[Federal Register Volume 63, Number 216 (Monday, November 9, 1998)]
[Notices]
[Pages 60384-60385]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 98-29859]


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DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR

National Park Service


Notice of Availability of Final Director's Order #77-1: Wetland 
Protection and Final Procedural Manual #77-1: Wetland Protection

AGENCY: National Park Service, Interior.

ACTION: Notice of availability.

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SUMMARY: The National Park Service (NPS) is converting and updating its 
current system of internal instructions in conformance with a new 
system of NPS internal guidance documents. As part of this process, the 
NPS recently made available for public review and comment (63 FR 45254) 
a draft Director's Order #77-1: Wetland Protection and a draft 
Procedural Manual #77-1: Wetland Protection. The Director's Order will 
revise NPS policies, standards, and requirements

[[Page 60385]]

for implementing Executive Order 11990: Protection of Wetlands, and the 
Procedural Manual will establish NPS procedures for implementing the 
Director's Order within units of the National Park System.
    The public review period for the Director's Order and Procedural 
Manual ended on September 24, 1998. Comments received during this 
period have been carefully considered and have been incorporated into 
the documents, as appropriate (see SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION). The 
comments were mostly related to clarifying certain points in the 
Director's Order and Procedural Manual, and did not result in any 
substantive changes to the policies, requirements, standards, or 
procedures proposed in the draft documents.
    The NPS now announces the availability of the final Director's 
Order #77-1 and final Procedural Manual #77-1. The previous NPS wetland 
protection guidance, found in the 1980 NPS Floodplain Management and 
Wetland Protection Guidelines (45 FR 35916, minor revisions in 47 FR 
36718), is now rescinded.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The NPS received four sets of written 
comments during the public review. One commenter was concerned that 
Director's Order #77-1 and Procedural Manual #77-1 might apply to 
activities conducted by a private party on lands that are outside of 
NPS units. The NPS believes that Section 2.0 of the Director's Order 
and Section 4.1.B of the Procedural Manual clearly indicate that these 
policies, requirements, and procedures apply only to activities 
conducted by the NPS that are either on or otherwise affect lands 
managed by the agency. A minor wording change was incorporated into 
Section 4.1.B of the Procedural Manual to help clarify this point.
    A state agency recognized the rationale for the 0.1 acre wetland 
impact threshold for required compensation (Section 5.2.C of the 
Procedural Manual), but expressed concern that this threshold could 
potentially lead to unacceptable cumulative impacts in arid areas where 
small wetlands are especially important. The NPS believes that these 
concerns are adequately addressed in several ways. First, these 
procedures and NPS National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) procedures 
do not allow an action to be ``categorically excluded'' from the NEPA 
process if there is the potential for adverse impacts on wetlands. 
Therefore, such cumulative impacts would have to be addressed in an 
Environmental Assessment or an Environmental Impact Statement, and 
justified in the required wetland ``Statement of Findings'' (Section 
5.3.D and 5.3.E of the Procedural Manual). Second, we believe that the 
required wetland avoidance and impact minimization steps outlined in 
Section 5.2 of the Procedural Manual, along with other NPS natural 
resources policies and procedures, make the choice of important desert 
aquatic habitats for development sites highly unlikely. Third, such 
actions would also be subject to the permitting provisions of Section 
404 of the Clean Water Act. For these reasons, the NPS is convinced 
that such areas are adequately protected from such cumulative impacts, 
and no changes were made on this subject in the final documents.
    A federal agency found the Director's Order and Procedural Manual 
to be clear and useful to NPS staff and the public, and provided a 
number of comments intended to further clarify information in the areas 
of wetland definitions, assessment methodologies, delineation manuals, 
compensation, inventories, and treatment of incidental wetlands. We 
found these suggestions to be useful, and incorporated a number of them 
via minor modifications of Sections 2.3 and 2.4 of the Director's Order 
and Sections 2.2.C, 2.2.D, 3.2, 4.1.A, 4.2.B, and 4.2.C of the 
Procedural Manual.

DATES: Director's Order #77-1: Wetland Protection and Procedural Manual 
#77-1: Wetland Protection became effective on October 22, 1998.

ADDRESSES: Director's Order #77.1: Wetland Protection and Procedural 
Manual #77.1: Wetland Protection are available on the Internet at the 
following address: http://www.nps.gov/refdesk/DOrders/index.htm 
Requests for copies should be sent to: Joel Wagner, National Park 
Service, Water Resources Division, P.O. Box 25287, Denver, CO 80225.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Joel Wagner at (303) 969-2955.

    Dated: October 30, 1998.
Michael Soukup,
Associate Director, Natural Resource Stewardship and Science.
[FR Doc. 98-29859 Filed 11-6-98; 8:45 am]
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