[Federal Register Volume 76, Number 221 (Wednesday, November 16, 2011)]
[Notices]
[Pages 70955-70956]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2011-29564]
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DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE
Forest Service
Helena Nation Forest: Dalton Mountain Forest Restoration & Fuels
Reduction Project
AGENCY: Forest Service, USDA.
ACTION: Notice of intent to prepare an environmental impact statement.
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SUMMARY: The Helena National Forest (HNF) is proposing on the Lincoln
Ranger District both commercial and non-commercial treatments using
mechanical harvesting, pre-commercial thinning, hand felling, and
prescriber burning within a project boundary encompassing about 18,240
acres to improve vegetative structure and fuels arrangement; enhance
composition of aspen, whitebark pine, and ponderosa pine species;
modify fire behavior to enhance community protection while creating
conditions to allow reestablishment of controlled periodic fire; and
capturing the value of removed trees in an economical approach.
DATES: Comments concerning the scope of the analysis and to be most
helpful in this due process must be received by
[[Page 70956]]
November 30, 2011. The draft environmental impact statement is expected
February 2013 and the final environmental impact statement is expected
June of 2013.
ADDRESSES: Send written comments to Amber Kamps, Helena National
Forest, 1569 Hwy. 200, Lincoln, MT 59639. Comments may also be sent via
email to comments-northern-helena@fs.fed.us, or via facsimile to (406)
362-4253. Please indicate `Dalton Scoping' on the subject line.
Comments received in response to this solicitation, including names and
addresses of those who comment, will be part of the public record for
this proposal.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Amber Kamps at (406) 362-7000 or Jan
FauntLeRoy at (406) 449-5201.
Individuals who use telecommunication devices for the deaf (TDD)
may call the Federal Information Relay Service (FIRS) at 1-(800) 877-
8339 between 8 a.m. and 8 p.m., Eastern Time, Monday through Friday.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The Forest Service, using agency data, has
implemented a collaborative approach in the preliminary development of
this proposed action. Involved in this due process was the Lincoln
Restoration Committee (LRC) of the Montana Forest Restoration Committee
(MFRC). The MFRC is a collaborative group with representatives from
diverse interests who came together in 2007 to help address stewardship
issues. The LRC is a group of private citizens with diverse community
interests and was formed in 2008 with the purpose of working within the
framework developed by the MFRC and developing recommendations for
restoration projects on the Lincoln Ranger District, HNF. Please go to
the Web site http://www.montanarestoration.org for further information
regarding this group. The HNF has been working collaboratively with
this group in compliance with Executive Order 13352-Facilitation of
Cooperative Conservation.
Purpose and Need for Action
Forest restoration and fuel reduction in the Dalton Mountain area
is needed to move toward the goals of the HNF, Forest Plan,
specifically II.A.14: Provide a fire protection and use program which
is responsive to land and resource management goals and objectives;
II.A.17: Coordinate Forest management activities with the land and
resource management efforts of other Federal agencies, state and local
governments, and adjacent private landowners; and II.A: Provide
sustained timber yield that is responsive to local industry and
national needs.
Much of the area's current condition is a mixed-severity fire
regime that is dominated by lodgepole pine. Tree mortality from a
mountain pine beetle epidemic is extensive. This area lacks the desired
forest structure and species diversity. Some other tree species native
to the area including aspen, whitebark pine, and ponderosa pine do not
occur in the numbers desired and as envisioned by the HNF, Forest Plan.
The specific needs for this proposal are:
Improve vegetative structure and fuels arrangement
resulting in diversity of structure, patterns, and patch sizes across
the landscape.
Enhance composition of aspen, whitebark pine, and
ponderosa pine species and their habitats.
Modify fire behavior to enhance community protection while
creating conditions that may allow the reestablishment of fire as a
natural process on the landscape.
Utilize economic value of trees with economic removal.
Proposed Action
The Forest Supervisor on the HNF is proposing forest restoration
and fuels reduction on the Lincoln Ranger District about five miles
southwest of Lincoln, Montana.
The actions in this proposal include mechanical harvesting, pre-
commercial thinning, fuels reduction by hand felling, and prescribed
burning. About 6.4 miles of road would be built to facilitate
commercial removal, then would be obliterated following implementation
of this project. This proposal also includes treatments within the
boundaries of Ogden Mountain and Nevada Mountain Inventoried Roadless
Areas (IRA). These treatments include about 1,815 acres of prescribed
burning and non-commercial hand slashing in the Nevada Mountain IRA and
about 4,906 acres of fuels reduction by hand felling and prescribed
fire with non-commercial hand slashing applied in the Ogden Mountain
IRA. No commercial removal or road construction would occur within
these IRAs.
This proposed action also includes `control' units along with
managed units with the purpose to compare their results in treating or
not treating similar sites. Studying these results would strengthen the
learning and collaborative adaptive management of restoration in the
mixed severity fire regime.
Responsible Official
Helena National Forest Supervisor.
Nature of Decision To Be Made
Whether or not to implement the proposed action or an alternative
to the proposed action, what monitoring would be appropriate to
evaluate implementation of this project, and whether a Forest Plan
amendment would be necessary as a result of the decision for this
project.
Preliminary Issues
Proposed activities reducing wildlife habitat e.g. lynx.
Configuration of treatment and control units that
effectively meets or moves the project area toward the purpose and need
for this project.
Scoping Process
This notice of intent initiates the scoping process, which guides
the development of the environmental impact statement. A scoping
package has been mailed to interested publics, tribes and other
agencies in October of 2011. A community open house conducted by the
Lincoln Restoration Group and supported/participated by the Forest
Service was held in early November 2011. Pertinent project information
and more detail is also posted on the Helena National Forest Web site
at http://www.fs.fed.us/r1/helena. Please provide comments specific to
the actions proposed to meet the purpose and need for this 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.
Comments received in response to this solicitation, including names
and addresses of those who comment, will be part of the public record
for this proposed action. Comments submitted anonymously will be
accepted and considered; however, anonymous comments will not provide
the Agency with the ability to provide the respondent with subsequent
environmental documents.
Dated: November 9, 2011.
Kevin T. Riordan,
Forest Supervisor.
[FR Doc. 2011-29564 Filed 11-15-11; 8:45 am]
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