[Federal Register Volume 78, Number 81 (Friday, April 26, 2013)]
[Notices]
[Pages 24717-24718]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2013-09747]
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DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE
Forest Service
Crescent Ranger District; Deschutes National Forest; Klamath
County, Oregon; Marsh Project Environmental Impact Statement
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 a project called Marsh, in the southwestern portion
of the Crescent Ranger District just south of Crescent Lake. The Forest
Service is approaching this project by looking at the environmental
benefits that the project area provides, from recreation experiences to
wildlife habitat, and from water quality to scenic views. The goal of
the project is to increase the net benefits that people receive from
the project area currently, and allow the area to continue to provide
this diverse range of benefits into the future. We are using the term
``ecosystem services'' to represent all these benefits that areas such
as the Marsh project area provide to people.
The focal point of the planning area is Big Marsh, one of the
largest high elevation wetland/marsh complexes in the continental
United States. In the upland portions of the planning area, the
vegetation is primarily comprised of lodgepole pine with some ponderosa
pine to the north and mixed conifer on the valley flanks. The area is
also of high value for its biological resources (including the largest
Oregon Spotted Frog population in the state), dispersed recreation
opportunities, matsutake mushroom habitat (a commercially harvested and
culturally significant species), big game and fish habitat, and
cultural resources, as well as provision of water quality and quantity
flowing into the Little Deschutes River and beyond.
The project area is an approximately 30,000 acre watershed, located
in T. 24, 25, 25.5, & 26 S, R. 5.5, 6, 6.5, & 7 E., Willamette
Meridian. The alternatives will include the proposed action, no action,
and additional alternatives that respond to issues generated through
the scoping process. The agency will give notice of the full
environmental analysis and decision making process so interested and
affected people may participate and contribute to the final decision.
DATES: Comments concerning the scope of the analysis must be received
by 30 days following the date that this notice appears in the Federal
Register.
ADDRESSES: Send written comments to Tim Foley, Team Leader, Crescent
Ranger District, P.O. Box 208, Crescent, Oregon 97733, or submit to
[email protected]. Please put
``Marsh Scoping'' in the subject line of your email. You will have
another opportunity for comment when alternatives have been developed
and the Environmental Impact Statement is made available.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Tim Foley, Team Leader, Crescent
Ranger
[[Page 24718]]
District, P.O. Box 208, Crescent, Oregon 97733, phone (541) 433-3200.
Responsible Official: The responsible official will be Holly
Jewkes, Crescent District Ranger, P.O. Box 208, Crescent, Oregon 97733.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
Purpose and Need: As directed by the Multiple Use Sustained Yield
Act, there is a need to maintain and enhance the variety of resources,
or environmental benefits, in combination provided by National Forest
System lands. The purpose of this project is to manage for the
provision of a suite of ecological and cultural benefits expressed by
the public which are distinctive to the Marsh planning area and can be
effectively managed by the Forest Service and its partners: high
quality dispersed recreation opportunities; matsutake mushroom habitat;
a clean, functioning water source to the hydrologic system; high
quality habitat for a variety of plant and animal species, including
some species classified as threatened or endangered; scenic views; and
a sense of remoteness. There is a need to both address natural and
human threats to this current range of benefits being provided, and
also enhance the ecosystem's capacity to provide a similar amount and
diverse set of benefits in the future.
Proposed Action: The goal of the project is to balance impacts to
values, in such a way that the values most at risk get addressed
without substantially reducing the ability of the landscape to provide
any of the other benefits into the future. It is in this vein that the
Forest Service proposes the following actions: Remove approximately 225
acres of lodgepole pine encroachment in meadows and riparian areas;
Plant approximately 100 acres of hardwoods and other natural vegetation
in riparian areas; Restore of natural water flow by recontouring
approximately 5 miles of historical ditches and creating a small number
of beaver dams in the upper reaches of the watershed; Redefine the
boundaries of approximately 25 dispersed campsites; Restore
approximately 2 miles of closed roads and user-created ATV trails; Open
approximately \1/2\ mile of Forest Service road 5825-540 to the public;
Remove approximately 65 acres of Invasive Reed Canary Grass; Thin
approximately 725 acres of trees for fuels and density management;
Approximately 1,000 acres of prescribed fire in areas dominated by
ponderosa pine; Enhance a small number of scenic view opportunities
through vegetation management.
Comment: Public comments about this proposal are requested in order
to assist in identifying issues, determine how to best manage the
resources, and to focus the analysis. Comments received to this notice,
including names and addresses of those who comment, will be considered
part of the public record on this proposed action and will be available
for public inspection. Comments submitted anonymously will be accepted
and considered; however, those who submit anonymous comments will not
have standing to object to the subsequent decision under 36 CFR part
218. Additionally, pursuant to 7 CFR 1.27(d), any person may request
the agency to withhold a submission from the public record by showing
how the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) permits such confidentiality.
Persons requesting such confidentiality should be aware that, under
FOIA, confidentiality may be granted in only very limited
circumstances, such as to protect trade secrets. The Forest Service
will inform the requester of the agency's decision regarding the
request for confidentiality, and where the request is denied the agency
will return the submission and notify the requester that the comments
may be resubmitted with or without name and address within a specified
number of days. A draft EIS will be filed with the Environmental
Protection Agency (EPA) and available for public review by Spring 2014.
The EPA will publish a Notice of Availability (NOA) of the draft EIS in
the Federal Register. The final EIS is scheduled to be available early
fall 2014. The comment period on the draft EIS will be 45 days from the
date the EPA 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
a draft EIS 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 EIS stage but that are not
raised until after completion of the final EIS may be waived or
dismissed by the courts [City of Angoon 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 EIS.
To assist the Forest Service in identifying and considering issues
and concerns on the proposed action, comments on the draft EIS 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 EIS of 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.
In the final EIS, the Forest Service is required to respond to
substantive comments received during the comment period for the draft
EIS. The Forest Service is the lead agency and the responsible official
is the Crescent District Ranger, Deschutes National Forest. The
responsible official will decide where, and whether or not to manage
for recreation, hydrology, access, vegetation and other resources,
values and ecosystem services within the project area. The responsible
official will also decide how to mitigate impacts of these actions and
will determine when and how monitoring of effects will take place.
The Marsh Project decision and rationale will be documented in the
Record of Decision. Per 36 CFR 218.7(a)(2), this is a project
implementing a land management plan and not authorized under the HFRA,
section 101(2), and is thus subject to subparts A and C of 36 CFR part
218--Project-level Predecisional Administrative Review Process.
Dated: April 16, 2013.
Holly Jewkes,
Crescent District Ranger.
[FR Doc. 2013-09747 Filed 4-25-13; 8:45 am]
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