[Federal Register Volume 81, Number 148 (Tuesday, August 2, 2016)]
[Notices]
[Pages 50722-50723]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2016-18272]
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR
Bureau of Land Management
[FY16.LLAZA00000.L17110000.DF0000.241A]
Notice of Termination of Uinkaret Mountains Landscape Restoration
Project Environmental Impact Statement, Arizona
AGENCY: Bureau of Land Management, Interior.
ACTION: Notice.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
SUMMARY: The preparation of an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) for
the proposed Uinkaret Mountains Landscape Restoration Project is no
longer required and the process is hereby terminated. Pursuant to the
National Environmental Policy Act of 1969, as implemented by the
Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) regulations, the Bureau of Land
Management (BLM) on October 21, 2014, published a notice of intent
(NOI) to prepare an EIS. The EIS would have analyzed proposed
vegetation treatments in the Uinkaret Mountains Landscape Restoration
Project area.
DATES: Termination of the EIS process for the Uinkaret Mountains
Landscape Restoration Project is effective immediately.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Richard Spotts, Planning and
Environmental Coordinator, (435) 688-3207; [email protected].
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The BLM's Arizona Strip District Office has
determined it is appropriate to terminate the Uinkaret Mountains
Landscape Restoration Project EIS and prepare an Environmental
Assessment (EA) instead. The NOI to prepare an EIS was published in the
Federal Register on October 21, 2014 (79 FR 62954) and announced the
scoping period for the proposed project. The initial project proposal
listed a variety of potential vegetative treatments, including manual,
mechanical, chemical, wildfire management for resource benefit,
prescribed fire, and seeding for the overall project area of
approximately 128,535 acres, located on lands managed by the Arizona
Strip Field
[[Page 50723]]
Office and Grand Canyon Parashant National Monument, within the Arizona
Strip District.
Preliminary issues from internal and external public scoping
include but are not limited to: Excessive fuel loading leading to
increased wildfire risk; impacts from past management activities such
as grazing and fire suppression; pinyon and juniper encroachment into
sagebrush and ponderosa communities; soil erosion; and the need to
treat decadent sagebrush stands.
After careful consideration of preliminary issues, public scoping
comments, and field-verification of existing resource conditions, BLM
modified the proposed action to specific vegetation treatment units
within the overall project area, of which 18,675 acres is proposed to
receive manual, mechanical, seeding, erosion control, and chemical
treatments and 38,713 acres are proposed to receive fire treatments.
The proposed action and one other action alternative, which would
implement only the fire treatments, were developed. Design features,
applicable to all action alternatives, were also modified to include
special resource protections to mitigate the environmental impacts,
such as avoiding all known cultural resources following intensive
surveys, treating areas when soils are not saturated to minimize soil
compaction, ensuring mechanical treatment equipment is cleaned prior to
use to minimize the spread of noxious weeds, avoiding old growth
ponderosa stands, and designing treatments in irregular shapes to
reduce visual contrast.
The BLM evaluated the modified the proposed action, no action, and
an alternative action, against the CEQ significance criteria (40 CFR
1508.27) and determined that the anticipated effects from the treatment
methods are consistent with the preparation of an EA rather than an
EIS.
Thus, the BLM hereby terminates preparation of an EIS for the
proposed Uinkaret Mountains Landscape Restoration Project. National
Environmental Policy Act public involvement procedures will be adhered
to in the development on the Uinkaret Mountains Landscape Restoration
Project EA.
Authority: 40 CFR 1506.6, 40 CFR 1506.10
Timothy J. Burke,
District Manager.
[FR Doc. 2016-18272 Filed 8-1-16; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4310-32-P