This Call to Action Has Expired
The deadline for this action has passed. Please view current calls to action to find opportunities to take action today.
Deadline: July 31, 2026 at 8:59pm PDT
Why this Matters
The Siuslaw National Forest wraps around us here on the central coast: Cape Perpetua's tide pools, the Cummins Creek and Rock Creek wilderness, the Oregon Dunes, and the trails above Waldport and Yachats. How that land gets used, and all National Forests, whether a stretch is opened to logging, grazing, or mining exploration, is shaped by the Forest Service's internal rulebooks, called Manuals and Handbooks.
The U.S. Forest Service has proposed a rule (docket FS-2026-0067) that would reclassify its Handbooks as "advisory" only and drop them from public notice and comment entirely. It would also let the agency skip announcing changes in the Federal Register and instead post them on "any broadly accessible public forum, such as a web page," and it would exempt the removal of existing directives from public comment altogether.
In plain terms, besides giving them free range to manage these lands without the decades of planned guidance in the manuals and handbook, this narrows the public's right to weigh in on how our national forests are managed on the ground, and allows the FS to deviate from their current handbook and rules as desired. Neighbors, tribes, scientists, and local groups would have far fewer chances to see a change coming and say something before it happens.
At minimum, the agency should retain the existing status of the Forest Service Handbooks; preserve the existing standard governing departures from mandatory Manual direction; continue to provide public notice and an opportunity to comment on qualifying Manual and Handbook provisions; and reject the proposal to exempt the rescission or removal of the Directives from public participation.
The comment window on the proposal closes July 31, 2026. You can tell the Forest Service to keep the public in these decisions.
Steps to Take
Read the proposal so your comment is specific. The full text and the official summary are on the Federal Register page for docket FS-2026-0067.
Open the comment form on Regulations.gov (docket FS-2026-0067) and choose "Comment."
Write in your own words. Name the part of the Siuslaw or other National Forest you know, whether that is Cape Perpetua, the Oregon Dunes, or a trail you hike, and say why you want a say in how it is managed, and why the current handbooks are critical to preserve. Form letters carry less weight than a personal note, so treat the sample text as a starting point, not a script to paste as-is.
Submit your comment by July 31, 2026. Comments must be received by that date to count. If you would rather mail it, while that's still a option- the address is USDA Forest Service, Sidney Yates Building, 1400 Independence Avenue SW, Washington, DC 20250, Attn: Director, Policy Office.
