§ 215.5 - Legal notice of proposed actions.

(a) Responsible Official. The Responsible Official shall:

(1) Provide notice of the opportunity to comment on a proposed action implementing the land and resource management plan.

(2) Determine the most effective timing for publishing the legal notice of the proposed action and opportunity to comment.

(3) Promptly mail notice about the proposed action to any individual or organization who has requested it and to those who have participated in project planning.

(4) Publish a legal notice of the opportunity to comment on a proposed action as provided for in paragraph (b)(2).

(5) Accept all written and oral comments on the proposed action as provided for in §215.6(a)(4).

(6) Identify all substantive comments.

(b) Legal notice of proposed action—(1) Content of legal notice. All legal notices shall include the following:

(i) The title and brief description of the proposed action.

(ii) A general description of the proposed action's location with sufficient information to allow the interested public to identify the location.

(iii) A statement that the Responsible Official is requesting an emergency situation determination or it has been determined that an emergency situation exists for the project or activity as provided for in §215.10, when applicable.

(iv) For a proposed action to be analyzed and documented in an environmental assessment (EA), a statement that the opportunity to comment ends 30 days following the date of publication of the legal notice in the newspaper of record (§215.6(a)(2)); legal notices shall not contain the specific date since newspaper publication dates may vary.

(v) For a proposed action that is analyzed and documented in a draft environmental impact statement (EIS), a statement that the opportunity to comment ends 45 days following the date of publication of the notice of availability (NOA) in the Federal Register (§215.6(a)(2)). The legal notice must be published after the NOA and contain the NOA publication date.

(vi) A statement that only those who submit timely and substantive comments will be accepted as appellants.

(vii) The Responsible Official's name, title, telephone number, and addresses (street, postal, facsimile, and e-mail) to whom comments are to be submitted and the Responsible Official's office business hours for those submitting hand-delivered comments (§215.6(a)(4)(ii)).

(viii) A statement indicating that for appeal eligibility each individual or representative from each organization submitting substantive comments must either sign the comments or verify identity upon request.

(ix) The acceptable format(s) for electronic comments.

(x) Instructions on how to obtain additional information on the proposed action.

(2) Publication. (i) Through notice published annually in the Federal Register, each Regional Forester shall advise the public of the newspaper(s) of record utilized for publishing legal notices required by this part.

(ii) Legal notice of the opportunity to comment on a proposed action shall be published in the applicable newspaper of record identified in paragraph (b)(2)(i) for each National Forest System unit. When the Chief is the Responsible Official, notice shall also be published in the Federal Register. The publication date of the legal notice in the newspaper of record is the exclusive means for calculating the time to submit comments on a proposed action to be analyzed and documented in an EA. The publication date of the NOA in the Federal Register is the exclusive means for calculating the time to submit comments on a proposed action that is analyzed and documented in a draft EIS.