[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
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 This section of the FEDERAL REGISTER contains documents other than rules 
 or proposed rules that are applicable to the public. Notices of hearings 
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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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