The Forest Service has released a Final Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement (PEIS) for land management planning for the National Forest System. USDA and Forest Service staff carefully considered nearly 300,000 comments received on the proposed rule and draft environmental impact statement to develop a preferred alternative, which is included in the PEIS. The Secretary will issue a record of decision selecting a final planning rule no less than 30 days after publication of the Notice of Availability of the PEIS in the Federal Register. Visit http://www.fs.usda.gov/planningrule for more information.

MORE: In a press release, Council of Western State Foresters (CWSF) chair and Nebraska state forester Scott Josiah said "State Foresters can and should play a unique role in the planning process." All states have completed Forest Action Plans that can feed localized data on forests across all management boundaries within a state into the USFS planning process.