On Tuesday night, the Jefferson County Democrats unanimously voted to ask elected officials at all levels to get the Forest Service to schedule public hearings (not public meetings which have less weight in deliberations), as required by law, on it’s environmental assessment of the Navy’s Pacific Northwest Electronic Warfare Range Plan and the FS’s Finding of No Significant Impacts. The EA was done without legal public input, which is required by law.
The Dems also requested that the Forest Service initiate it’s own scientific investigations and include them in an “honest and open Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) process (which is not what is happening now). At present, the person making the decision at the Forest Service indicated at the Port Angeles meeting last week that he was going to approve the EA. It seems a done deal unless we demand the legal process be followed, which at present, it is not.
If you are are concerned with the process the Navy and Forest Service is following, it is recommended you phone, not email,Senator Patty Murray, Senator Maria Cantwell and Representative Derek Kilmer in Washington and demand they push for these simple requests to be fulfilled.