The enclosed Environmental Assessment (EA) has been prepared for the Poindexter Slough Fishing Access Site (FAS) Fiber Optic Line Installation and Easement. Southern Montana Telephone Company is requesting a right-of-way easement from Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks (FWP) for an underground telecommunications cable. Southern Montana Telephone Company, Wisdom, MT, is in the second year of a 3-year, system-wide plan to upgrade their telecommunications facilities in their rural exchange areas of Grant, Jackson, Wise River, and Divide. The purpose of Southern’s upgrade program is to replace portions of its aging telecommunications infrastructure with fiber optics, providing state-of-the-art services and technologies to its rural customer base. Southern’s proposed upgrade will also provide for redundant/alternate routing of its long distance and critical services such as 911 emergency services, providing for increased reliability of these essential services. The draft EA is available for review from FWP at the address provided above or viewed on FWP’s Internet website: http://www.fwp.mt.gov/publicnotices. Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks invites you to comment on the attached proposal. Public comment will be accepted until 5:00 p.m. on July 28, 2008. Comments should be sent to the following: Poindexter Slough Fiber Optic Line Installation and Easement EA Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks 1400 South 19th Avenue Bozeman MT 59718-5496 Or emailed to: gwalker@mt.gov.
