The plan includes a finding that both the South Fork American River and the North Fork/Mainstem Mokelumne River are suitable for inclusion in the federal Wild and Scenic river system, which has been a bone of contention locally too.   In addition, public comments over the past few months resulted in corrections, clarifying text and a new proposal to designate 1,129-acres of public lands along the North Fork Cosumnes River as an Area of Critical Environmental Concern (ACEC).  Additionally, the Proposed RMP would expand three existing Area’s of Critical Environmental Concern including: the Red Hills, Ione Manzanita, and Limestone Salamander. Use of public lands in these ACECs would vary depending on their individual resources and values but would include limitations on motorized use, mining, and other surface disturbing activities. Supervisor Oneto said he was “chagrined” to learn that the deadline had passed for the County to comment and said “It is probably what I see as one of my biggest failures in office so far.” He said that there are portions of the plan that concern him and that he is still going to pursue trying to comment.

Supervisor Forster asked if it was too late for them to appeal and Pete Bell the Vice President of the Foothill Conservancy, confirmed that if the County did not comment on the draft plan than they did not have the legal standing to protest as well. General Manager Jim Abercrombie said that while he realizes that it is too late for the County to respond to the plan as he thinks it would be beneficial for the County, rather than not commenting at all. “Going through the NEPA and CEQA process it’s not unusual for some agencies to respond after the (comment) period,” he continued by saying, “I want to encourage the board if you do have comments to submit them anyways. They may reject them, or they may not respond, but I encourage you to make comment.” The Board after further discussion made a motion to have Chairman Louis Boitano and Supervisor Oneto work to form a comment letter to submit to the BLM.