[Federal Register: May 29, 2009 (Volume 74, Number 102)]
[Notices]
[Page 25697-25698]
From the Federal Register Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]
[DOCID:fr29my09-25]
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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 25697]]
DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE
Forest Service
Umpqua National Forest, Douglas and Jackson Counties, OR; Cow
Creek Timber Sale and Hazardous Fuels Reduction Project
AGENCY: Forest Service, USDA.
ACTION: Notice of intent to prepare an environmental impact statement.
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SUMMARY: The USDA Forest Service will prepare an environmental impact
statement (EIS) for reducing fire hazard, improving forest stand
conditions and resilience to stand replacement fire for wildlife
species, including the Northern spotted owl, and restoring fire regimes
and historic (fire adapted) stand conditions in and around the Cow
Creek and Tiller Wildland Urban Interface (WUI) areas. Fuel loadings
and overall stand densities have increased and landscape scale forest
structural diversity has been altered due to fire exclusion, increasing
the potential size and severity of future wildfires, beyond what might
have occurred historically. This EIS will be prepared under the
authority of the Healthy Forests Restoration Act (HFRA) and will
implement recommendations of the Douglas County Community Wildfire
Protection Plans for the WUI's. The project proposes commercial
thinning on about 6,300 acres of mid seral and mature unmanaged stands,
leaving between 40-90 trees per acre (TPA); commercial thinning on
about 2,700 acres of managed second-growth plantations, leaving between
50-90 TPA; non-commercial treatment of fuels on about 4,400 acres using
non-commercial thinning, mastication, whip felling, chipping, piling
and burning; treating activity-created fuels by underburning, machine
piling, masticating, handpile burning, lopping and scattering, and/or
yarding tops attached and whole tree yarding; using prescribed fire as
the primary method of reducing fuels on about 813 acres; using about
\1/8\th of a mile of existing unclassified roads to access thinning/
treatment areas, then decommissioning after use; building about 27
miles of new temporary spur roads for access, then decommissioning them
after use; road reconstruction and maintenance throughout the planning
area; and use of existing rock pits. All acreages and miles are
approximate and will be refined during sale layout. The project
proposes to amend the 1990 Umpqua National Forest Land and Resource
Management Plan (LRMP). The planning area is located approximately 34
miles southeast of Roseburg, Oregon. The project is expected to be
implemented starting in Fiscal Year 2010. The agency gives notice of
the full environmental analysis and decision-making process that will
occur on the proposal so that interested and affected people may become
aware of how they can participate in the process and contribute to the
final decision.
DATES: Comments concerning the scope of the analysis must be received
by 30 days from the date this Notice of Intent appears in the Federal
Register. The draft environmental impact statement is expected to be
available in the fall of 2009 and the final environmental impact
statement is expected to be available in the winter of 2010.
ADDRESSES: Send written comments and suggestions concerning this
proposal to Clifford J. Dils, Forest Supervisor, c/o Debbie Anderson,
IDT Leader, Umpqua National Forest, 2900 NW Stewart Parkway, Roseburg,
OR 97471; you may also submit scoping comments electronically to
comments-pacificnorthwest-umpqua@fs.fed.us.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: For information about the proposal,
contact Joshua Chapman, Cow Creek Project Manager, phone 541-957-3260,
e-mail joshuachapman@fs.fed.us, or Debbie Anderson, Cow Creek
Interdisciplinary Team Leader, phone 541-957-3466, e-mail
danderson01@fs.fed.us, Umpqua National Forest, 2900 NW Stewart Parkway,
Roseburg, OR 97471. The proposal is also listed on the Forest's Web
site at http://frwebgate.access.gpo.gov/cgi-bin/leaving.cgi?from=leavingFR.html&log=linklog&to=http://www.fs.fed.us/r6/umpqua/projects/projects.shtml.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The planning area being analyzed in the Cow
Creek Timber Sale and Hazardous Fuels Reduction Project encompasses
almost 45,000 acres, and is bounded by community of Tiller to the
North, the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) land to the South and West,
and the Rogue River-Siskiyou National Forest to the East. The planning
area includes all or portions of T31S, R2W; T31S, R3W; T32S, R1W; T32S,
R2W; T32S, R3W; and T33S, R3W, Willamette Meridian, Oregon.
Purpose and Need for Action
The purpose of the Cow Creek Timber Sale and Hazardous Fuels
Reduction Project is to reduce the current, uncharacteristically high
fire hazard within the project area, increase the within-stand
resiliency to stand replacement fire and to increase stand structural
diversity. The need for action is focused on three elements:
Element 1: The need to reduce existing and predicted fuel loads and
fire hazard in areas identified as high fire hazard within the Cow
Creek and Tiller wildland-urban interface areas (WUIs).
Element 2: There is a need to reduce the potential fire size and
severity within spotted owl habitat and Late Successional Reserve 223
(which is also spotted owl Critical Habitat).
Element 3: Outside of WUI and LSR, there is a need to alter forest
and stand conditions in the planning area to more closely resemble
conditions that were maintained by the mixed severity fire regime of
the Klamath Province, and a need to move the existing fire regime from
current Fire Regime Condition Class III, to a Fire Regime Condition
Class II or I.
Proposed Action
The proposed action was developed to address the elements of the
purpose and need. It would implement recommendations of the Douglas
County Community Wildfire Protection Plans for Cow Creek and Tiller to
treat hazardous fuels in the WUIs, and reduce existing stand densities
in order to approximate historic stand conditions maintained by a mixed
severity fire regime. Specifically the Proposed Action includes the
following activities:
Commercial thinning on about 2,700 acres in managed second
growth plantations leaving 50-90 trees per acre (TPA); Proportional
thinning and thinning from below on about 6,300 acres in unmanaged late
seral conifer stands (leaving 40-90 TPA). The
[[Page 25698]]
thinnings would use ground-based and skyline logging systems in both
the matrix, riparian reserve, and late successional reserve (LSR) land
allocations and would generate an estimated 90 million board feet of
timber. Within the late successional reserve, canopy closure would be
maintained at about 60% on the approximate 2,850 acres thinned in the
LSR to maintain its ability to function as spotted owl habitat. All
perennial streams would have a no harvest buffer of 50 feet or greater
to protect the primary shade zone. Final no harvest riparian buffers
will be designated prior to the Draft EIS and will further reduce the
number of acres thinned.
Treating activity-created fuels (slash) on commercially
thinned areas by underburning, machine piling, masticating, handpile
burning, lopping and scattering, yarding tops attached or whole tree
yarding, or using a combination of the above.
Non-commercial treatement and/or removal of fuels on about
4,400 acres by non-commercial thinning, mastication, whip felling,
chipping, and piling and burning of slash.
Using prescribed fire to reduce fuels as the primary
treatment method on about 813 acres.
Using about \1/8\ of a mile of an existing, unclassified
temporary road to access thinning areas then decommissioning after use.
Building a total of about 27 miles of new temporary spur
roads to provide access for logging machinery and for accessing stands
for non-commercial treatments, then obliterating them after use.
Re-opening about 0.5 miles of currently closed system road
to provide access to stands, then closing them after use.
Reconstructing and repairing portions of existing system
roads (work would occur along small sections of these roads) including:
Road re-alignment; intersection improvement; road widening; slide and/
or slump repair; placing or replacing surface rock; reshaping road
beds; culvert replacement, and hazard tree felling.
Maintaining about 88 miles of existing roads including:
Grading and shaping of existing road surfaces; dust abatement using
magnesium chloride or water; blading road beds and ditches; hazard tree
felling; cleaning/maintaining ditches as needed; opening and re-closing
existing closed roads; removing debris from the roadway; and cutting of
intruding vegetation along roadsides.
Utilizing the existing Peavine, Brownie, and Stauch Ranch
rock pits (including drilling, blasting, rock crushing and rock
hauling), along with several rock disposal sites as the rock source for
the road work.
Other connected and similar actions would also be
implemented, including noxious weed treatment, pre-commercial thinning,
expansion of the Peavine pit, and sump improvement.
Forest Plan Amendments
The 1990 Umpqua National Forest Land and Resource Management Plan
(LRMP) would be amended in the following areas:
1. The LRMP does not permit timber harvest in Management Areas 1,
except in the event of catastrophic damage; there are about 36 acres of
potential commercial treatment planned in MA 1 in order to reduce fuels
in the Wildland Urban Interface (WUI) area. The LRMP would be amended
to potentially allow timber harvest and tree removal to help reduce the
fire risk in the WUI and to allow for more than one year of recovery to
the Visual Quality Objective of Retention.
2. The LRMP excludes timber harvest around unique habitats for a
distance of 150 feet. The LRMP would be amended to allow for fuel
reduction treatments adjacent to some unique habitats in order to
reduce existing and predicted fuel loads.
Possible Alternatives
The alternatives to be considered include the No Action
Alternative, the Proposed Action, and another alternative that may be
developed if scoping identifies any issues with the proposed action.
Lead and Cooperating Agencies
The USDA Forest Service, Umpqua National Forest is the lead agency.
Responsible Official
Clifford J. Dils, Forest Supervisor of the Umpqua National Forest,
is the responsible official for this project. The address for the
Umpqua National Forest is 2900 NW Stewart Parkway, Roseburg, OR 97471.
Nature of Decision To Be Made
The Forest Supervisor of the Umpqua National Forest will decide
whether to implement the action as proposed, whether to take no action
at this time, or whether to implement any alternatives that are
proposed. The Forest Supervisor will also decide whether to amend the
1990 Umpqua National Forest Land and Resource Management Plan, if an
action alternative is chosen.
Preliminary Issues
At this time, no preliminary issues have been identified.
Scoping Process
This notice of intent initiates the scoping proces which guides the
development of the environmental impact statement. The project has also
been listed in the quarterly schedule of proposed actions (SOPA) since
January of 2009. A scoping packet, detailing the proposed action, along
with maps of the proposal, will be mailed to over 125 interested
publics in May of 2009. The scoping effort is intended to identify
issues, which may lead to the development of alternatives to the
proposed action. Issues that are raised with the proposal may lead to
alternative ways to meet the purpose and need of the project.
It is important that reviewers provide their comments at such times
and in such manner that they are useful to the agency's preparation of
the environmental impact statement. Therefore, comments should be
provided prior to the close of the comment period and should clearly
articulate the reviewer's concerns and contentions. The submission of
timely and specific comments can affect a reviewer's ability to
participate in subsequent administrative appeal or judicial review.
Dated: May 21, 2009.
Clifford J. Dils,
Forest Supervisor.
[FR Doc. E9-12527 Filed 5-28-09; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 3410-11-P