Final Environmental Impact Statement

Vestal Final Environmental Impact Statement Chapter 3
provide a significant number of jobs and are an important component of the local
economy. Several smaller independent milling operations are scattered throughout the
area. These mills rely on timber from the Black Hills National Forest to continue
operations.
Social Concerns
Several social concerns were raised during scoping:
• Concerns were raised that the MPB risk would continue to be too high in the
project area after proposed treatments are completed because some sites are
deferred and/or treatments are not aggressive enough. Others question whether an
epidemic is occurring within the project area and suggest that less aggressive
treatments would be sufficient.
• There was concern about the risk of wildfire to private property and access roads.
• Concern was raised about impacts to Special Use Permittees that have
campgrounds, roads, and trails within the project area.
• There were concerns about the impacts of converting some non-system roads to
system roads and the construction of a new access road to avoid private land and
topography. There was also concern that thinning near closure gates would allow
for motorized access behind the closed gates.
• Concern was expressed that the proposed management actions may affect the
scenic integrity of the project area as well as the stand level diversity for wildlife
habitat.
• Concerns were raised regarding the level of timber harvest, with some
commenters favoring less active management and some favoring more
management.
• There were several commenters who expressed concern regarding the spread of
noxious weeds as the result of management activities.
All of these resource related concerns have been addressed earlier in this EIS under the
resource discussions.
Environmental Consequences
The FEIS for the Revised Black Hills National Forest, Land and Resource Management
Plan, Phase II Amendment (USDA, 2005a) included a social and economic analysis
(Sections 3-9 and 3-11). Such an analysis is done at the forest level because, in general,
most projects don’t have social and economic effects large enough to be meaningfully
measured. The Vestal project would be consistent with the Forest Plan and therefore,
would contribute to the expected effects noted in the Phase II FEIS. None of the
proposed activities within the Vestal project are anticipated to result in different social
economic effects than those noted in the Phase II FEIS.
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