[Federal Register Volume 76, Number 63 (Friday, April 1, 2011)]
[Notices]
[Pages 18151-18153]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2011-7751]
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DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE
Forest Service
Kootenai National Forest, Lincoln County, MT; Miller West Fisher
Project
AGENCY: Forest Service, USDA.
ACTION: Notice of intent to prepare a supplemental environmental impact
statement.
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SUMMARY: The Forest Service will prepare a Supplemental Environmental
Impact Statement (SEIS) for the Miller
[[Page 18152]]
West Fisher Project. The Project includes timber harvest, fuels
reduction, precommercial thinning, prescribed fire, watershed
rehabilitation activities, pool creation in Miller Creek, improvement
of trails and trailheads, fuels management and hazard tree removal in
Lake Creek Campground, and access management changes, including road
decommissioning. The project is located in the Silverfish Planning
Subunit on the Libby Ranger District, Kootenai National Forest, Lincoln
County, Montana, and south of Libby, Montana. The Notice of
Availability of the Draft EIS for this project was published in the
Federal Register (vol. 74, no. 43) on March 6, 2009, and the notice of
the Final EIS (vol. 74 no. 126) on July 2, 2009. The Record of Decision
was issued in June of 2009. The Record of Decision was litigated in
District Court for the District of Montana (CV 09-M-DWM) on issues
regarding the grizzly bear analysis. The District Judge remanded the
project to the Forest Service to address deficiencies in disclosures in
the analysis. A Supplemental EIS is being prepared to address these
disclosures in the grizzly bear analysis.
DATES: Scoping is not required for supplements to environmental impact
statements [40 CFR 1502.9(c)(4)]. There was extensive public
involvement in the development of the proposed action, the Draft EIS
and the Final EIS, and the Forest Service is not inviting comments at
this time. A Draft SEIS is expected to be available for public review
and comment in May 2011; and a Final SEIS in June 2011.
ADDRESSES: The line officer responsible for this analysis is Malcolm
Edwards, District Ranger, Libby Ranger District, 12557 MT Hwy 37,
Libby, MT 59923.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Contact Leslie McDougall, Team Leader,
Three Rivers Ranger District, at (406) 295-4693.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The Miller West Fisher Project Area is
approximately 20 air miles south of Libby, Montana, within all or
portions of T25N, R29W-R31W, T26N, R29W-R31W, T27N, R29W-R31W, PMM,
Lincoln County, Montana.
The Miller West Fisher Project Supplemental EIS will provide
additional information and disclosures on the grizzly bear analysis in
support of the Record of Decision issued in June 2009. More
specifically, the Supplemental EIS will provide clarification and
additional information on the following disclosures as requested by the
District Court of Montana:
1. Why the Bear Management Unit is the appropriate scale of
analysis for cumulative effects;
2. Further discussion on the limitations of Wakkinen and Kasworm
(1997) utilized as the Best Available Science in regard to grizzly bear
habitat protection in the Cabinet-Yaak Ecosystem Grizzly Bear Recovery
Zone;
3. Further explanation on how the Miller West Fisher Project was
made compatible with grizzly bear needs, consistent with the Kootenai
National Forest 1987 Forest Plan;
4. Address potential incidental take of grizzly bear in areas
outside the recovery zone that are occupied by grizzly bears;
5. Provide further explanation for why helicopter logging would not
cause harm to grizzly bear.
Record of Decision--Alternative 6-Modified
The Miller West Fisher Project Record of Decision issued in June
2009 authorized the following:
Vegetation treatments: Timber harvest and associated fuel treatment
on 1,898 acres, including intermediate harvest on approximately 1,206
acres and regeneration harvest on approximately 692 acres; pre-
commercial thinning will be implemented on approximately 351 acres;
prescribed fire will be completed on 2,830 acres. These activities
would contribute approximately 8.2 million board feet (MMBF) of timber
products to the economy.
Transportation actions: Construction of 3.29 miles of temporary
road for timber harvest, to be obliterated afterward; implementation of
best management practices (BMPs) and road maintenance work will be
applied to approximately 38.99 miles of haul roads; placing 19.2 miles
of road into intermittent stored service; decommissioning 1.43 miles of
road; access changes are included to address watershed impacts,
increase big game security through reduction in open road density
(ORD), and to create grizzly bear core habitat in bear management unit
(BMU) 6.
Other activities: Pool creation in Miller Creek and stream bank
stabilization in West Fisher Creek; improvement of trails and
trailheads, including 5.9 miles of trail tread improvements for safety;
fuels reduction and hazard tree removal in the Lake Creek Campground;
spring development in the North Fork of Miller Creek; culvert
replacement at the 0.5 milepost on Rd. 2314 to remove a barrier to fish
and aquatic species.
Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement
A Draft SEIS is expected to be available for public review and
comment in May 2011; and a Final SEIS in June 2011. The comment period
for the Draft SEIS 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 at 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 supplemental environmental impact statement.
To assist the Forest Service in identifying and considering issues
and concerns on the proposed action, comments on the Draft SEIS should
be as specific as possible. It is also helpful if comments refer to
specific pages or chapters of the draft 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.
Responsible Official
Paul Bradford, Forest Supervisor of the Kootenai National Forest,
31374 US Hwy 2, Libby, MT 59923 is the Responsible Official for the
Miller West Fisher Project.
[[Page 18153]]
Dated: March 24, 2011.
Maggie Pittman,
Acting Forest Supervisor, Kootenai National Forest.
[FR Doc. 2011-7751 Filed 3-31-11; 8:45 am]
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