Comments closed September 14
Stop grazing expansion on Mark Twain National Forest openings
U.S. Forest Service · Mark Twain National Forest, MO
- What
- The Forest Service may intensify grazing and vegetation changes across wildlife habitat in the Ava/Cassville/Willow Springs District.
- Where
- Mark Twain National Forest, MO
- How much
- Wildlife areas and native plant communities in the Ava/Cassville/Willow Springs Ranger District face degradation from expanded grazing allotments and hay production.
- Decided
- Comments closed September 14, 2026. No decision document is on file yet.Date from Forest Service CARA comment page ↗, read October 29, 2026.
Where these four lines come from
- WhatOur plain-English read of the Forest Service project page ↗. Check it against the agency’s own words under Case.
- WhereThe places and states the project page names, as PLAN read them.
- How muchThe first sentence of our What’s at risk read of the notice; the whole read is under Case.
- DecidedSeptember 14, 2026, from Forest Service CARA comment page, the notice text ↗: “requested through 9/14/2026 11:59:59 PM (Central Standard Time)”. Read October 29, 2026. The decision document is the one on file in PLAN’s record.
- Read from PLAN’s record November 9, 2026.
What the proposal said, and what the decision did
No figure from the proposal has been checked against the decision on this fight yet. What the record does hold is the issues ledger below.
No decision document is on PLAN’s record for this fight yet. When the agency’s decision lands, what it answered goes here.
Affects public lands
The Forest Service may intensify grazing and vegetation changes across wildlife habitat in the Ava/Cassville/Willow Springs District.
What’s at risk
If this goes through
Our plain-English read of the official notice ↗. Check it against the agency’s own words below.
The agency’s own analysis
What the notice says, and what it leaves out
The window has closed; the record of what was missing stays.
The agency says
“Forest products; Grazing management; Road management; Vegetation management (other than forest products)”
The project summary lists 'Forest products' as a project purpose alongside grazing and vegetation management, but no description of any forest products activity is provided anywhere in the notice.
The agency says
“improve cool and warm season grass pasture conditions and enhance native plant communities in grazing allotments, hay production areas, wildlife areas, and wildlife openings”
The project summary references 'wildlife areas' and 'wildlife openings' as locations where native plant communities will be enhanced, but provides no description of which species, habitats, or sensitive species may be affected.
The agency says
“Forest lands in Barry, Christian, Douglas, Howell, Ozark, and Taney counties, Missouri.”
The notice lists 'Tribal Relations' as a topic area in the site navigation and identifies lands across six Missouri counties, yet contains no statement about government-to-government consultation with Tribal nations that have treaty interests or cultural connections to these lands.
The agency says
“This project is needed to improve cool and warm season grass pasture conditions and enhance native plant communities in grazing allotments”
The notice provides no baseline description of current range conditions, no identification of which allotments are affected, and no metrics for what 'improved' pasture conditions would look like.
In the agency’s own words
This project is needed to improve cool and warm season grass pasture conditions and enhance native plant communities in grazing allotments, hay production areas, wildlife areas, and wildlife openings.
The groups on this fight
3 groups work this ground: Mark Twain National Forest
Works this ground means the editors' sourced record puts the group on this land, not that it has taken a side on this decision. Give straight to them; nothing routes through us.
- Sierra Club
Works this ground · not linked to this decision
Works this ground at Mark Twain National Forest: Its Missouri Chapter joined Heartwood and the Missouri Forest Alliance in an October 2024 formal objection to the revised forest plan over removed roadless areas, lead mining, and subsidized commercial logging.
Source ↗ - Southern Environmental Law Center
Works this ground · not linked to this decision
Works this ground at Mark Twain National Forest: Its February 2024 timber targets lawsuit charges the Forest Service with ignoring the cumulative climate impacts of logging projects including one on the Mark Twain National Forest.
Source ↗ - The Conservation Fund
Works this ground · not linked to this decision
Works this ground at Mark Twain National Forest: Has conveyed more than 2,000 acres into the forest, including Current River frontage in 2016 and 229 acres at Piney Creek Wilderness in 2018.
Source ↗
Every group above is on STAND for Public Lands, with its court record, its filings and who backs it.
Who signs it
The notice names no signer PLAN could read. PLAN names a decision-maker only when the document names one.
The ground
The window has closed, so there’s no watch to set on it here.
The photograph on this page: Wild turkey in hardwood forest. It’s the country this decision sits in, not the site itself. More Than Just Parks.
In court on this ground
No court case we track is over Mark Twain National Forest.
Who holds the vote
PLAN’s record doesn’t tie a member of Congress to this fight yet. The scorecard grades the votes and bills that decide public lands; nothing joins a vote or a bill to this decision, so there’s no member to name here without guessing.
See how your members vote ↗Forest ServiceWe track this on the agency’s own system of record, where most on-the-ground decisions live.
Know an open comment period we are missing, or spotted a wrong deadline? .
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