George Washington National Forest - Planning Process to Resume March 2010

Exciting news!

The Headquarters for the George Washington National Forest in Roanoke, VA is working hard so they can resume the collaboration with the public as they design the new GW Forest Management Plan.

They plan to publish a Notice of Intent (NOI) (to use the 82 regs and do an EIS) in the Federal Register in mid-Feb. That opens a 60 public comment period. They intend to publish in the NOI a 'proposed action' showing where they left off, preliminary issues and some alternatives that they will be looking at. Then we'll have some public meetings in mid-March.

Expect to see a lot of information on the GW Planning website in mid-Feb for reference to use in these March 2010 meetings. Please check this GW USFS Planning Link often to stay in touch with the process.


Mountain Bike Representatives have spent 2 years working on this revision previously using 2 different sets of planning regulations that the Bush Administration created. Both sets of Bush planning regulations were eventually stopped by US Courts. We will now be using the 1982 planning regulations.

EIS is an Environmental Impact Statement