Resource Name (Heading 1) - USDA Forest Service - US ...

Summary of Public Comments - Managing Recreation Uses in the
Upper Segment of the Chattooga Wild and Scenic River Corridor EA
Team (IDT) members read all of the comment letters. Of the 193 comment letters that contained
unique and substantially different comments, there were 1,121 comments that were coded,
analyzed, addressed, and entered into an Access database. The 1,121 comments were then
associated with Public Concern statements (PCs) and the IDT then developed responses to each
of the PCs. There are 100 PCs and they begin on page 9 of this Report. To incorporate public
comments received on the 2009 EA, TEAMs (contractor) also completed the content analysis
process on the comments summarized in the August 25, 2009 Response to Commetns. For
tracking purposes, the comments in the 2009 Response to Comments were coded as comment
letter #193.
Content Analysis Process
The Forest Service followed a systematic process of carefully logging-in, numbering, reading,
coding and summarizing all viewpoints and concerns that were submitted. The comments that
were most helpful were those that were unique, substantially different, and were specifically
related to the analysis disclosed in the EA. In addition to capturing unique and substantially
different comments, this report attempts to reflect the emotion and strength of public sentiment in
order to represent the public’s values and concerns as fairly as possible. When an individual
raised multiple concerns within the same letter, each unique comment was numbered and tracked
separately. Each comment was assigned a unique tracking number and coded by subject or topic
(see Appendix B).
Once the unique and substantially different comments were coded, concerns raised by different
commenters on the same subject and with the same intent and issue were grouped and
summarized into public concern statements that capture the essence of those like-concerns. In this
way, multiple comments may be addressed by one response. In some cases, more nuanced or
complex concerns may be answered through multiple responses to multiple concern statements,
or they may have a single response dedicated to just that specific commenter. It is important to
keep in mind that even though the public concern statements attempt to capture the full range of
public issues and concerns, they should be reviewed with the understanding that there is no
limitation on who submits comments. Therefore, the comments received do not necessarily
represent the sentiments of the public as a whole. This report attempts to provide fair
representation of the wide range of views submitted. Every comment has the same value, whether
expressed by many, or by one respondent. Analyzing comments is not a vote-counting process.
The Forest Service response to the public comments, which in some cases resulted in changes to
the EA, was not determined by majority opinion but rather by the substance of the comments. The
content analysis process ensured that every comment was read, analyzed, and considered.
Commenters and Associated Public Concern
Statements
Each public concern statement is accompanied by a response that was developed by subject
matter experts. In addition, each PC and response is accompanied by all of the public comments
associated with each PC. The public comments provide commenter’s specific perspectives and
rationale regarding that concern. For each public comment, it indicates the letter number after the
comment, enabling the reader to track and review the original comment letters, if desired (see the
column Letter # in Table 1). The primary purpose is to provide a topical review of voluminous
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