Public Letter of Support
LETTER OF SUPPORT
As part of the GMUG’s effort to revise its 1983 Forest Plan, I support this wilderness and special management area proposal and urge the Forest Service to adopt it in the revised Forest Plan. This designations proposal is based on community involvement, on-the-ground fieldwork, the best available science, and the requirements in the 2012 U.S. Forest Service Planning Rule. These landscape-level conservation recommendations are integral to sustaining a healthy and wild GMUG now and into the future.
Establishing these designated areas in the revised Forest Plan will help address ecological needs relevant to biodiversity, connectivity, and climate change adaptation. In addition, adoption of recommendations would ensure the revised Forest Plan reflects the GMUG’s distinctive wilderness and backcountry recreation heritage. There is a need and opportunity for wilderness and other landscape-level conservation designations on the GMUG. As such, I support the proposal, and I urge the GMUG to adopt and incorporate the proposal’s area recommendations in the revised GMUG Forest Plan.