Sign-on Letter. Tell the Forest Service to Keep Its Handbooks Binding and the Public Involved

Why this Matters

On July 1, 2026, the Forest Service proposed a rule (36 C.F.R. Parts 200 and 216, RIN 0596-AD74) that would downgrade its Handbooks from binding procedure to advisory suggestions and shrink the public's right to notice and comment when agency guidance changes. Handbooks are where the practical rules live: how the agency monitors wildlife, consults with Tribes, manages wilderness and grazing, and writes forest plans. If they become optional, staff can set them aside without explaining why, and the public loses its window to weigh in.

That reaches our coast directly. The Siuslaw National Forest runs the length of the central Oregon Coast Range, including the old-growth Sitka spruce at Cape Perpetua south through the Oregon Dunes. Every decision made in that forest follows the procedures this rule would unravel. Less consistency in the agency means less accountability to the neighbors who live beside these forests.

A group of former members of the federal advisory committee for the Forest Service planning rule, including attorneys and scientists from Silvix Resources and The Wilderness Society, drafted a very specific and detailed coalition comment letter asking the agency to withdraw the rule. Organizations and individuals can add their names before the letter is submitted on July 30, 2026.
If you want to learn more of the gory details, please read the sign-on letter, it contains so much information!

Note: You can also send your own personal comment. Comments directly to the Forest Service are due by July 31, 2026.

Steps to Take

Step 1

Read or skim the coalition comment letter, which explains in details all the parts wrong with this Forest Service proposal, and urges them to withdraw the proposed rule or keep Handbooks binding, preserve the current standards for departing from directives, and retain full public notice and comment.

Step 2

Add your name, affiliation, city, and email through the sign-on form. The letter will be submitted on July 30, 2026, so sign by July 29 to be safe.

Step 3

If you have a few more minutes, submit your own comment to the Forest Service through the regulations.gov comment page by the end of the day(8:59PST) on July 31, 2026. Either sample text on this page is a good starting point; adding a sentence about your own connection to the Siuslaw or another forest makes it stronger.

Sample Text

Option 1

I oppose the proposed rule revising 36 CFR Parts 200 and 216 (RIN 0596-AD74). Forest Service Handbooks are not red tape. They hold the working procedures for wildlife monitoring, Tribal consultation, wilderness management, and forest planning across the National Forest System, including the Siuslaw National Forest on the central Oregon Coast. Making Handbooks advisory would let those procedures be set aside without explanation, and narrowing public notice and comment would cut communities like mine out of decisions about the forests next door. Please withdraw the rule. If the agency moves forward, it should keep Handbooks binding, keep the current standards for departing from directives, and keep full public notice and comment on directive changes.

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Option 2

Please withdraw the proposed rule on the Forest Service Directive System (RIN 0596-AD74, 36 CFR Parts 200 and 216). Handbooks should remain binding, and the public should keep its right to notice and comment when directives change. Consistency and transparency in the Forest Service matter to the communities that live beside these forests, including ours on the Oregon Coast.