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the completed package available in electronic format and posted on the planning website <br /> at http://ocs.fortlewis.edu/forestplan/by Sept. 30, 2007. Hard copies and CDs will then <br /> be available to the public in another month(approximately Oct. 31). <br /> Following the release of the draft Plan Revision in hard-copy format, there will be a 90- <br /> day comment period. Mark said he expects there will be requests for an extension of that <br /> comment period. <br /> Thurman said during the public-comment period, the Community Study Groups that <br /> provided input early in the planning process will have meetings in Pagosa Springs, <br /> Durango, Cortez, Silverton and Rico. The agencies also hope to meet with regional <br /> Native American tribes—including the two Ute tribes and 22 others—around the first <br /> week of October to discuss issues such as water and cultural resources. <br /> The goal is to have the final Plan Revision in place by Sept. 30, 2008, the end of the <br /> agencies' fiscal year. <br /> Thurman said the draft Plan will be released with the accompanying environmental <br /> impact statement, which is much lengthier. Chapter 2 will list the Plan's four <br /> alternatives. Under the different alternatives, Management Themes, Wild and Scenic <br /> River(WSR) Suitability determinations, and wilderness recommendations will vary. <br /> There will also be numerous appendices to the Plan. The Roundtable members will <br /> probably be most interested in the Plan itself, Thurman said. <br /> Janice Sheftel,Attorney for the Southwestern Water Conservation District <br /> (SWCD), expressed disappointment that there had not been time for another session of <br /> dialogue with the Water Roundtable before the Draft Plan Revision was set for public <br /> release. She said she understands the time constraints involved,however. <br /> Mark said the agencies have had discussions with the Colorado Department of Natural <br /> Resources (DNR), but that DNR has not been designated as a"cooperating agency" for <br /> the Plan Revision. He said DNR had struggled with the issue of what it meant to be a <br /> cooperating agency during the development of the Roan Plateau plan, and as a result <br /> DNR had not resolved to be a cooperating agency for the SJPLC Plan Revision. <br /> Thurman said that the draft Plan Revision also has been affected by legal rulings <br /> involving the roadless rule. In 2001,under the Clinton administration, the Forest Service <br /> came out with regulations to manage 60 million acres of inventoried roadless land <br /> nationwide not within designated wilderness areas. Those regulations were enjoined by a <br /> U.S. District judge in Wyoming in 2003,before the Water Roundtable began meeting. In <br /> 2005, the Bush administration repealed the 2001 rule in favor of a new rule called the <br /> state petitioning rule, which allowed states to petition the U.S. Secretary of Agriculture to <br /> create their own management plans for the roadless lands within their boundaries. <br /> However, in 2006 a U.S. district court judge in northern California said the 2001 rule had <br /> been thrown out illegally, and the 2001 rule was reinstated. That rule is now in effect and <br /> applies to the agencies' inventory of roadless areas. Thurman said the gist is that no one <br /> 3 <br />