[Federal Register: August 25, 2005 (Volume 70, Number 164)]
[Notices]
[Page 49907-49909]
From the Federal Register Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]
[DOCID:fr25au05-25]
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DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE
Forest Service
Plumas National Forest; Beckwourth Ranger District, California;
Freeman Project
AGENCY: Forest Service, USDA.
[[Page 49908]]
ACTION: Notice of intent to prepare an Environmental Impact Statement.
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SUMMARY: The USDA Forest Service, Plumas National Forest will prepare
an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) to reduce hazardous fuels,
improve forest health, improve bald eagle habitat, cost effectively
support the local communities, improve aspen stands, provide access
needed to meet other project objectives and reduce transportation
system impacts on the west side of Lake Davis near Portola, CA.
DATES: Although comments will be accepted throughout any phase of this
project, it would be most helpful if comments on the scope of the
analysis were received within 30 days of the date of publication of
this notice of intent in the Federal Register. The draft EIS is
expected in April 2006 and the final EIS is expected in August 2006.
ADDRESSES: Send written comments to Robert Mac Whorter, Plumas National
Forest, PO Box 11500, Quincy, CA 95971; fax: (530) 283-7746. Comments
may be: (1) Mailed to the Responsible Official; (2) hand-delivered
between the hours of 8 a.m.-4:30 p.m. weekdays Pacific time; (3) faxed
to (530) 283-7746; or (4) electronically mailed to:
comments-pacificsouthwest-plumas@fs.fed.us. Comments submitted electronically
must be in Rich Text Format (.rtf).
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Sabrina Stadler, Interdisciplinary
Team Leader, Plumas National Forest, Beckwourth Ranger District, P.O.
Box 7, Blairsden, CA 96103, (530) 836-2575.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
Project Location
The project area is located north of Portola and west of Lake
Davis, in the Beckwourth Ranger District of the Plumas National Forest.
It is within all or parts of T23N, R12E; T23N, R13E; T24N, R12E; T24N,
R13E.
Purpose and Need for Action
The effects of several vegetation management projects will be
analyzed in this EIS. The need for and purpose of the project has six
elements: to reduce hazardous fuels in the wildland/urban interface
(WUI) and to create a strategic network of linear fuel treatments
across the landscape referred to as defensible fuel profile zones
(DFPZs); to improve forest health; to improve bald eagle habitat; to
implement the project in a cost effective manner and contribute to
local community economic stability; to improve aspen stands; to provide
the access needed to meet other project objectives and reduce
transportation system impacts.
In its effort to reduce excessive fuel, the Forest Service intends
to work with the Plumas County Fire Safe Council to reduce hazardous
fuels around local communities, as well as to develop a strategic
network of linear fuel treatments across the landscape. This will
reduce the potential for large-scale, high-intensity fire where
wildfire behavior would be modified to allow for safer, more effective
fire suppression.
Many stands in the project are infected with small pockets of
insects and disease. The insects include both bark beetles
(Dendroctonus brevicomus, D. valens) and pine engravers (Ips spp.). The
diseases include mistletoe (Arceuthobium spp.), white pine blister rust
(Cronartium ribicola) and annosus root rot (Heterobasidion annosum).
Stands in the Lake Davis Bald Eagle Habitat Management Area (BEHMA)
in the Freeman project area are overstocked, largely unable to recruit
nesting structure, and at risk of loss from wildlife and disease/insect
infestation.
In addition to reducing the risk of catastrophic wildfire and
improving forest health, this project would provide products that
contribute to community stability in the most cost-effective manner
possible, considering other resource objectives, by creating employment
and income that contribute to local economic activity.
Aspen stands in the project area are low in productivity and
health, and most are not successfully regenerating. Field evaluation
indicates that, regardless of the relative contribution of these
various factors, at present, competition by conifers is a major factor
in aspen decline. Aspen stand improvement work will maintain or improve
diverse and productive native plant communities in the riparian zone,
as well as to support populations of well-distributed native plant,
vertebrate and invertebrate populations that contribute to the
viability of riparian plant communities.
The proposed road relocation and decommissioning work is needed to
achieve desired riparian conditions and to reduce the total area of
compacted soil.
Proposed Action
The project area consists of 14,967 acres of the PNF managed by the
Beckwourth Ranger District. The proposed action will treat 5,792 acres,
approximately 39 percent of the project area by: reducing hazardous
fuels; improving forest health, improving bald eagle habitat, cost
effectively supporting the local communities; improving aspen stands;
and providing the access needed to meet other project objectives and
reducing transportation system impacts.
Fuel reduction treatments will occur over 3,066 acres of the DFPZ
and WUI. Treatments are specifically designed to cause advancing
wildfire to drop to the ground and burn with reduced intensity and will
involve several methods (i.e., grapple pile, handthin, mastication,
mechanical thinning, underburn only).
Forest health improvement will involve the use of group selection
to remove insect and disease infected pockets within the stands. Group
selection will be on 175 acres, ranging from 0.5-2 acres in size. The
health of plantations and young conifer stands will also be addressed,
through area thinning, mastication and grapple piling.
Over half of the eagle habitat within the project area would
receive some kind of treatment, consisting of mechanical thinning, hand
thinning, underburn only, group selection and mechanical aspen
treatments, covering 1,964 acres. Treatments would focus on removing
diseased pockets of trees and increasing the quantity of nesting
habitat by thinning stands to accelerate growth.
Aspen stands would be treated to remove conifers to enhance aspen
health and growth. Aspen would be released from conifer competition in
40 units totaling approximately 645 acres, ranging in size between 1-85
acres. Conifers to be removed are within the existing aspen stand
(i.e., those trees actively suppressing aspen community productivity
and function) or trees bordering a stand, which directly affect the
health of the stand. All conifers up to 29.9'' dbh would also be
removed within a variable-width treatment zone extending up to 150'
beyond the outer boundary of the aspen stands.
The Forest proposes to improve transportation system needed to
access the vegetation/fuels treatment units and to mitigate existing
adverse effects on heritage resources, soils, and water quality. These
improvements to the transportation system will include: building
approximately 17 short segments of temporary roads (decommissioned upon
completion), totaling 2-miles, needed to implement planned activities;
decommissioning approximately 12.5-miles of existing system roads and
1.9-miles of non-system roads; closing 0.7-miles of system roads;
relocating 0.2-mile of system road and 0.7-mile of system road would be
reduced to single-track, in order to provide for recreational
opportunities near Lake Davis.
[[Page 49909]]
Hazard trees would be removed from along Maintenance Level 3, 4 and
5 roads (generally, surfaced roads) and high-use Maintenance Level 2
roads (generally native-surface roads). Identification of hazard trees
would follow guidelines in the Plumas National Forest Roadside/Facility
Hazard Tree Abatement Action Plan (2003).
Lead Agency: The USDA Forest Service is the lead agency for this
proposal.
Responsible Official: Plumas National Acting Forest Supervisor,
Robert G. MacWhorter is the responsible official; Plumas National
Forest, P.O. Box 11500, Quincy, CA 95971.
Nature of Decision To Be Made
The responsible official will decide whether to implement this
project as proposed, implement the project based on an alternative to
this proposal that is formulated to resolve identified issues or not
implement this project at this time. The responsible official will be
the Plumas National Forest Forest Supervisor.
Scoping Process
Public questions and comments regarding this proposal are an
integral part of this environmental analysis process. Comments will be
used to identify issues and disqualification alternatives to the
proposed action. To assist the Forest Service in identifying and
considering issues and concerns on the proposed action, comments should
be as specific as possible.
A copy of the proposed action and/or a summary of the proposed
action will be mailed to adjacent landowners, as well as to those
people and organizations that have indicated a specific interest in the
Freeman project, to Native American entities, and Federal, State and
local agencies. The public will be notified of any meetings regarding
this proposed by mailings and press releases sent to the local
newspaper and media. There are no meetings planned at this time.
Permits or Licenses Required: An Air Pollution Permit and a Smoke
Management Plan are required by local agencies.
Comment
This notice of intent initiates the scoping process which guides
the development of the EIS. Our desire is to receive substantive
comments on the merits of the proposed action, as well as comments that
address errors, misinformation, or information that has been omitted.
Substantive comments are defined as comments within the scope of the
proposal, that have a direct relationship to the proposal, and that
include supporting reasons for the responsible official's
consideration.
Early Notice of Importance of Public Participation in Subsequent
Environmental Review: A draft environmental impact statement will be
prepared for comment. The comment period on the draft environmental
impact statement will be 45 days from the date the Environmental
Protection Agency publishes the notice of availability in the Federal
Register.
The Forest Service believes, at this early stage, it is important
to give reviewers notice of several court rulings related to public
participation in the environmental review process. First, reviewers of
draft environmental impact statements 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,
553 (1978). Also, environmental objections that could be raised as the
draft environmental impact statement stage but that are not raised
until after completion of the final environmental impact statement may
be waived or dismissed by the courts. City of Angoon v. Hodel, 803 F.2d
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 very important that those interested in this proposed action
participate by the close of the 45-day comment period so that
substantive comments and objections are made available to the Forest
Service at a time when it can meaningfully consider them and respond to
them in the final environmental impact statement.
To assist the Forest Service in identifying and considering issues
and concerns on the proposed action, comments on the draft
environmental impact statement should be as specific as possible. It is
also helpful if comments refer to specific pages or chapters of the
draft proposed action, comments on the draft environmental impact
statement 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 environmental
impact statement 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 the National Environmental Policy Act at 40 CFR 1503.3 in
addressing these points.
Comments received, including the names and addresses of those who
comment, will be considered part of the public record on this proposal
and will be available for public inspection.
(Authority: 40 CFR 1501.7 and 1508.22; Forest Service Handbook
1909.15, Section 21)
Dated: August 19, 2005.
Kathleen L. Gay,
Acting Forest Supervisor.
[FR Doc. 05-16898 Filed 8-24-05; 8:45 am]
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