United States 

Department of 

Agriculture

Forest 

Service 

Black Hills 

National 

Forest 

Mystic Ranger District 

8221 South Highway 16 

Rapid City, SD 57702 

Phone 605-343-1567 Fax 605-343-7134

 Caring for the Land and Serving People Printed on Recycled Paper

File Code: 1950-Pactola Project Area 

Date: July 28, 2011 

Greetings from the Black Hills National Forest: 

Black Hills National Forest (BHNF) personnel recently completed a Final Environmental Impact 

Statement (FEIS) for the Pactola Project Area. The project area lies approximately 10 miles west 

of Rapid City, SD. The project area encompasses approximately 26,017 acres. The project area 

consists of 24,863 acres of National Forest System lands, with 1,154 acres of interspersed private 

lands. 

The project’s main focus is to help protect communities and resources by reducing the threat to 

ecosystem components, including forest resources, from the existing mountain pine beetle 

(MPB) epidemic and by reducing hazardous fuels. The Healthy Forest Restoration Act (HFRA) 

of 2003 (H.R. 1904) provides improved statutory processes for hazardous fuel reduction projects 

and healthy forest restoration on National Forest System lands. Title I of the HFRA focuses 

primarily on expedited hazardous fuel treatment projects on NFS lands that are at risk of 

wildland fire. The Pactola Project qualifies as an authorized hazardous fuel reduction project 

under HFRA Section 102(a)(4). 

The purpose of and need for the Pactola Project is to: 

• Reduce the threat to ecosystem components, including forest resources, from the existing 

mountain pine beetle (MPB) epidemic. 

• Move toward achieving desired land and resource conditions, as provided by the Forest Plan. 

• Restore resource conditions to a healthy, resilient fire-adapted ecosystem. 

• Help protect local communities and resources from large-scale wildfire. 

I have enclosed a copy of the Pactola Project Area Final EIS. Chapters 1 and 2 provide background 

and comparison of alternatives for many readers to judge the relative merits of the various 

alternative approaches to reducing the rapidly expanding mountain pine beetle epidemic and the 

potential for severe wildfire, and other issues. More detail on the effects of alternatives is presented 

in Chapter 3. 

My Preferred Action is Alternative C with one modification. Specifically, cable logging and its 

associated roads would not be allowed in an area southwest of Pactola Lake due to scenic quality 

concerns. This area would be highly visible from the Pactola Visitor Center, and along US 

Highway 385, including several overlooks. The effects largely from road building and cable 

logging, to a lesser extent, would be very visible for a long period of time. This area would still 

be available for sanitation treatments using helicopters or cutting and chunking infested trees to 

prevent adjacent trees from becoming infested with mountain pine beetles. 
The analysis for this project was completed under the Healthy Forests Restoration Act authority. The 

decision(s) based on the Final EIS for this project will be made following the pre-decisional objection 

process, pursuant to Forest Service regulations at 36 CFR 218.7. The objection period will end 30-

days following publication of the legal notice in the Rapid City Journal, Rapid City, South Dakota, 

which is expected to occur on August 6, 2011. The publication date of the legal notice of availability 

of the FEIS is the exclusive means for calculating the time to file an objection. 

Any objections to this project must be filed in writing. Written objections may be submitted to: 

USDA-Forest Service, Supervisor’s Office, Attn: Ed Fischer, 1019 N. 5th Street, Custer, SD 57730. 

Objections may be submitted in electronic form to: appeals-rocky-mountain-black-hills@fs.fed.us In 

electronic objections, the subject line should contain the name of the project. An automated response 

will normally confirm receipt of an objection; however, if a person filing an objection does not 

receive such a response it is the responsibility of the objector to ensure their objection is received in a 

timely manner. Electronic objections must be readable in MS Word, Rich Text Format (rtf), or 

portable document format (pdf). Any objection must meet the content requirements of 36 CFR 218.8. 

Any decision on this project will not be appealable under 36 CFR 215 or any other authority. 

The responsible official for this document is Robert J. Thompson, District Ranger, Mystic Ranger 

District. For more information on this project, contact myself or Katie Van Alstyne at the Mystic 

Ranger District office in Rapid City at (605) 343-1567. For information on the objection process, 

contact Ed Fischer at (605) 673-9207. 

Sincerely, 

/s/Robert J. Thompson 

ROBERT J. THOMPSON 

District Ranger 

Enclosure: 

Pactola Project Area FEIS