[Federal Register Volume 61, Number 43 (Monday, March 4, 1996)]
[Notices]
[Page 8235]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 96-4937]
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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
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Federal Register / Vol. 61, No. 43 / Monday, March 4, 1996 /
Notices
[[Page 8235]]
DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE
Forest Service
Formulation of the Prerevision Review Process for the Cibola
National Forest Land and Resource Management Plan Revision
AGENCY: Forest Service, USDA.
SUMMARY: The Cibola National Forest requests comments on draft
Prerevision review topics that have been developed through the
monitoring of the current Forest Plan and interdisciplinary team
review. This is an invitation to the public and representatives of
government entities to express their ideas and suggestions on what
needs to be changed in the current Forest Plan. Upon completion of the
prerevision review, the Regional Forester shall initiate the forest
plan revision process by publishing a Notice of intent to revise the
forest plan and to prepare the draft environmental impact statement.
DATES: This notice is effective March 6, 1996. Comments must be
submitted in writing on or before April 15, 1996.
ADDRESSES: Direct comments to: Jeanine A. Derby, Forest Supervisor,
Cibola National Forest, 2113 Osuna Road NE, Suite A, Albuquerque, New
Mexico, 87110.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:
Barney Lyons, Forest Planner, Cibola National Forest at 505-761-4650.
Background
The Land and Resource Management Plan defines the long-term
direction for managing the Cibola National Forest and the Kiowa, Rita
Blanca, Black Kettle, and McClellan Creek National Grasslands. The
Forest Plan will take an ecological approach to achieve multiple-use
management of the National Forest and National Grasslands. It means
that we must blend the needs of people and environmental values in such
a way that the National Forest and Grasslands represent diverse,
healthy, productive, and sustainable ecosystems. The present Cibola
National Forest Plan was approved in 1985 and has been amended six
times. Revision of a forest plan should occur about every 10 years, but
no later than 15 years from the date of approval of the original plan
or the latest plan revision.
A prerevision review of the forest plan has been conducted to
identified changed conditions and/or new information which appears to
indicate a need to change direction in the current plan. The Cibola
National Forest developed criteria to separate between Revision Topics,
Implementation Topics, Legislative Topics, Topics for other Government
Entities, and Research Topics. Other information required by the
National Forest Management Act will also be evaluated with the topics
that indicate a need for change, such as roadless areas and wild and
scenic rivers. This review was a combination of interdisciplinary team
efforts and Forest plan monitoring. We are seeking comments on these
topics as well as any other topics that might surface.
The revision topics that surfaced during the prerevision review
are: balancing land capability with resource demand; watershed
condition assessment and water uses, rights, quality and availability
assessment; biological diversity; Native American collaboration; Land
Grant Community collaboration; land uses; oil and gas leasing;
population growth and social demographics; rural community economics;
Scenery Management System; urban interface; wilderness management;
recreation management; fire management; response to legal mandates;
access management; and Range Management.
Implementation Topics were topics that needed additional emphasis
but the present plan provide adequate direction for implementation.
These topics are: infrastructure; balanced heritage resource
management; land line location; limiting factors for wildlife;
monitoring; resource inventories; small products as a vegetation
management tool; planning coordination with local governments;
Recreation Opportunity Spectrum, roadless areas and other special
areas; public information and education; Research Natural Areas; budget
constraints and workforce reductions; and law enforcement.
Several topics will be referred to other agencies for their
consideration and input. These are:
Clean Air Act implementation; State wildlife departments
regulations and hunting seasons; State forestry's responsibility for
forestry practices on state and private lands; State's water quality
management under the Clean Water Act; and the Department of Energy/
Department of Defense responsibilities on land withdrawals.
Some of the research topics include:
Social impact on ecosystems; bats and their habitat; recreation
uses and acceptable limits; grassland ecosystems and disturbances;
pinyon-juniper treatment thresholds; medicinal plants and other forest
products; bio-solid effects and applications; stream channel/wet meadow
restoration, and health effects of smoke from prescribed burning.
No legislative topics have surfaced to date.
A copy of the draft Prerevision Review Topics is available at the
Cibola National Forest Supervisor's Office, 2113 Osuna Road NE, Suite
A, Albuquerque, New Mexico 87110, 505-761-4650.
Dated: February 26, 1996.
Kenneth D. Knarr,
Acting Forest Supervisor.
[FR Doc. 96-4937 Filed 3-1-96; 8:45 am]
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