[Federal Register Volume 64, Number 54 (Monday, March 22, 1999)]
[Notices]
[Pages 13766-13767]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 99-6914]


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DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE

Forest Service


Notice of Intent To Prepare an Environmental Impact Statement for 
the Threemile Timber Harvest

SUMMARY: The Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, will prepare an 
Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) to provide timber for the Tongass 
National Forest timber sale program. The Record of Decision will 
disclose how the Forest Service has decided to provide harvest units, 
roads, and associated timber harvesting facilities. The proposed action 
is to harvest timber on approximately 2300 acres including both 
clearcut with reserves and overstory removal harvest methods. This 
would entail harvest of an estimated 48 million board feet of timber. 
Approximately 33 miles of new roads would be built, as well as a new 
log transfer facility at No Name Bay.
    A range of alternatives responsive to significant issues will be 
developed including a no-action alternative. The proposed timber 
harvest is located in the Tongass National Forest, Petersburg Ranger 
District, on Kuiu Island, Alaska, within Value Comparison Units 416, 
417, 418, 419 and the east side of VCU 420. The Tongass Land and 
Resource Management Plan (1997) provides the overall guidance (land use 
designations, goals, objectives, management prescriptions, standards 
and guidelines) to achieve the desired future condition for the area in 
which this project is proposed. The Forest Plan allocates portions of 
the project area into four management prescriptions: Timber Production, 
Modified Landscape, Semi-Remote Recreation, and Old-growth Habitat Land 
Use Designations.

DATES: For the Forest Service to best use the scoping input, comments 
should be received by May 1, 1999; however, scoping comments will be 
accepted at any time.

ADDRESSES: Please send written comments to Petersburg Ranger District; 
Tongass National Forest; Attn: Threemile Timber Harvest EIS; P.O. Box 
1328, Petersburg, AK, 99833.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTRACT: Questions about the proposal and EIS 
should be directed to Everett Kissinger, Interdisciplinary Team Leader, 
P.O. Box 309, Petersburg, AK, 99833, phone (907) 772-3841.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Public participation will be part of the 
planning process and will be especially important at several points 
during the analysis. The first is during the scoping process. The 
Forest Service will be seeking information, comments, and assistance 
from federal, state, and local agencies, and from individuals and 
organizations that may be interested in, or affected by, the proposed 
activities. The scoping process will include: (1) Identification of 
potential issues; (2) identification of issues to be analyzed in depth; 
and, (3) elimination of insignificant issues or those which have been 
covered by a previous enviromental review. Written scoping comments 
will be solicited through a scoping package sent to a project mailing 
list. For the Forest Service to best use the scoping input, comments 
should be received by May 1, 1999; however, scoping comments will be 
accepted at any time. Tentative issues identified for analysis in the 
EIS include subsistence, wildlife habitat, road development and access 
management, and timber sale economics and timber supply. Based on the 
results of scoping and the resource capabilities within the project 
area, alternatives including a no-action alternative will be developed 
for a Draft Environmental Impact Statement (Draft EIS). The Draft EIS 
is projected to be filed with the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) 
in September 1999. Subsistence hearings, as provided for in Title VIII, 
Section 810 of the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act 
(ANILCA), are planned during the comment period on the Draft EIS. The 
Final EIS is anticipated by March, 2000.
    The comment period on the Draft EIS will be 45 days from the date 
the Environmental Protection Agency publishes a notice of availability 
in the Federal Register.
    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 an agency to the reviewer's position and 
contentions. Vermont Yankee Nuclear Power Corp.v. NRDC, 435 U.S. 519, 
553, (1978). Environmental objections that could have been raised at 
the draft environmental impact statement stage may be waived or 
dismissed by the courts. City of Angoon v. Hodel, 803 F.2nd 1016, 1022 
(9th Cir. 1986) and Wisconsin Heritages, Inc. v. 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 
environmental impact statement.
    To assist the Forest Service in identifying and considering issues 
and concerns of the proposed action, comments during scoping and 
comments on the draft environmental impact statement should be as 
specific as possible. It is also helpful if comments refer to specific 
areas with the project areas or specific pages or chapters of the draft 
statement. Comments may also address the adequacy of the draft 
environmental impact statement or the merits of the alternatives 
formulated and discussed in the statement. 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.
    Comments received in response to this solicitation, including names 
and addresses of those who comment, will be considered part of the 
public record on this proposed action and will be available for public 
inspection. Comments submitted anonymously will be accepted and 
considered; however, those who submit anonymous comments will not have 
standing to appeal the subsequent decision under 36 CFR parts 215 or 
217. Additionally, pursuant to 7 CFR 1.27(d), any person may request 
the agency to withhold a submission from the public record by showing 
how the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) permits such confidentiality. 
Requesters should be aware that, under FOIA, confidentiality may be 
granted in only very limited circumstances, such as to protect trade 
secrets. The Forest Service will inform the requester of the agency's 
decision

[[Page 13767]]

regarding the request for confidentiality, and where the request is 
denied, the agency will return the submission and notify the requester 
that the comments may be resubmitted with or without name and address 
within 7 days.
    Permits: Those required for implementation include the following:

1. U.S. Army Corps of Engineers
    --Approval of discharge of dredged or fill material into the waters 
of the United States under Section 404 of the Clean Water Act;
    --Approval of the construction of structures or work in navigable 
waters of the United States under Section 10 of the Rivers and Harbors 
Act of 1899;
2. Environmental Protection Agency
    --National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (402) Permit;
    --Review Spill Prevention Control and Countermeasure Plan;
3. State of Alaska, Department of Natural Resources
    --Tideland Permit and Lease or Easement;
4. State of Alaska, Department of Environmental Conservation
    --Solid Waste Disposal Permit;
    --Certification of Compliance with Alaska Water Quality Standards 
(401 Certification)
5. State of Alaska, Division of Governmental Coordination
    --Coastal Zone Consistency Determination concurrence

Responsible Official

    Carol J. Jorgensen, Assistant Forest Supervisor, Tongass National 
Forest, P.O. Box 309, Petersburg, AK 99833, is the responsible 
official. The responsible official will consider the comments, 
responses, disclosure of environmental consequences, and applicable 
laws, regulations, and policies in making the decision and stating the 
rationale in the Record of Decision.

    Dated: March 8, 1999.
Carol J. Jorgensen.
Assistant Forest Supervisor.
[FR Doc. 99-6914 Filed 3-19-99; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 3410-11-M