The deadline passed this week for the public comment period on whether to allow Arch Coal to lay down a road to its coal operations near Paonia, and it looks like the process has been big-footed by a national environmental group.

Earthjustice was tweeting to its members over the holiday break urging followers to fill out a prewritten objection letter, also known as Astroturf lobbying, to send to the Forest Service objecting to the road because climate change.

Tell Forest Service to keep #coal mining loophole in Colorado’s pristine forests closed! https://t.co/JWC4vXaZxi pic.twitter.com/1uZfTSopJZ

— Earthjustice (@Earthjustice) January 3, 2016

We could not confirm where the “after” photo was taken, but it appears to show the destruction of a forest caused by mud that must have been trucked in from a mud factory or something, and everyone knows that mud and dirt have no place in our national forests.

Oh, the horror.

The comment period closed Monday, and we expect the Forest Service was flooded with the prefabricated letter from around the globe objecting to a little road in Paonia claiming it will degrade the habitat of beaks, elk, goshawk, lynx and cutthroat trout.

Yes, trout.

Valued recreation and hunting areas used by the public will be scarred for years.

Tell the Forest Service it should not allow Arch Coal to reap profits while adding huge amounts of climate pollution to our atmosphere, all at the expense of wild, roadless forest!

Having an access road might actually allow hunters and angles to get to more hunting and fishing spots, and allow firefighters access to wildfires in the area.

But when it comes down to it, Earthjustice would rather see the forest burn to the ground and all sportsmen banned from all forests, rather than have a dirt road “scar” Mother Earth.

When the Forest Service takes “comments” into consideration, we hope they will ignore all of the Earthjustice form letters. No sense printing them all on paper, killing an entire forest in the process.