Comment on FR Doc # 2026-13281

I wholeheartedly disagree with this proposal. You are trying to effectively take away our (the American public’s) voice when it comes to OUR (Forest Service) public lands. First of all, your proposal seeks the ability to unilaterally and arbitrarily DELETE directives to the Forest Service without announcing it to anyone or obtaining public comment. There are directives in there that protect the very ecosystems that provide us with clean air, clean water, recreational opportunities, food, materials, etc. And you want to be able to just do away with those guardrails without so much as a public comment period! This is insane and completely against our American rights. Second, you are proposing that the very detailed Handbooks with which the Forest Service performs its job (protection of our national lands) be reclassified as “advisory” and optional. This is also insane and a gross misinterpretation of the very regulation you are trying to change. Federal law requires the Forest Service to provide notice and opportunities for public comment on “standards, criteria, AND GUIDELINES” [emphasis mine]. What do you think the Handbooks are if not guidelines??? This proposal is ridiculous. Third, your proposal would remove the requirement to allow the public to provide public comments by mail (and only when you create new directives, but not when you remove them). Please think about our rural communities, our elderly, our indigenous communities. You need to enhance and increase public participation rather than try to silence us. Fourth, your proposal would remove the requirement of the agency notify the public on a scheduled basis and to keep a repository of public notices on the Forest Service website. Instead, the agency could legally post a notice on some obscure website where it could easily be missed. Fifth, you very proposal admits that this change would have a significant impact on Native American tribes and the power distribution between the US government and the tribes. If anything, Indian tribes should have MORE power and control of public lands, not less. Your proposal is seeking to dismantle environmental protections and allow government employees to ignore established directives and guidelines. Our public lands belong to all of us, please stop trying to squander them and silence us. You have no right to take away our voice or our lands.