[Federal Register: April 30, 2007 (Volume 72, Number 82)]
[Notices]
[Page 21205-21206]
From the Federal Register Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]
[DOCID:fr30ap07-35]
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DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE
Forest Service
Pacific Southwest Region, Regional Office, California, Sierra
Nevada Forests--Management Indicator Species Amendment
AGENCY: Forest Service, USDA.
ACTION: Notice of intent to prepare an environmental impact statement.
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SUMMARY: The Pacific Southwest Region of the U.S. Forest Service
proposes to adopt a common list of Management Indicator Species (MIS)
and associated monitoring strategies by amending the Land and Resource
Management Plans (LRMPs) for the Eldorado, Inyo, Lassen, Modoc, Plumas,
Sequoia, Sierra, Stanislaus, and Tahoe National Forests and Lake Tahoe
Basin Management Unit. These will likely be non-significant forest plan
amendments.
DATES: To be most effective, comments concerning the scope of the
analysis should be received by May 21, 2007. Public scoping for this
analysis, originally expected to be documented in an Environmental
Assessment, began on February 21, 2007. Unless response to this notice
raises concerns not yet expressed, the draft environmental impact
statement is expected in late May 2007 and the final environmental
impact statement is expected in July 2007.
ADDRESSES: Send comments to the Forest Service at the following
addresses. Hardcopy mail: U.S. Forest Service, 1323 Club Drive,
Vallejo, CA 94592, ATTN: Brenda Kendrix. Electronic mail:
comments-pacificsouthwest-regional-office@fs.fed.us, Subject Line: Sierra Nevada
Forests MIS Amendment. Use Rich Text Format (.rtf) or Word (.doc).
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: For further information contact Diana
Craig, Interdisciplinary Team Leader, at U.S. Forest Service, 1323 Club
Drive, Vallejo, CA, or at the e-mail address above.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
Purpose and Need for Action
This proposed action responds to a need for a more suitable and
manageable list of MIS, while maintaining a sufficient number of
species to cover the range of habitats in the Sierra Nevada affected by
Forest Service management activities. Monitoring and recent judicial
interpretations have led to the conclusion that the Forest plan
provisions related to MIS and MIS monitoring are in need of
reconsideration. Specifically, some MIS currently identified in the
LRMPs are problematic because (1) no tested monitoring methodology
exists or the methodology is prohibitively expensive, (2) some MIS
currently identified in the LRMPs are not strongly linked to habitats
or ecosystem components that are affected by national forest management
activities, or (3) some MIS do not occur on or occur only incidentally
on a Forest and, therefore, neither populations nor habitat
relationships can be monitored for MIS objectives.
In addition, the current lists provide no coordination or
standardization across the Sierra Nevada Forests. Each national forest
has a different, and often unrelated, MIS list. Often forest scale
information does not provide the most meaningful biological data.
Maintaining a monitoring program on each individual forest is not
strategic and is an inefficient use of money and resources.
The purpose of this action is to improve the ability of the
national forests to provide for the diversity of plant and animal
communities, as identified in the National Forest Management Act
(NFMA). This will be accomplished by identifying MIS for the 10
national forests (1) that are clearly linked to habitats or ecosystem
components that are affected by national forest management activities,
and (2) for which population or habitat status and change can be
effectively and affordably monitored and evaluated.
Proposed Action
The Forest Service proposes to adopt common list of MIS and
associated monitoring strategies by amending, via non-significant
forest plan amendment, the LRMPs for the ten Sierra Nevada National
Forests in the Pacific Southwest Region (Eldorado, Inyo, Lassen, Modoc,
Plumas, Sequoia, Sierra, Stanislaus, and Tahoe National Forests and
Lake Tahoe Basin Management Unit). These ten national forests occur in
Alpine, Amador, Butte, Calaveras, El Dorado, Fresno, Inyo, Kern,
Lassen, Madera, Mariposa, Modoc, Mono, Nevada, Placer, Plumas, Shasta,
Sierra, Siskiyou, Tulare, Tuolumne, Yuba, and Douglas Counties in
California and Esmeralda and Mineral Counties in Nevada.
This action will replace the existing MIS lists and associated
monitoring strategies identified in the LRMPs for each of the 10
national forests. Other MIS-related parts of the LRMPs (e.g., habitat
objectives, desired conditions, standards and guidelines) will NOT be
changed by this proposal; therefore, habitat and species-specific
protection measures will continue for all current MIS.
The proposed action will have the following components: (1) Major
habitats or ecosystem components that are affected by national forest
management activities on the ten national forests; (2) suitability and
feasability criteria to assess whether a species meets the identified
need; (3) MIS for major habitats or ecosystem components identified in
component 1; and (4) appropriate monitoring strategies for each
identified MIS (habitat or population monitoring, including the
specific type of population monitoring).
Possible Alternatives
Public comment has suggested an alternative analyzing all species
identified as MIS in Appendix E of the 2001 Final Environmental Impact
Statement for the Sierra Nevada Forest Plan Amendment (2001 SNFPA FEIS)
and associated monitoring. We will analyze this alternative, called
SNFPA Appendix E, in detail.
[[Page 21206]]
Responsible Official
Bernard Weingardt, Regional Forester, Pacific Southwest Region,
U.S. Forest Service, 1323 Club Drive, Vallejo, California 94592, is the
Responsible Official.
Nature of Decision To Be Made
The Responsible Official will decide whether to amend by adopting a
common list of MIS and associated monitoring strategies for each of the
10 LRMPs as proposed, to amend with an alternative MIS list and
associated strategies, or retain the existing MIS lists and associated
monitoring strategies. Although non-significant Forest Plan amendments
are normally signed by Forest Supervisors, the Regional Forester for
the Pacific Southwest Region will be the Deciding Officer for this
decision.
Scoping Process
The analysis of this proposed action was originally expected to be
documented in an Environmental Assessment (EA). Formal scoping for this
analysis began on February 21, 2007 when a scoping letter was sent to
over 4,000 addresses. The Forest Service used the last known
distribution list of the 2004 Sierra Nevada Forests Plan Amendment
Record of Decision because the current amendment covers roughly the
same area and communities of interest. An open house was held on March
23, 2007. The proposed action was first published in the Schedules of
Proposed Actions for each of the ten Forests for the Second Quarter of
Fiscal Year 2007. An Internet Web site (http://frwebgate.access.gpo.gov/cgi-bin/leaving.cgi?from=leavingFR.html&log=linklog&to=http://www.fs.fed.us/r5/snfmisa
) displays comprehensive information about the project. This
notice of intent offers the opportunity to comment to a larger
audience.
Preliminary Issues
Comments about implementing the existing monitoring requirements in
the Sierra Nevada Forests Plan Amendment and concerns that those
requirements should not be weakened will drive development of an
alternative as described above in the Possible Alternatives section.
Comment Requested
This notice of intent continues the scoping process which now
guides the development of an environmental impact statement.
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 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 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 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: April 24, 2007.
Beth G. Pendleton,
Deputy Regional Forester, Pacific Southwest Region.
[FR Doc. E7-8160 Filed 4-27-07; 8:45 am]
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