The Hellbender Chronicles

And so I got this letter today:

Dear Mr. Kleissler:

On March 26, 2004, we received your comments on the Trails End ReEntry Environmental Assessment (EA) and a copy of the Appeal that the Allegheny Defense Project submitted on the original Trails End Environmental Assessment in 1994. You sent these comments as a representative for the Allegheny Defense Project in Clarion, Pennsylvania. Your comments were sent Certified Mail/Return Receipt and the envelope postmark is clearly March 25, 2004. The cover letter enclosed with your comments was dated March 24, 2004. In calculating the dates we find that your comments were not submitted in a timely manner. The Forest published a Legal Notice in the Ridgway Record on February 20, 2004, thus the last day for submitted comments was March 22, 2004. This due date is in accordance with 36 CFR 215.6(4)(i), which notes that "...Written comments must be postmarked by the Postal Service, emailed, faxed, or otherwise submitted by 11:59pm on the 30th calendar day following publication of the legal notice for proposed actions to be analyzed or documented in an EA...". Therefore, pursuant to 36 CFR 215.6(b)(1), your comments will not be considered in the "Response to 30-day Comments" for the Trails End ReEntry EA.

I encourage you to contact me if you have any questions regarding your comments to Trails End ReEntry EA or their processing.

Sincerely,
Leon Blashock, District Ranger

And so, it turns out, that the Forest Service is now saying that our comments on the Trails End Re-Entry are late. Are you kidding? Are the public comments we provided ten years on time? How about the appeal we filed in 1995 - was that on time? This is disturbing because this Environmental Assessment is illegal under all current legal standards. Although the law hasn't changed since 1995 the courts have clearly clarified it in a variety of lawsuits we have filed since. The Trails End Re-Entry EA doesn't meet that basic standard.

No obviously we erred on this one. And I am largely to blame I think. But it is pretty ridiculous and petty to ignore our comments for being two days late no matter what legal parsing of terms makes it ok. I have little faith in the current management leadership in the Allegheny National Forest - it as bad as its been since I've been active in Allegheny National Forest management issues. In any case we are on record for commenting on the Scoping Notice and of course we are on record for having appealed this project historically.

In summary, it is pretty obvious that we are going to have to play hard ball with them if they are going to play hard ball with us. Just keep in mind that this is how they will handle late letters regardless of why they are late.