the input process.

Niesen added during her presentation at the meeting that access to the forest “is a critical value that I hear loud and clear from communities in Eastern Oregon, and that we value healthy aquatic habitats, diversity of plant and animal habitats as well.”

The Malheur supervisor also reiterated the importance of fuel reduction work to create a more fire-resilient landscape and spoke on the importance of grazing management and timber production to the community.

The public input period for the assessment phase will be open until May 26, officials said. Public input forms can be found at the main forest plan website: https://tinyurl.com/mr2x6j3u.