[Federal Register Volume 63, Number 227 (Wednesday, November 25, 1998)]
[Notices]
[Pages 65167-65168]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 98-31199]
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Notices
Federal Register
________________________________________________________________________
This section of the FEDERAL REGISTER contains documents other than rules
or proposed rules that are applicable to the public. Notices of hearings
and investigations, committee meetings, agency decisions and rulings,
delegations of authority, filing of petitions and applications and agency
statements of organization and functions are examples of documents
appearing in this section.
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Federal Register / Vol. 63, No. 227 / Wednesday, November 25, 1998 /
Notices
[[Page 65167]]
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DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE
Forest Service
Department of the Interior
Bureau of Land Management
Survey and Manage Strategy for National Forests and Bureau of
Land Management Districts Within the Range of the Northern Spotted Owl
AGENCIES: Forest Service, USDA; Bureau of Land Management, USDI.
ACTION: Notice of intent to prepare an environmental impact statement.
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SUMMARY: The Forest Service and the Bureau of Land Management (BLM)
will prepare an environmental impact statement (EIS) to be used in
considering a proposal to make changes in two of the mitigation
measures first adopted in the Standards and Guidelines for Management
of Habitat for Late-Successional and Old-Growth Forest Related Species
Within the Range of the Northern Spotted Owl (Northwest Forest Plan),
and then incorporated into subsequent planning documents of the Forest
Service and BLM. These changes affect the Survey and Manage and
Protection Buffer species provisions of the Standards and Guidelines
and are based on new information that has been collected in the past
four years of implementation. The purpose of these proposed changes is
to update the conservation strategies in the Northwest Forest Plan and
to continue to meet all of the objectives articulated in the Northwest
Forest Plan. The selected alternative may result in amendment to agency
land and resource management plans for National Forests and BLM
Districts within the range of the northern spotted owl.
DATES: Comments concerning the scope of the analysis should be received
in writing by December 24, 1998.
ADDRESSES: Send written comments concerning this proposal to Bill
Torgersen, Project Manager, P.O. Box 3623, Portland, Oregon 97203.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:
Cynthia Henchell, EIS Team Leader, P.O. Box 3623, Portland, Oregon
97203, phone (503) 808-2490.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: This EIS will evaluate the Survey and Manage
and Protection Buffer species Standards and Guidelines as they are
applied to National Forest System Lands (NFS) and public lands
administered by the BLM within the range of the northern spotted owl.
The selected alternative may result in an amendment to Land Management
Plans (LMPs) for the Gifford Pinchot, Mount Baker-Snoqualmie, Mount
Hood, Olympic, Rogue River, Siuslaw, Siskiyou, Six Rivers, Umpqua, and
Willamette National Forests and portions of the Deschutes, Okanogan,
Wenatchee, Winema, Klamath, Lassen, Mendocino, Modoc, and Shasta-
Trinity National Forests implementing the Northwest Forest Plan.
The Record of Decision for this EIS would amend the BLM Resource
Management Plans (RMPs) for the Salem, Eugene, Coos Bay, Roseburg, and
Medford Districts, and the Klamath Falls Field Office of the Lakeview
District in Oregon. In addition, the Record of Decision for this EIS
would amend the plans for the Redding Field Office, Arcata Field
Office, King Range National Conservation Area, and Ukiah Field Office
within the grouping of independent Northern California Field Offices
known as NORCAL.
New information, such as the range and abundance of species listed
in Table C-3 of the Survey and Manage and Protection Buffer species
Standards and Guidelines of the Northwest Forest Plan, continues to be
compiled from surveys and analyzed following four years of
implementation of these provisions. This new information indicates that
adhering to some of the present Standards and Guidelines for Survey and
Manage and Protection Buffer species may not fully meet both the need
to protect old growth-related species and the need for forest products,
which are the dual goals of the Northwest Forest Plan. The present
Standards and Guidelines for Survey and Manage and Protection Buffer
species require substantial reductions in the availability of resources
from Federal lands; including recreation, timber, prescribed fire,
mining, grazing and restoration activities, while providing little
corresponding benefit to the species the provisions were designed to
protect. Moreover, there is a need to clarify the Survey and Manage and
Protection Buffer species (Standards and Guidelines to design an
orderly and credible adaptive management process to change or revise
the status of species and management of Survey and Manage and
Protection Buffer species as we gain new insights to their needs.
The proposed action would alter certain procedures under the Survey
and Manage provisions so that the agencies can more rapidly respond to
new information concerning the population status and habitat
requirements of species associated with late-successional and old-
growth forest habitat of the Pacific Northwest. The proposed action
would merge Protection Buffer species into the protective measures
provided under the Survey and Manage provisions established under the
Northwest Forest Plan. The proposed action may include the initial
changes to species' categorization which would be made under the new
adaptive management procedures to be adopted for the Survey and Manage
mitigation measure, such as moving a species from one Component to
another. These changes would be based on the information which has been
developed since adoption of the Northwest Forest Plan.
Alternatives other than the proposal and the ``no action''
alternative have not been developed. The public is invited to propose
alternatives for consideration during the scoping process.
The scoping process as defined in the Council of Environmental
Quality's National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) implementing
regulations will be used to identify issues for developing a range of
alternatives that consider the underlying need for this action. A
scoping notice will be prepared and circulated to mailing lists of
individuals and organizations previously expressing an interest in
National Forest LMPs and BLM RMPs within the range of the northern
spotted owl. The scoping notice along with background information will
also be posted on the Internet: http://or.blm.gov/information.htm. A
scoping meeting will not be held. For comments to be
[[Page 65168]]
most useful in this analysis, they should be submitted in writing
before December 24, 1998.
The Forest Service and BLM will be joint lead agencies for this
analysis. The two agencies will consult with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife
Service and National Marine Fisheries Service pursuant to the
Endangered Species Act. Other Federal agencies, such as the Pacific
Northwest and Pacific Southwest Research Station, Bureau of Indian
Affairs, National Park Service, Environmental Protection Agency (EPA),
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Natural Resources Conservation Service,
the U.S. Geological Survey Biological Resources Division, EPA Research
Laboratory, and Tribal, local, and state governments will also be
involved.
The responsible officials for NFS lands will be the Regional
Forester, Pacific Northwest Region, P.O. Box 3623, Portland, Oregon
97208 and the Regional Forester, Pacific Southwest Region, 630 Sansome
Street, San Francisco, CA 94111. The responsible official for public
lands administered by the BLM will be the State Director for Oregon and
Washington, P.O. Box 2965, Portland, Oregon 97208 and the State
Director for California, 2135 Butano Drive, Sacramento, CA 95825.
The draft EIS is expected to be filed with the EPA approximately
February 1999 and will be available for public review at that time. The
comment period on the draft EIS will be 90 days from the date the EPA
publishes the notice of availability in the Federal Register.
The Forest Service and BLM believe it is important to give
reviewers notice of several court rulings related to public
participation in the environmental review process. First, reviewers of
draft EISs must structure their participation in the environmental
review of the proposal so that it is meaningful and alerts an agency to
the reviewer's position and contentions. Vermont Yankee Nuclear Power
Corp. v. NRDC, 435 U.S. 519, 533 (1978). Also, environmental objections
that could be raised at the draft EIS stage may be waived or dismissed
by the courts. City of Angoon v. Hodel, 803 F.2nd 1016, 1022 (9th Cir.
1986) and Wisconsin Heritages, Inc. v. Harris, 490 F. Supp. 1334, 1338
(E.D. Wis. 1980). Because of these court rulings, it is important that
those interested in this proposed action participate by the close of
the 90-day comment period on the draft EIS so that substantive comments
and objections are made available to the Forest Service and BLM at a
time when the agencies can meaningfully consider substantive comments
and objectives and respond to them in the final EIS.
To assist the Forest Service and BLM in identifying and considering
issues and concerns on the proposed action, comments on the draft EIS
should be as specific as possible. It is also helpful if comments refer
to specific pages or chapters of the draft statement. Comments may also
address the adequacy of the draft EIS or the merits of the alternatives
formulated and discussed in the statement. Reviewers may wish to refer
to the Council on Environmental Quality Regulations for implementing
the procedural provisions of NEPA at 40 CFR 1503.3 in addressing these
points.
It is expected that the final EIS will be filed with the EPA
approximately October 1999. There will be two Records of Decisions
issued; one for NFS lands and one for BLM public lands in Oregon,
Washington and California. The decision for National Forest System
Lands will be subject to Forest Service appeal regulations (36 CFR
217). The decision in regard to lands managed by the BLM would be
subject to the protest procedures in BLM's planning regulations (43 CFR
1610.5-2).
Dated: November 16, 1998.
Robert W. Williams,
Regional Forester, R-6, Forest Service.
Dated: November 16, 1998.
William L. Bradley,
Deputy State Director, Resource Planning, Use & Protection, Bureau of
Land Management.
[FR Doc. 98-31199 Filed 11-24-98; 8:45 am]
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