Stop regeneration logging near New Castle in Craig County

What the public could have raised, from the agency’s own document

• I oppose this action as proposed, and I ask the agency to weigh the specific harms below.
• Public scoping specifically raised karst and sinkhole risk as a project issue requiring explicit analysis because the area has a high concentration of sink holes, yet the Soils and Watersheds chapter contains no discussion of karst features, sinkhole density, or groundwater/cave connectivity anywhere in the effects analysis. The agency should directly analyze karst and sinkhole risk in the Soils and Watersheds section as the scoping comment requested, or explain why it was dismissed.
• Table 10 shows that even after implementing the full proposed harvest in the Wildlife Road working area, early successional habitat would reach only 9.2 percent (315 acres), still short of the Forest Plan's stated minimum desired condition of 10 percent (341 acres) for objective 8B-OBJ1. The EA's own text concedes this shortfall by saying the action will merely 'bring us close to meeting objective 1' rather than meet it. The agency should explain why a proposed action justified by the need to reach Forest Plan desired conditions is designed to fall short of the plan's own minimum threshold, or increase treatment acreage to actually meet the objective.
• The entire project is framed as a response to an Emergency Determination issued under a Secretary's Memorandum implementing Executive Order 14225 for expanded timber production, yet the EA does not explain how this emergency designation affects the scope of alternatives considered, the level of analysis required, or why only two alternatives (action and no action) were carried forward. Given the scale of harvest (1,059 acres of commercial treatment, 4.38 miles of new temporary road, 80 log landings), the agency should clarify how the emergency determination altered the normal range-of-alternatives requirement and justify why no intermediate action alternative was developed.
• Say something only you can say. The law requires the agency to consider and respond to substantive comments, and specifics are what make a comment substantive.