[Federal Register Volume 64, Number 56 (Wednesday, March 24, 1999)]
[Notices]
[Pages 14263-14264]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 99-7264]
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DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR
Bureau of Land Management
[CA-310-1030-00-HDWT]
Headwaters Forest Reserve, California
AGENCY: Bureau of Land Management, Interior.
ACTION: Notice of interim management guidelines.
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SUMMARY: The U.S. Department of the Interior, Bureau of Land
Management, in cooperation with the State of California, will put into
place interim management guidelines for the Headwaters Forest Reserve
in Humboldt County, California. Under these Interim Management
Guidelines, pedestrian access will be allowed into the Headwaters
Forest Reserve. Other uses as cited below, on lands in the Headwaters
Forest Reserve, will not be allowed on a temporary basis, subject to 43
CFR 8364: Unauthorized use by motorized and non-motorized vehicles in
accordance with 43 CFR 8341.2, use of firearms (43 CFR 8365.1-4),
overnight camping (43 CFR 8364.1(a)), equestrian use (43 CFR
8364.1(a)), and to the issuance of special use permits including but
not limited to special forest products/vegetation collection (43 CFR
8365.1-5(2)), and recreation (43 CFR 8364.1(a)). Decisions on long term
public uses at the Headwaters Forest Reserve will be made through the
cooperative management plan to be developed over the next year.
Employees, agents and permittees of the BLM may be exempt from these
restrictions as determined by the Field Manager.
These temporary restrictions are necessary to (1) protect aquatic
threatened and endangered species from further ecosystem damage caused
by accelerated sedimentation of waterways by unstable road conditions,
(2) protect terrestrial threatened and endangered species from
unregulated, un-analyzed impacts, and (3) ensure public safety. These
temporary restrictions will remain in effect until a formal planning
process with full public participation is completed. The planning
process will include: a comprehensive ecosystem analysis (watershed
analysis) compliant with the standards and guidelines of the Northwest
Forest Plan (NWFP), a National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA)
analysis, an approved United States Fish and Wildlife (USFW) Section 7
Biological Consultation, and an approved National Marine Fisheries
Service (NMFS) Consultation. These processes will lead to a final
management plan and record of decision. The formal planning process is
scheduled to begin later this year, with appropriate calls for public
involvement.
DATES: Restrictions are effective March 24, 1999.
ADDRESSES: Maps and supporting documentation of the Headwaters Reserve
are available for review at the following location: Bureau of Land
Management, Arcata Field Office, 1695 Heindon Road, Arcata, CA, 95521.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Lynda J. Roush, BLM, Arcata Field
Manager (707) 825-2300.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The new Headwaters Forest Reserve, described
in Section 501 of the 1998 Interior Appropriations Act as the
Headwaters Forest and Elk River Property Acquisition, provides a unique
opportunity for Federal, State, and local agencies to combine their
strengths and involve the public in a Cooperative Resource Management
Planning (CRMP) approach. A cooperative agreement among the three
levels of government, along with a broad spectrum of interest groups,
will oversee and help direct future management of the area. Such an
approach will foster and perpetuate a public sense of stewardship for
these important biological resources. The land acquisition, funded by
the State of California and the Federal Government, will be managed as
one landscape, with a seamless meshing of government and private sector
entities. Cooperative management will be the cornerstone of the
Headwaters Forest. The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) will be the
managing agency representing the Federal government. Now that
[[Page 14264]]
acquisition is complete, the BLM will help lead the development of a
management plan. The focus of the management plan is the protection and
monitoring of threatened and endangered species and their aquatic and
terrestrial habitats, particularly within the old-growth redwood
groves. Management of the surrounding second-growth would include
significant restoration activities to accelerate the return of old-
growth dependent species. Virgin old-growth forest stands will not be
subject to silvicultural practices. The re-establishment of natural
drainage networks will include extensive road restoration with the goal
of removing, decommissioning, or stabilizing the entire existing road
network and re-instating natural processes over time in an essential
roadless landscape. Recreation activities and visitor services at the
Headwaters Forest Reserve will be developed through the planning
process. Visitor use will be managed in a manner consistent with the
management of late-successional and old-growth forest habitats and the
species they support.
Opportunities for recreation use will be an evolving program where
demand and impacts of uses will be analyzed over time. Management of
the area will rely on findings of a detailed and comprehensive
ecosystem analysis (watershed analysis) and an assessment of forest
stand conditions. The findings of these analyses will set the
ecological parameters within which all management will be conducted,
including restoration, research, recreation, transportation, and
monitoring.
Extensive public involvement, along with public outreach and
education, will be a vital component in the analysis process.
Lynda J. Roush,
Arcata Field Manager.
[FR Doc. 99-7264 Filed 3-22-99; 12:22 pm]
BILLING CODE 4130-40-P
