Yellowstone Insider Your Complete Guide to America's First National Park
The National Park Service and Montana agencies have released a public scoping comment report regarding Yellowstone’s Bison Management Plan/Environmental Impact Statement.
The NPS, along with Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks and the Montana Department of Livestock, originally held a public scoping comment period between March 16 and June 15 this year, allowing the public to voice their opinions regarding bison management. The agencies also held open houses to provide information regarding the Plan and Environmental Impact Statement.
All in all, over 3,000 letters and online comments were submitted in the public scoping comment period, comprising approximately 8,830 individual comments across all correspondence.
The official public scoping comment report will consist of two parts: a summary of comments received by comment topic—including demographic information regarding the commenters—and a more in-depth analysis of public comments with emblematic quotes explaining each topic. Names and addresses are not divulged in the report.
You can read the public scoping comment report here.
Based on comments received, the NPS and Montana agencies will refine and develop alternate approaches on their draft EIS. As with the public scoping comment report, the public will be able to comment on the draft EIS, which is due late summer 2016.
