Black Hills National Forest Travel Management Plan

Record of Decision

Custer, Fall River, Lawrence, Meade and Pennington Counties, South Dakota 

And Crook and Weston Counties, Wyoming

Lead Agency: USDA Forest Service

Black Hills National Forest

Responsible Official: Craig Bobzien, Forest Supervisor

1019 N 5th Street, Custer, SD 57730

For Information Contact: Frank Carroll, Planning and Public Affairs

Staff Officer, (605) 673-9216

Decision

I hereby withdraw the March 22, 2010, Record of Decision (ROD) approving the Black Hills 

National Forest Travel Management Plan due to a procedural error in the planning record 

submitted to me at that time. After reviewing the completed record, I have decided to reissue the 

decision identical to the March 22, 2010 ROD except that the effective date will change, and the 

appeal timeline will be restarted when a new legal notice is published in the Rapid City Journal. 

This ROD, the ROD of March 22, appendices and associated maps can be found on the Forest 

website at http://www.fs.usda.gov/blackhills. 

Rationale for the Decision

The Final Environmental Impact Statement (FEIS), in Chapter 1, page 16, stated: “Individual 

comments and responses to all public concerns are available electronically on the Forest website 

at http://www.fs.usda.gov/blackhills.” After I signed the ROD on March 22, it was found that 

the document to be posted on the site was cumbersome to use and contained some responses in 

an incomplete form, or which required editing. Public comments and agency responses are now 

available at that site. 

As noted in the FEIS, and in the ROD of March 22, the Forest Service received 1,250 public 

submissions, each containing from one to several hundred individual comments on the Draft EIS 

(DEIS). These individual comments were identified, uniquely numbered, and grouped into 

larger public concern statements capturing similar concerns from other submissions. I read each 

of the individual comments submitted by the public. These were reviewed individually and 

collectively by me and my staff, and responses were developed to the broader public concern 

statements. The public comments were summarized in Appendix I to the FEIS, and responses 

were presented to those comments from Federal, State and local agencies and elected officials. 
Features of the Decision

My decision provides for timely implementation of this project, while ensuring adequate public 

review of the decision. Specifically, this decision incorporates my March 22 decision in its 

entirety, including all rationale, elements, findings, implementation information, maps and 

appendices. 

Administrative Review or Appeal Opportunities

This decision is subject to appeal pursuant to 36 CFR Part 215 (June 2003). Written appeals must 

be submitted within 45 days following the publication date of the legal notice of this decision in 

the Rapid City Journal, Rapid City, South Dakota. The publication date of the legal notice of the 

decision in the newspaper of record is the exclusive means for calculating the time to file an 

appeal. Appellants should not rely on date or timeframe information provided by any other 

source.

Paper appeals must be submitted to: 

USDA, Forest Service, Region 2

Attn: Appeal Deciding Officer

740 Simms St. 

Golden, Colorado 80401

Appeals may be hand-delivered to the office address above between the hours of 8:00 a.m. and 

4:30 p.m., Monday through Friday, excluding Federal holidays. 

Electronic appeals must be submitted to: appeals-rocky-mountain-regional-office@fs.fed.us. In 

electronic appeals, the subject line should contain the name of the project being appealed. 

Electronic appeals must be submitted and readable in Microsoft Word, Rich Text or PDF format. 

When an appeal is electronically mailed, the appellant should normally receive an automated 

electronic acknowledgement confirming agency receipt. If the appellant does not receive an 

automated acknowledgement of the receipt of the appeal, it is the appellant’s responsibility to 

ensure timely receipt by other means (36 CFR 215.15(c)(3)).

It is the appellant’s responsibility to provide sufficient project- or activity-specific evidence and 

rationale, focusing on the decision, to show why my decision should be reversed. The appeal 

must be filed with the appeal deciding officer in writing. At a minimum, the appeal must meet 

the content requirements of 36 CFR 215.14, and include the following information:

- the appellant’s name and address, with a telephone number, if available;

- a signature, or other verification of authorship upon request (a scanned signature for 

electronic mail may be filed with the appeal);

- when multiple names are listed on an appeal, identification of the lead appellant and 

verification of the identity of the lead appellant upon request;
- the name of the project or activity for which the decision was made, the name and title of 

the Responsible Official, and the date of the decision;

- the regulation under which the appeal is being filed, when there is an option to appeal 

under either 36 CFR 215 or 36 CFR 251, subpart C;

- any specific change(s) in the decision that the appellant seeks and rationale for those 

changes;

- any portion(s) of the decision with which the appellant disagrees, and explanation for the 

disagreement;

- why the appellant believes the Responsible Official’s decision failed to consider 

substantive comments; and

- how the appellant believes the decision specifically violates law, regulation, or policy.

Notices of appeal that do not meet the requirements of 36 CFR 215.14 may be dismissed.

Contacts

For additional information concerning this decision or the Forest Service appeal process, contact 

Frank Carroll, Planning and Public Affairs Staff Officer, Black Hills National Forest, 1019 North 

5th Street, Custer, South Dakota 57730, (605) 673-9200. 

__/s/ Craig Bobzien _________________ _May 7, 2010___

CRAIG BOBZIEN Date

Forest Supervisor