[Federal Register Volume 62, Number 10 (Wednesday, January 15, 1997)]
[Notices]
[Pages 2079-2080]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 97-887]
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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. 62, No. 10 / Wednesday, January 15, 1997 /
Notices
[[Page 2079]]
DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE
Forest Service
Katka Peak Environmental Impact Statement Supplement, Idaho
Panhandle National Forests, Boundary County, ID
AGENCY: Forest Service, USDA.
ACTION: Notice; intent to prepare a supplement to the Katka Peak
environmental impact statement.
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SUMMARY: The USDA, Forest Service, will prepare a supplement to Katka
Peak Final Environmental Impact Statement (EIS). The notice of intent
for the EIS was published in volume 57, number 137 of the Federal
Register, pages 31491 through 31493 on July 16, 1992. This supplement
will disclose environmental effects of a timber salvage and ecosystem
rehabilitation project in the Katka Peak analysis area. A portion of
the proposed activities are within the Katka Peak Roadless Area number
1-157.
The project area is approximately 7 air miles southeast of the
community of Bonners Ferry. It is in the northwest portion of the
Cabinet Mountains, Idaho Panhandle National Forests, Bonners Ferry
Ranger District, Boundary County, Idaho. There are approximately 28,827
acres of National Forest lands within the analysis area. It includes
portions of Township 61 North, Ranges 1, 2 and 3 East, and Township 60
North, Range 2 East, Boise Meridian, Boundary County, Idaho.
The decision to be made is to the extent, if anything, of
activities to be accomplished for salvage, thinning, prescribed
burning, watershed and fisheries habitat improvement and road
reconditioning within the project area. Decisions concerning road
closures for grizzly bear security habitat would affect only roads
within the Boulder Bear Management Unit.
The purpose of the project is four-fold. It is to: salvage dead and
dying timber; to trend productive and stagnating poletimber, sawtimber
and plantation stands towards historical stocking levels and species
composition; reduce the stocking of small diameter Douglas-fir, larch
and other species that are invading historical dry site ponderosa pine
habitat types; and, remove seed trees in previous harvest units which
are now certified as regenerated.
The items covered by the 1994 Katka Peak record of decision to
implement Alternative 7c are outside the scope of this analysis. This
supplement will not result in any changes to the existing timber sales
and related activities as analyzed and disclosed in the Katka Peak
Final EIS and ROD.
This supplement to the EIS is necessary under 40 CFR 1502.9(c) due
to significant new circumstances and information obtained since the
Katka Peak Final EIS was completed. One significant new circumstance is
the expanding market for commercial utilization of trees ranging in
size from 4 to 7 inches in diameter at breast height. These small trees
are increasingly in demand for pulp, posts and poles. Also, dead timber
is being utilized in larger quantities for houselogs. These growing
markets now make it feasible to use commercial forest product sales to
treat timber stands that were designated for ``deferred treatment'' in
the Katka Peak Final EIS and Record of Decision.
The scientific assessment for the Interior Columbia Basin Ecosystem
Management Project (ICBEMP) has provided significant new information
relevant to the project area. This area lies within the Northern
Glaciated Mountains Region described in the ICBEMP assessment area.
Specific recommendations for this region indicate a need to
rehabilitate overstocked stands and to enhance dry site ponderosa pine
habitat types by such techniques as mechanical stocking control
(thinning) and prescribed fire.
DATES: Written comments and suggestions on the proposed management
activities or requests to be placed on the public involvement list
should be submitted on or before February 14, 1997.
ADDRESSES: Send written comments, suggestions or requests to District
Ranger, ATTN: Katka Peak Supplemental EIS (Kit Katkee Salvage Project),
Bonners Ferry Ranger District, Route 4 Box 4860, Bonners Ferry, Idaho
83805-9764.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:
Barry Wynsma, Project Leader, phone (208) 267-5561.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The Katka Peak Supplemental EIS (Kit Katkee
Salvage Project) was initiated in October of 1995 pursuant to
procedures in Section 2001 of Public Law 104-19 (Pub.L. 104-19). New
direction issued by Forest Service Chief Jack Ward Thomas and
Department of Agriculture Secretary Dan Glickman on July 2, 1996
resulted in this project being subject to standard NEPA procedures for
supplements to environmental impact statements. This project is no
longer subject to Pub.L. 104-19 procedures because the estimated total
volume of live timber proposed for removal in stocking reduction
treatments is expected to exceed 25 percent, which is the upper limit
for a salvage sale under Pub.L. 104-19.
This project-level EIS supplement incorporates the Katka Peak Final
EIS and Record of Decision (July 12, 1994) and tiers to the Idaho
Panhandle National Forests Land and Resource Management Plan (Forest
Plan) and Final EIS (September, 1987). The Forest Plan provides overall
guidance of all land management activities on the Idaho Panhandle
National Forests.
Use of prescribed fire, timber harvest, road closures, road
reconstruction and obliteration, water quality improvement and instream
fish habitat structures, and access management are all being considered
to achieve or trend toward the desired condition.
Proposed salvage and ecosystem rehabilitation management activities
would take place in timber stands with the highest treatment needs and
with low potential for producing and delivering sediment to streams.
Thinning treatments would remove trees between 4 and 9 inches in
diameter at breast height (dbh). Activities would include:
Approximately 1,800 acres of roundwood thinning (trees less than 7
inches dbh), approximately 3,800 acres of understory removal
treatments, including salvage of dead/down timber; approximately 135
acres of final removal of seed trees in certified
[[Page 2080]]
regenerated harvest units (keeping reserve trees for wildlife);
approximately 730 acres of plantations scheduled for precommercial
thinning; approximately 340 acres of dry site ponderosa pine habitat
enhancement treatments, using both mechanical methods and prescribed
fire; approximately 11 water quality/fisheries improvement projects,
mostly road stabilization on existing roads; and, access management to
meet security habitat for threatened and endangered wildlife species.
The proposal includes precommercial thinning and prescribed fire
treatments in the Katka Peak Roadless Area (1-157). Approximately 329
acres of dry-site ponderosa pine habitat would be underburned and 217
acres of overstocked pole-sized timber stands would be precommercially
thinned. There would not be any use of heavy equipment, no road
construction, and no removal of forest products within the roadless
area.
These proposed actions are being considered together because they
represent either connected, similar, or cumulative actions as defined
by the Council on Environmental Quality (40 CFR 1508.25).
The Idaho Panhandle National Forests Forest Plan provides the
guidance for management of activities through goals, objectives,
standards and guidelines, and management area directions. The proposed
salvage and ecosystem rehabilitation management activities are within
Forest Plan designated management Areas 2 and 19. These areas can be
described briefly as follows:
Management Area 2--Manage identified grizzly bear habitat to
support a recovered grizzly bear population while providing for long-
term growth and production of commercially valuable wood products.
Management Area 19--Manage for a semi-primitive recreation setting
while providing low levels of timber harvest with minimum standard
roads.
The Forest Service will consider two alternatives to the proposed
action. One alternative will be ``No Action'' in which none of the
proposed activities would be implemented. Another alternative will
consider the effects of treating all stands that have a component of
dead timber, that are overstocked, that are in ponderosa pine habitat
that currently do not exhibit the historical species and stocking
levels of this habitat type, or have final removal needs.
The supplement to the Katka Peak Final EIS will analyze the direct,
indirect, and cumulative environmental effects of the proposed action
and alternatives. Past, present, and reasonably foreseeable activities
on both private and National Forest lands will be considered. Analysis
of site-specific mitigation measures and their effectiveness will be
disclosed.
Public participation is an important part of the analysis and
decisionmaking process. Scoping began with publication of the proposed
project in the October 1995 IPNF NEPA Quarterly Schedule of Proposed
Actions and through newspaper articles and letters to interested
persons. The public is encouraged to visit with Forest Service
officials at any time during the analysis and prior to the decision.
The following preliminary issues have been identified at this time:
1. How will access management and project timing affect habitat and
security needs for Threatened, Endangered, Sensitive and Management
Indicator species?
2. How will the fisheries and water quality in the project area be
protected, maintained, or improved?
3. What timber stands have stocking levels and species compositions
that are above and outside of their historic range of variability?
Also, what stands are experiencing or at risk of unacceptably high
levels of insect and disease activity? In relation to stands
experiencing high levels of tree mortality, what are the fuel loading
concerns and are the stands in need of fuels reduction?
4. How will the project contribute to maintaining the customary
flow of goods and services to communities?
5. How will the project affect the Katka Peak Roadless Area?
6. How will the visual resource be affected by the project?
7. How will the project protect sensitive plant species?
8. How will the project protect cultural resources?
This list may be expanded, verified or modified based on continuing
public participation in this project.
The Draft Supplement to the Katka Peak Final EIS is expected to be
filed with the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and available for
public review in February of 1997. At that time, EPA will publish a
Notice of Availability (NOA) of the Draft Supplemental EIS in the
Federal Register. The comment period on the Draft Supplemental EIS will
end 45 days from the date the NOA appears in the Federal Register. It
is very important that those interested in the management of the Katka
Peak area participate at that time. To be most helpful, comments on the
Draft Supplemental EIS should be as site- and project-specific as
possible and relate only to proposals made in the EIS supplement. The
Final Supplemental EIS is anticipated to be completed by April, 1997.
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
draft environmental impact statements must structure their
participation in the environmental review of the proposal so that it is
meaningful and alerts and agency to the reviewer's position and
contentions. Vermont Yankee Nuclear Power Corp. versus 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
versus Hodel, 803 F.2d 1016, 1022 (9th Cir. 1986) and Wisconsin
Heritages, Inc. versus 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 substantive 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 supplement to the Katka
Peak Final EIS.
To assist the Forest Service in identifying and considering issues
and concerns on the proposed action, comments on the draft supplement
to the Final EIS should be as specific as possible. 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.
It is also helpful if comments refer to specific pages or chapters
of the draft supplement. Comments may also address the adequacy of the
draft supplement or the merits of the alternatives formulated and
discussed in the supplement.
I am the responsible official for this supplement to the
environmental impact statement.
Dated: December 26, 1996.
Elaine J. Zieroth,
District Ranger, Bonners Ferry Ranger District.
[FR Doc. 97-887 Filed 1-14-97; 8:45 am]
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