Butler Hollow Project debate continues, open house scheduled
January 14, 2015
Charlea Mills
The comment period for the proposed Butler Hollow Project, which would affect a great deal of the Mark Twain National Forest in Cassville and the surrounding area, will now be extended because of increased interest on both sides of the issue, according to District Ranger Joe Koloski.
The initial 30-day comment period on the project ended on December 22 after a public notice was posted in the Springfield News Leader on November 22, 2014. However, the controversy stirred on both sides has led the rangers to open up for additional comments on the proposal from January 26 through February 6. There will also be an open house in Cassville on Tuesday, January 27, to allow the public to ask questions and become more involved in the process.
The Butler Hollow Project is a proposed course of action that will affect 18,181 acres of National Forest System lands on the Cassville Unit of the Mark Twain National Forest. The proposal has sparked both positive and negative comments from the community to the Forest Service, local and national legislators and many letters to the editor in local publications.
According to the proposal by the Ava/Cassville/Willow Springs Ranger District (ACWSRD), the management of the lands, which will include vegetation management, prescribed burns and service roadway reconstruction and deconstruction, is vital to the forest health and will restore the lands to conditions similar to what the land was historically. If the proposal is approved, a prescribed burn would affect 17,517 acres and 10,842 acres would be converted to open woodland. Currently, most of the land is closed woodland. The primary difference between the two is the density of the overstory canopy.
Nay-sayers of the project are concerned about a myriad of issues, including chemicals used for the vegetation control, the number of trees and shrubs removed from the land impacting the overall beauty of the forest and area, and how actions will affect the deer and wildlife populations.
Primary objectives listed in the comment package include:
- Control a minimum of 2,000 acres of noxious or non-noxious species
- Restore or enhance 125 acres of bottomland hardwood forest
- Improve open woodland to at least 10,500 acres for habitat for the summer tanager, northern bobwhite, Bachman’s sparrow, and eastern red bat
- Increase managed native grasslands to that of exotic cool season grasses from 46 percent native to 55 percent native grass to provide habitat for
northern bobwhite
- Maintain forest, closed woodland or open woodland cover for over 85 percent or more for the habitat of the worm-eating warbler
- Treat 4,000 acres of glads or reduce woody vegetation for the Bachman’s sparrow
- Prescribe burn 40 percent of the projected burn acres in September through December instead of just the late-winter through early-spring burns.
Allen Weathersby, Integrated Resource Analyst for the Mark Twain National Forest ACWSRD, stated, “We’ve had a lot of comments that are both positive and negative on the propsal, so we are going to extend the comment period, hold the open house, and try to get more public involvement in the project.”
For more information on the Butler Hollow Project or to make a public comment, go to http://www.fs.usda.gov/goto/mtnf/projects or call Allen Weathersbee at the Mark Twain National Forest, Ava/Cassville/Willow Springs District Office, at (417) 683-4428 ext. 131.
The open house for public comments and education will be held on Tuesday, January 27, at the Show Me-Plaza at 404 State Highway 248, Suite 8, in Cassville from 4:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m.
Charlea Mills
The comment period for the proposed Butler Hollow Project, which would affect a great deal of the Mark Twain National Forest in Cassville and the surrounding area, will now be extended because of increased interest on both sides of the issue, according to District Ranger Joe Koloski.
The initial 30-day comment period on the project ended on December 22 after a public notice was posted in the Springfield News Leader on November 22, 2014. However, the controversy stirred on both sides has led the rangers to open up for additional comments on the proposal from January 26 through February 6. There will also be an open house in Cassville on Tuesday, January 27, to allow the public to ask questions and become more involved in the process.
The Butler Hollow Project is a proposed course of action that will affect 18,181 acres of National Forest System lands on the Cassville Unit of the Mark Twain National Forest. The proposal has sparked both positive and negative comments from the community to the Forest Service, local and national legislators and many letters to the editor in local publications.
According to the proposal by the Ava/Cassville/Willow Springs Ranger District (ACWSRD), the management of the lands, which will include vegetation management, prescribed burns and service roadway reconstruction and deconstruction, is vital to the forest health and will restore the lands to conditions similar to what the land was historically. If the proposal is approved, a prescribed burn would affect 17,517 acres and 10,842 acres would be converted to open woodland. Currently, most of the land is closed woodland. The primary difference between the two is the density of the overstory canopy.
Nay-sayers of the project are concerned about a myriad of issues, including chemicals used for the vegetation control, the number of trees and shrubs removed from the land impacting the overall beauty of the forest and area, and how actions will affect the deer and wildlife populations.
Primary objectives listed in the comment package include:
- Control a minimum of 2,000 acres of noxious or non-noxious species
- Restore or enhance 125 acres of bottomland hardwood forest
- Improve open woodland to at least 10,500 acres for habitat for the summer tanager, northern bobwhite, Bachman’s sparrow, and eastern red bat
- Increase managed native grasslands to that of exotic cool season grasses from 46 percent native to 55 percent native grass to provide habitat for
northern bobwhite
- Maintain forest, closed woodland or open woodland cover for over 85 percent or more for the habitat of the worm-eating warbler
- Treat 4,000 acres of glads or reduce woody vegetation for the Bachman’s sparrow
- Prescribe burn 40 percent of the projected burn acres in September through December instead of just the late-winter through early-spring burns.
Allen Weathersby, Integrated Resource Analyst for the Mark Twain National Forest ACWSRD, stated, “We’ve had a lot of comments that are both positive and negative on the propsal, so we are going to extend the comment period, hold the open house, and try to get more public involvement in the project.”
For more information on the Butler Hollow Project or to make a public comment, go to http://www.fs.usda.gov/goto/mtnf/projects or call Allen Weathersbee at the Mark Twain National Forest, Ava/Cassville/Willow Springs District Office, at (417) 683-4428 ext. 131.
The open house for public comments and education will be held on Tuesday, January 27, at the Show Me-Plaza at 404 State Highway 248, Suite 8, in Cassville from 4:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m.
