2024-09761. Proposed Revisions to Section 1 of the Field Office Technical Guides for Louisiana and Wisconsin

AGENCY:

Natural Resources Conservation Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture.

ACTION:

Notice of availability, request for comments.

SUMMARY:

NRCS is giving notice that it is proposing revisions to Section 1—General Resource References of the Field Office Technical Guides in Louisiana and Wisconsin to include revised State Offsite Methods for Food Security Act Wetland Identification (SOSM). The proposed changes will replace the existing SOSMs in Louisianna and Wisconsin, which have been in use since June 2015 and October 2016. The revisions are needed to clarify procedures and improve consistency in application. SOSM are used in completing wetland determinations for USDA program eligibility purposes.

DATES:

We will consider comments that we receive by June 5, 2024.

ADDRESSES:

We invite you to submit comments in response to this notice. You may submit your comments through:

• Federal eRulemaking Portal: Go to http://www.regulations.gov and search for Docket ID NRCS-2024-0004. Follow the online instructions for submitting comments;

All comments received will be made publicly available on http://www.regulations.gov.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:

For Louisiana: Kris Davis; telephone: [phone]; email: [e-mail] and for Wisconsin: Josh Odekirk; telephone: [phone]; email: [e-mail].

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

Guidance contained in each state's SOSM will be part of the technical documents and procedures that NRCS uses to determine if wetlands are present on agricultural land as required by 16 U.S.C. 3822. NRCS is required by 16 U.S.C. 3862 to make available for public review and comment all proposed revisions to standards and procedures used to carry out highly erodible land and wetland provisions of the law.

There are separate SOSM documents for each state. To fully understand the proposed revisions, commenters are encouraged to compare the revised SOSMs with each state's current version, as shown in Section 1 of the NRCS Field Office Technical Guide at https://efotg.sc.egov.usda.gov/​#/​. The electronic copies of each state's SOSM are available through http://www.regulations.gov by accessing Docket ID NRCS-20240004. Requests for paper versions or inquiries may be directed to the specific State Conservationist as identified in the FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT section above.

In general, both new documents have similar language and technical methodologies with some variations based on natural resource information available and state-specific considerations.

All comments will be considered. If no comments are received, guidance contained in each state's SOSM will be considered final at the end of the comment period for this notice.

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Terry Cosby,

Chief, Natural Resources Conservation Service.