[Federal Register Volume 66, Number 13 (Friday, January 19, 2001)]
[Notices]
[Pages 5508-5509]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 01-1583]
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Notices
Federal Register
________________________________________________________________________
This section of the FEDERAL REGISTER contains documents other than rules
or proposed rules that are applicable to the public. Notices of hearings
and investigations, committee meetings, agency decisions and rulings,
delegations of authority, filing of petitions and applications and agency
statements of organization and functions are examples of documents
appearing in this section.
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Federal Register / Vol. 66, No. 13 / Friday, January 19, 2001 /
Notices
[[Page 5508]]
DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE
Forest Service
Information Collection; Request for Comments; Improve Management
of the Tongass National Forest and Service to Southeast Alaska
Residents
AGENCY: Forest Service, USDA.
ACTION: Notice.
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SUMMARY: In accordance with the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995, the
Forest Service announces its intention to establish a new information
collection. The collected information will help the Forest Service
identify and meet the needs of southeast Alaska residents who use,
visit, or benefit in other ways from the Tongass National Forest in
southeast Alaska. Information will be collected from southeast Alaska
residents.
DATES: Comments must be received in writing on or before March 20,
2001.
ADDRESSES: All comments should be addressed to Robert F. Schroeder,
Forestry Sciences Lab, Forest Service, USDA, 2770 Sherwood Lane, Suite
2A, Juneau, AK 99801.
Comments also may be submitted via facsimile to (907) 586-7848 or
by email to: [email protected].
The public may inspect comments received at the Office of the
Forestry Sciences Lab, Forest Service, USDA, 2770 Sherwood Lane, Suite
2A, Juneau, Alaska. Visitors are asked to call (907) 586-8811,
extension 240, to facilitate entrance into the building.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Robert F. Schroeder, Forestry Sciences
Lab, at (907) 586-8811, extension 240.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
Background
The Tongass National Forest encompasses nearly 85 percent of the
land in southeast Alaska, and activities conducted on the Forest form
the basis for the regional economy. Commercial fishing, timber
production, mineral extraction, and the quickly growing tourism
industry depend on the renewable and non-renewable natural resources of
this National Forest. The Forest Service completed a revision of the
Tongass Land Management Plan in 1997 and published a revised Record of
Decision in the Federal Register on May 11, 1999 (64 FR 25274). The
Tongass Land Management Plan and Record of Decision will serve as a
blueprint for how the Forest Service will manage the Tongass National
Forest over the next 10 to 15 years.
While revising the Tongass Land Management Plan in 1997, the Forest
Service identified critical information needs. Some of these
information needs were associated with the human component of Tongass
National Forest ecosystems, that is the people and social systems that
benefit from these ecosystems.
The collected data, by addressing the human component, will provide
the Forest Service with a better understanding of how forest management
practices influence community well-being and social change within the
southeast Alaska geographic area and will help the agency meet the
needs of residents of southeast Alaska who are affected by forest
management actions on a day-to-day basis.
The agency will gain a better understanding of the demands that
southeast Alaska residents make on the Tongass National Forest programs
and services, how well information about agency programs and services
are communicated to southeast Alaska residents, and how well the agency
meets the needs and expectations of the residents of southeast Alaska.
Forest Service personnel from the Pacific Northwest Research
Station Forestry Sciences Lab in Juneau, Alaska, will work in
cooperation with University of Alaska research staff to design,
administer, and evaluate these surveys. Interviewers will conduct
surveys by telephone. Persons interviewed will be asked to respond to
questions that include their perceptions of how the Tongass National
Forest is managed by the agency, their preferences for how this
National Forest should be managed, their perceptions of Tongass
National Forest ecosystems, their past and planned visits to the
Tongass National Forest, their use of the forest's resources, their
vision of the forest of the future, their household and community
economic dependence on the forest, and their attitudes and values
concerning timber management.
University of Alaska and Forestry Sciences Lab scientists will
tabulate the results from this information collection. The results will
be available to the public and to State and Federal agencies in printed
and electronic formats. The results also will be published in the
Pacific Northwest Research Station's General Technical Report series
and in referenced journals.
This data collection will provide information on how southeast
Alaska residents use the Tongass National Forest, the extent of their
economic and subsistence reliance on the forest, and their attitudes
and values concerning future management of the Tongass National Forest.
Description of Information Collection
The following describes the information collection to be
established:
Title: The Tongass Southeast Alaska Resident Survey.
OMB Number: New.
Expiration Date of Approval: New.
Type of Request: This is a new information collection requirement
and has not yet received approval from the Office of Management and
Budget.
Abstract: The Forest Service, other Federal agencies, and the State
of Alaska conducted a survey in 1979 to assess the interaction of the
southeast Alaska residents with the Tongass National Forest. This
survey also included the perceptions these residents had of the Tongass
as a natural resource. The 1979 survey provided the most recent
comprehensive information on southeast Alaska residents' subsistence
and recreational use of the Tongass, their attitudes and values
concerning the Tongass National Forest, their interest in the
development of a regional timber economy, and their perceptions of
Forest Service land management practices. This important benchmark
survey is now 20 years old and may not be an accurate reflection of the
views, perceptions, and activities of current southeast Alaska
residents.
This new information collection will provide more current data and
will identify issues that have become important to the southeast Alaska
residents in the intervening years.
[[Page 5509]]
Respondents also will be asked questions that relate to issues that
were not important at the time of the 1979 survey. These issues include
large scale timber harvesting on national forest and private lands; a
large increase in tourist and recreational use of the Tongass National
Forest; expansion of tourist use into back-country areas; economic
restructuring of the area that is moving away from timber, mining, and
commercial fishing toward tourism and service industries; and an
increasing resident and visitor population competing for limited fish
and wildlife resources.
Forest Service personnel and University of Alaska research staff
will conduct a random sample survey of southeast Alaska residents,
through telephone interviews.
Data gathered in this information collection are not available from
other sources.
Estimate of Annual Burden: 30 minutes per respondent.
Type of Respondents: Individual residents of southeast Alaska
communities.
Estimated Annual Number of Respondents: 1600 per year.
Estimated Annual Number of Responses per Respondent: 1.
Estimated Total Annual Burden on Respondents: 800 hours.
Comment Is Invited
The agency invites comments on the following: (a) Whether the
proposed collection of information is necessary for the stated purposes
and the proper performance of the functions of the agency, including
whether the information will have practical or scientific utility; (b)
the accuracy of the agency's estimate of the burden of the proposed
collection of information, including the validity of the methodology
and assumptions used; (c) ways to enhance the quality, utility, and
clarity of the information to be collected; and (d) ways to minimize
the burden of the collection of information on respondents, including
the use of automated, electronic, mechanical, or other technological
collection techniques or other forms of information technology.
Use of Comments
All comments received in response to this notice, including names
and addresses when provided, will become a matter of public record.
Comments will be summarized and included in the request for Office of
Management and Budget approval.
Dated: January 9, 2001.
Barbara C. Weber,
Associate Deputy Chief for Research & Development.
[FR Doc. 01-1583 Filed 1-18-01; 8:45 am]
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