[Federal Register Volume 78, Number 87 (Monday, May 6, 2013)]
[Notices]
[Pages 26317-26318]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2013-10489]
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DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE
Forest Service
Klamath National Forest, California, Jess Project
AGENCY: Forest Service, USDA.
ACTION: Notice of intent to prepare an environmental impact statement.
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SUMMARY: The Klamath National Forest will prepare an environmental
impact statement (EIS) to document and publicly disclose the
environmental effects of fuels treatments on ridge tops and along
roadways, thinning in natural stands and plantations, and meadow
treatments to improve ecosystem function and resiliency while
contributing to rural economic health. The project area is south of
Sawyers Bar, California. Treatments are proposed on approximately 1,950
acres.
DATES: Comments concerning the scope of the analysis must be received
by June 20, 2013. The draft environmental impact statement is expected
November 2013 and the final environmental impact statement is expected
January 2014.
ADDRESSES: Send written comments to Klamath National Forest
Headquarters, ATTN: Angie Bell, Project Leader, 1711 S. Main Street,
Yreka, CA 96097. Electronic comments can be made at the project's Web
page: http://www.fs.fed.us/nepa/nepa_project_exp.php?project=38943,
or via facsimile to (530) 841-4571.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Angie Bell, 530-842-6131, or Patty
Grantham, Forest Supervisor, 530-842-6131.
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:
Purpose and Need for Action
The Jess project was developed to improve ecosystem function and
resiliency while contributing to rural economic health. A Forest
Service interdisciplinary team (IDT), composed of specialists from a
wide array of disciplines in collaboration with interested parties,
developed a purpose and need. The collaboration efforts included
several public meetings and a field trip to discuss the need for change
and potential actions in the project area. The IDT identified the
following purpose and need for this project by comparing the existing
conditions in the project area with the desired conditions described in
the Forest Plan, Late-Successional Reserve Assessments, the North Fork
Salmon Watershed Assessment and the Sawyers Bar Wildfire Community
Protection Plan:
Manage fuel loadings to reduce the risk of wildfires
affecting nearby communities.
Improve compositional, structural, and functional
attributes of biologically diverse forest ecosystems by restoring
ecological processes that build resiliency to high-intensity wildfire
and insect and disease.
Provide a broad range of ecosystem services, including
wood products, rural economic health, biodiversity, and the beneficial
uses of water.
Proposed Action
The IDT, in conjunction with the informal collaborative group
composed of local, interested parties, inventoried the project area to
identify resource concerns and develop management activities (proposed
actions) to achieve the purpose and need for the Jess Project. The
following proposed actions have been identified to move the project
area from the existing condition to the desired condition. Project
design features (PDFs) and best management practices (BMPs) are
incorporated into this proposed action. The Forest Service proposes the
following treatments on about 1,950 acres within the 8,735 acre project
boundary:
Commercially harvest about 810 acres, including natural
stands and plantations, with about 120 acres proposed for skyline and
690 acres of ground-based yarding;
Treating fuels on strategic ridge tops on about 165 acres,
including 95 acres of thinning, handpiling, and burning and 70 acres of
mastication;
Reducing roadside fuels on about 615 acres over 15 miles
of National Forest Transportation System (NFTS) roads;
Prescribed underburning about 250 acres;
Planting rust-resistant sugar pine on scattered acres
throughout the project area;
Enhancing meadows around Mud Lake and other locations in
the project area; and
Masticating and handpiling/burning brush on about 150
acres for stand health and big game habitat enhancement.
Acres by treatment type do not account for the overlap in treatment
types. Thinning treatments are likely to take place over the first five
years after decision, followed by prescribed burning and pile burning
in subsequent years. A more detailed description of this proposal,
including access, is below.
Commercial harvest of trees larger than 9 inches dbh will occur on
over 800 acres. Commercial treatments will vary with species preference
and would be driven by topographic location, amount of disease present,
and desired regeneration species. Trees with greater than 20-50% of
their crown infected with mistletoe, depending on unit, will be
candidates for removal. Dominant and co-dominant trees with full
crowns, despite mistletoe infection will be maintained in treatment
units. Several units have groups of older trees that will be retained
as islands to provide spatial variation. Some small openings will be
increased to resemble more historic gap sizes of 1-2\1/2\ acres.
Hardwoods will be favored and will be thinned around in areas.
Enhancement of hardwoods and reduction of conifer competition is
prescribed in several units. Patches of saplings and pole size trees
will be avoided during treatment. Overall, the best crowns will be
maintained with crown spacing varying from five to twenty feet wide.
Sugar pines proven to be rust-resistant from a local seed zone
[[Page 26318]]
and appropriate elevation bands will be planted in newly created
openings within areas of historical dominance.
Small diameter (less than 9 inches diameter at breast height (dbh))
conifers in ridge top fuel treatments will be thinned, handpiled, and
burned. Mastication will occur along strategic ridges between the
handpiled areas to complete the ridge treatments.
Roadside treatments will manually cut, handpile, and burn brush and
small diameter trees (less than 6 inches dbh) within buffers about 100
feet wide on either side of the road. Actual treatment may vary in size
and width depending on fuel conditions. Trees less than 10 inches dbh
will be thinned to an average of 20-foot bole spacing. Existing brush
densities will be reduced by 40-60% where they exist. All hazard trees
will be identified and removed in accordance with danger tree
guidelines. Roadside fuels treatments would complement treatments
proposed by the local fire safe council.
Pre-commercial treatments will thin small diameter conifers (less
than 9 inches dbh) to approximately 28-30 foot bole spacing or a
specified distance from trees of a certain diameter. For example, if a
tree is four inches dbh, then spacing will be dbh times 12 plus 10
feet, equaling 14-foot bole spacing. There will be species specific
preferences for thinning in some units.
Meadow treatments will consist of manually removing small diameter
conifers (less than 9 inches dbh). The removed trees will be handpiled
and burned. Noxious weed will be removal using manual techniques.
Willows may be planted in and around the meadows where needed to
increase shade and bank stability.
Three miles of existing roadbeds will be used as temporary roads
for short-term access and then closed following project completion to
reduce log skidding distances and associated impacts to soils and other
resources. No new temporary roads are proposed. Existing landings will
be used to the extent possible. The estimated number of new landings
needed for the project is 30, with a maximum size less than one-acre
each.
Responsible Official
Patricia Grantham, Klamath National Forest Supervisor, 1711 South
Main Street, Yreka, California 96097, will prepare and sign the Record
of Decision at the conclusion of the National Environmental Policy Act
(NEPA) review.
Nature of Decision To Be Made
The Forest Service is the lead agency for the project. Based on the
result of the NEPA analysis, the Forest Supervisor's Record of Decision
regarding the Jess Project will recommend implementation of one of the
following: (1) The proposed action and mitigation necessary to minimize
or avoid adverse impacts; (2) An alternative to the proposed action and
mitigation necessary to minimize or avoid adverse impacts; or (3) The
no-action alternative. The Record of Decision will also document the
consistency of the proposed action or one of the alternatives with the
Klamath National Forest Land and Resource Management Plan.
Scoping Process
This notice of intent initiates the scoping process, which guides
the development of the environmental impact statement. To assist the
Forest Service in identifying and considering issues and concerns on
the proposed action, comments should be as specific as possible.
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.
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.
Dated: April 25, 2013.
Patricia A. Grantham,
Klamath National Forest Supervisor.
[FR Doc. 2013-10489 Filed 5-3-13; 8:45 am]
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