[Federal Register: February 20, 2004 (Volume 69, Number 34)]
[Notices]
[Page 7904-7905]
From the Federal Register Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]
[DOCID:fr20fe04-15]
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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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[[Page 7904]]
DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE
Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service
[Docket No. 01-009-6]
Wildlife Services; Availability of an Environmental Assessment
and Decision/Finding of No Significant Impact for Oral Rabies Vaccine
Program on National Forest System Lands
AGENCY: Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, USDA.
COOPERATING AGENCY: Forest Service, USDA.
ACTION: Notice of availability and request for comments.
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SUMMARY: We are advising the public that we have prepared an
environmental assessment and proposed decision/finding of no
significant impact relative to oral rabies vaccination programs on
National Forest System lands in several States. Since the publication
of our original environmental assessment and decision/finding of no
significant impact (2001), a subsequent supplemental decision/finding
of no significant impact (2002), and a supplemental environmental
assessment and decision/finding of no significant impact (2003), we
have determined there is a need to further expand the oral rabies
vaccine program to include National Forest System lands, excluding
Wilderness Areas, to effectively stop the westward and northward spread
of the rabies virus across the United States and into Canada. The
purpose of the environmental assessment and decision/finding of no
significant impact is to facilitate planning, interagency coordination,
and program management and to provide the public with our analysis of
potential individual and cumulative impacts of an expanded oral rabies
vaccine program.
DATES: We will consider all comments that we receive on or before March
22, 2004. Unless we determine that new substantial issues bearing on
the effects of the proposed expansion of the oral rabies vaccine
programs have been raised by public comments on this notice, the
proposed decision/finding of no significant impact will become final
and take effect upon the close of the comment period.
ADDRESSES: You may submit comments by postal mail/commercial delivery
or by e-mail. If you use postal mail/commercial delivery, please send
four copies of your comment (an original and three copies) to: Docket
No. 01-009-6, Regulatory Analysis and Development, PPD, APHIS, Station
3C71, 4700 River Road Unit 118, Riverdale, MD 20737-1238. Please state
that your comment refers to Docket No. 01-009-6. If you use e-mail,
address your comment to regulations@aphis.usda.gov. Your comment must
be contained in the body of your message; do not send attached files.
Please include your name and address in your message and ``Docket No.
01-009-6'' on the subject line.
To obtain copies of any of the documents discussed in this notice,
contact Tara Wilcox, Operational Support Staff, WS, APHIS, 4700 River
Road Unit 87, Riverdale, MD 20737-1234; phone (301) 734-7921, fax (301)
734-5157, or e-mail: Tara.C.Wilcox@aphis.usda.gov. When requesting
copies, please specify the document or documents you wish to receive.
You may also read the documents discussed in this notice, as well
as any comments that we receive, in our reading room. The reading room
is located in room 1141 of the USDA South Building, 14th Street and
Independence Avenue SW., Washington, DC. Normal reading room hours are
8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., Monday through Friday, except holidays. To be sure
someone is there to help you, please call (202) 690-2817 before coming.
APHIS documents published in the Federal Register, and related
information, including the names of organizations and individuals who
have commented on APHIS dockets, are available on the Internet at
http://www.aphis.usda.gov/ppd/rad/webrepor.html.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Mr. Dennis Slate, Rabies Program
Coordinator, Wildlife Services, APHIS, 59 Chennell Drive, Suite 7,
Concord, NH 03301-8548; (603) 223-6832.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
Background
The Wildlife Services (WS) program in the Animal and Plant Health
Inspection Service (APHIS) cooperates with Federal agencies, State and
local governments, and private individuals to research and implement
the best methods of managing conflicts between wildlife and human
health and safety, agriculture, property, and natural resources.
Wildlife-borne diseases that can affect domestic animals and humans are
among the types of conflicts that APHIS-WS addresses. Wildlife is the
dominant reservoir of rabies in the United States.
On December 7, 2000, a notice was published in the Federal Register
(65 FR 76606-76607, Docket No. 00-045-1) in which the Secretary of
Agriculture declared an emergency and transferred funds from the
Commodity Credit Corporation to APHIS-WS for the continuation and
expansion of oral rabies vaccination (ORV) programs to address rabies
in the States of Ohio, New York, Vermont, Texas, and West Virginia.
On March 7, 2001, we published a notice in the Federal Register (66
FR 13697-13700, Docket No. 01-009-1) to solicit public involvement in
the planning of a proposed cooperative program to stop the spread of
rabies in the States of New York, Ohio, Texas, Vermont, and West
Virginia. The notice also stated that a small portion of northeastern
New Hampshire and the western counties in Pennsylvania that border Ohio
could also be included in these control efforts, and discussed the
possibility of APHIS-WS cooperating in smaller-scale ORV projects in
the States of Florida, Massachusetts, Maryland, New Jersey, Virginia,
and Alabama. The March 2001 notice contained detailed information about
the history of the problems with raccoon rabies in eastern States and
with gray fox and coyote rabies in Texas, along with information about
previous and ongoing efforts using ORV baits in programs to prevent the
spread of the rabies variants or ``strains'' of concern.
[[Page 7905]]
Subsequently, on May 17, 2001, we published in the Federal Register
(66 FR 27489, Docket No. 01-009-2) a notice in which we announced the
availability, for public review and comment, of an environmental
assessment (EA) that examined the potential environmental effects of
the ORV programs described in our March 2001 notice. We solicited
comments on the EA for 30 days ending on June 18, 2001. We received one
comment by that date. The comment was from an animal protection
organization and supported APHIS' efforts toward limiting or
eradicating rabies in wildlife populations. The commenter did not,
however, support the use of lethal monitoring methods or local
depopulation as part of an ORV program.
Finally, on August 30, 2001, we published a notice in the Federal
Register (66 FR 45835-45836, Docket No. 01-009-3) in which we advised
the public of APHIS' decision and finding of no significant impact
(FONSI) regarding the use of oral vaccination to control specific
rabies virus strains in raccoons, gray foxes, and coyotes in the United
States. That decision allows APHIS-WS to purchase and distribute ORV
baits, monitor the effectiveness of the ORV programs, and participate
in implementing contingency plans that may involve the reduction of a
limited number of local target species populations through lethal means
(i.e., the preferred alternative identified in the EA). The decision
was based upon the final EA, which reflected our review and
consideration of the comments received from the public in response to
our March 2001 and May 2001 notices and information gathered during
planning/scoping meetings with State health departments, other State
and local agencies, the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources, and the
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Following the August 2001 publication of our original decision/
FONSI, we determined there was a need to expand the ORV programs to
include the States of Kentucky and Tennessee to effectively stop the
westward spread of raccoon rabies. Accordingly, we prepared a
supplemental decision/FONSI to document the potential effects of
expanding the programs. We published a notice announcing the
availability of the supplemental decision/FONSI in the Federal Register
on July 5, 2002 (67 FR 44797-44798, Docket No. 01-009-4).
Following the publication of the supplemental decision/FONSI in
July 2002, we determined the need to further expand the ORV program to
include the States of Georgia and Maine to effectively prevent the
westward and northward spread of the rabies virus across the United
States and into Canada. To facilitate planning, interagency
coordination, and program management and to provide the public with our
analysis of potential individual and cumulative impacts of the expanded
ORV programs, we prepared a supplemental EA that addresses the
inclusion of Georgia and Maine, as well as the 2002 inclusion of
Kentucky and Tennessee, in the ORV program. In addition, we prepared a
new decision/FONSI based on the supplemental EA that was published in
the Federal Register on June 30, 2003 (68 FR 38669-38670, Docket No.
01-009-5).
Recently, we have determined the need to further expand the ORV
program to include portions of National Forest System lands, excluding
Wilderness Areas, within several eastern States. The National Forest
System lands where APHIS-WS involvement would be expanded may be
located within the States of Maine, New York, Vermont, New Hampshire,
Pennsylvania, Ohio, Virginia, West Virginia, Tennessee, Kentucky,
Alabama, Georgia, Florida, North Carolina, South Carolina,
Massachusetts, Maryland, and New Jersey. Currently, cooperative rabies
surveillance activities and/or baiting programs are already being
conducted on various land classes, with the exception of National
Forest System lands, in many of the aforementioned States. The
programs' primary goals are to stop the spread of a specific raccoon
rabies variant or ``strain'' of the rabies virus. If not stopped, this
strain could potentially spread to much broader areas of the U.S. and
Canada and cause substantial increases in public and domestic animal
health costs because of increased rabies exposures. Numerous National
Forest System lands are located within current and potential ORV
barrier zones. To effectively combat this strain of the rabies virus,
it has become increasingly important to bait these large land masses.
The EA analyzes the proposed action and several alternatives with
respect to a number of environmental and other issues raised by
involved cooperating agencies and the public.
The August 2001 EA and decision/FONSI, the July 2002 supplemental
decision/FONSI, the June 2003 supplemental EA and decision/FONSI, and
this EA and decision/FONSI for expanded ORV program activities on
National Forest System lands that are the subject of this notice have
been prepared in accordance with: (1) The National Environmental Policy
Act of 1969 (NEPA), as amended (42 U.S.C. 4321 et seq.), (2)
regulations of the Council on Environmental Quality for implementing
the procedural provisions of NEPA (40 CFR parts 1500-1508), (3) USDA
regulations implementing NEPA (7 CFR part 1), and (4) APHIS' NEPA
Implementing Procedures (7 CFR part 372).
Done in Washington, DC, this 13th day of February 2004.
Kevin Shea,
Acting Administrator, Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service.
[FR Doc. 04-3721 Filed 2-19-04; 8:45 am]
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