[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]


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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.

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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