Comment on FR Doc # 2026-13281

I’m writing to oppose this proposal to narrow the public’s right to comment on Forest Service directives. I hike, and camp on national forest land, and have done so for several decades. The decisions buried in the Forest Service Handbooks shape every acre of national forest land, including the lands that hike and camp on, as well as lands that I see from afar and admire. In 2018, the Forest Service concluded that its Handbooks contain standards and guidelines that directly affect the public, and it expanded public comment to cover them. It rewrote the rule to require public notice and comment on directive changes “regardless of whether they are published in the Forest Service Manual or Handbook.” That conclusion was correct. The Handbooks govern grazing permits, timber sale analysis, land management planning, and special-use decisions that shape these lands for everyone who depends on them. Changes to the Standards and Guidelines set out in the Forest Service Handbooks, and/or the Forest Service Manual, deserve more public notice and comment, not less. Public participation is how management of 193 million acres of public land, being the National Forests, stays accountable to the people who own it. That accountability is worth protecting. I urge the Forest Service to withdraw this proposal and preserve the public’s right, as adopted in 2018, to comment on directive changes to Forest Service policies and rules, whether the policies and rules appear in the Manual or the Handbooks.