[Federal Register Volume 64, Number 201 (Tuesday, October 19, 1999)]
[Notices]
[Pages 56306-56307]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 99-27300]


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DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE

Forest Service


National Forest System Roadless Areas

AGENCY: Forest Service, USDA.

ACTION: Notice of intent to prepare an environmental impact statement.

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SUMMARY: The Forest Service is initiating a public rulemaking process 
to propose the protection of remaining roadless areas within the 
National Forest System. This proposed rulemaking responds to strong 
public sentiment for protecting roadless areas and the clean water, 
biological diversity, wildlife habitat, forest health, dispersed 
recreational opportunities and other public benefits they provide.
    The proposed rulemaking also responds to budgetary concerns 
expressed about the national forest road system. Building roads into 
roadless areas is expensive, and the public has questioned the logic of 
building new roads into roadless areas when the Forest Service receives 
insufficient funding to maintain its existing road system. Indeed, the 
Forest Service has a growing $8.4 billion maintenance and 
reconstruction backlog and receives only 20 percent of the annual 
funding it needs to maintain its existing 380,000 mile road system to 
environmental and safety standards.
    To assist in determining the scope and content of a proposed rule, 
the agency will prepare an environmental impact statement to analyze: 
(1) The effects of eliminating road construction activities in the 
remaining unroaded portions of inventoried roadless areas on the 
National Forest System; and (2) the effects of establishing criteria 
and procedures to ensure that the social and ecological values, that 
make both inventoried roadless areas and other uninventoried roadless 
lands important, are considered and protected through the forest 
planning process. Public comment is invited on the scope of the 
analysis that should be conducted, on the identification of 
alternatives to the proposal, and on whether the rulemaking should 
apply to the Tongass National Forest.

DATES: Comments should be received in writing by December 20, 1999.

ADDRESSES: Send written comments to the USDA Forest Service-CAET, 
Attention: Roadless Areas NOI, P.O. Box 221090, Salt Lake City, Utah 
84122 or by e-mail to www.fs.fed.us">roadlessareasnoi/wo__caet@www.fs.fed.us.
    Comments received in response to this solicitation, including names 
and addresses when provided, will be considered part of the public 
record on this proposed action and will be available for public 
inspection and copying.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Project Team Leader, Scott Conroy, 
Attention: Roadless Areas NOI, USDA Forest Service, P.O. Box 96090, 
Washington, DC 20090-6090, (703) 605-5299.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

Background

    Although they make up only a small percentage of the nation's total 
land-base, roadless areas are critically important for the long-term 
ecological sustainability of the nation's forests. Roadless areas serve 
as reference areas for research, as a barrier against invasive plant 
and animal species that harm native species, and as aquatic strongholds 
for fish of great recreational, subsistence, and commercial value. 
Roadless areas often provide vital habitat and migration routes for 
numerous wildlife species and are particularly important for those 
requiring large home ranges, such as the grizzly bear and wolf. Many 
roadless areas also act as ecological anchors, allowing nearby federal, 
state, and private lands to be developed for economic purposes.
    The public has rightfully questioned whether the Forest Service 
should build new roads into roadless areas when it lacks the resources 
needed to maintain its existing road system. The current national 
forest road system includes 380,000 miles of road, enough road to 
circle the globe more than 15 times. But the agency currently has a 
road reconstruction and maintenance backlog of approximately $8.4 
billion.
    In addition to the monetary costs, the environmental costs of road 
construction in roadless areas remain visible and potentially damaging 
for decades. Road construction increases the risk of erosion, 
landslides, and slope failure, endangering the health of entire 
watersheds that provide drinking water to millions of Americans and 
critical habitat for fish and wildlife. Growing scientific information 
demonstrates that road construction and other development in these 
sensitive areas can allow entry of invasive plants and animals that 
threaten the health of native species, increase human-caused fire, 
disrupt habitat connectivity, and otherwise compromise the attributes 
that make roadless areas socially valuable and ecologically important.
    On January 28, 1998, the agency proposed revising the National 
Forest Transportation System regulations. Specifically, the purpose was 
to consider changes in how the road system is developed, used, 
maintained, and funded (63 FR 4350-4351). On the same day, the agency 
proposed a rule to suspend temporarily road construction and 
reconstruction in certain unroaded areas (63 FR 4352-4354). In response 
to the January 28, 1998, Federal Register notices, the agency received 
over 80,000 public comments. The agency published a final rule, 
referred to as the ``interim rule'', that temporarily suspended road 
construction and reconstruction in unroaded areas on February 12, 1999 
(64 FR 7290-7305).
    In commenting on the National Forest System Transportation System 
rule and the proposed temporary suspension rule, members of the public 
expressed serious concerns that are relevant to this proposal (64 FR 
7290). Among those key concerns are beliefs that:
     The temporary suspension of road construction/
reconstruction should be made permanent.
     Continued entry into roadless areas will decrease the 
amount of wildlife habitat available by increasing fragmentation.
     The temporary suspension does not go far enough to protect 
all roadless lands across the National Forest System.
     The temporary suspension should not have included 
exemptions such as the Tongass National Forest and those areas covered 
by the President's Forest Plan.
     Economic and social effects will result from reductions in 
commercial timber harvest and other commodity production.
     Temporary suspension of road construction and 
reconstruction essentially expands the wilderness system.
     Denying access to roadless areas violates the Alaska 
National Interest Land Conservation Act.
    The interim rule provided a ``time out'' for the agency to develop 
a long-term road management strategy and to consider more fully public 
concerns about roadless areas and road management. As a consequence, 
the

[[Page 56307]]

Forest Service is taking the following actions.
    First, in the next several weeks, the agency will publish proposed 
changes to the National Forest System Transportation System rules at 36 
CFR Part 212 and to Forest Service Manual direction. This proposed rule 
is designed primarily to better manage the existing national forest 
road system. It would also establish new procedural requirements to 
help managers make more informed decisions concerning entry into 
roadless areas. A draft environmental assessment will accompany the 
proposed rule.
    Second, the agency is beginning a two part process, outlined in 
this Notice of Intent, to initiate a public rulemaking process that 
proposes protection of remaining National Forest System roadless areas.

Proposal

    The Forest Service proposes to promulgate a rule that would 
initiate a two part process to protect roadless areas. If adopted, part 
one would immediately restrict certain activities, such as road 
construction, in unroaded portions of inventoried roadless areas, as 
previously identified in RARE II and existing forest plan inventories.
    Possible alternatives to be considered in the draft environmental 
impact statement for part one may include:
     Prohibiting new road construction and reconstruction 
projects in the remaining unroaded portions of inventoried roadless 
areas;
     Prohibiting new road construction and reconstruction 
projects and commercial timber harvest in the remaining unroaded 
portions of inventoried roadless areas;
     Prohibiting the implementation of all activities, subject 
to valid existing rights, that do not contribute to maintaining or 
enhancing the ecological values of roadless areas in remaining unroaded 
portions of inventoried roadless areas; and
     Making no change in current policy (No action 
alternative).
    Part two would establish national direction for managing 
inventoried roadless areas, and for determining whether and to what 
extent similar protections should be extended to uninventoried roadless 
areas. After approval of a final rule, the direction for part two would 
be implemented at the forest plan level through the plan amendment and 
NEPA process. This national direction would guide land managers in 
determining what activities are consistent with protecting the 
important ecological and social values associated with inventoried 
roadless areas. It would also guide land managers in determining what 
activities are appropriate in uninventoried roadless areas that have 
important ecological and social values.
    Possible alternatives to be considered in the draft EIS for part 
two include:
     National procedures and criteria that address how land 
managers at the forest plan level should manage activities, other than 
those addressed in part one, in inventoried roadless areas;
     National procedures and criteria that address how land 
managers at the forest plan level should manage uninventoried roadless 
areas so as to protect their unroaded characteristics and benefits. 
Possible alternatives include:
    a. Protecting unroaded areas based on their ecological 
characteristics;
    b. Protecting existing unroaded National Forest System lands that 
are at least 1,000 acres in size and contiguous to unroaded areas of 
5,000 acres or more on all other Federal lands;
    c. Protecting existing unroaded areas of at least 1,000 acres;
     No change in current policy (No action alternative).
    Alternatives may consider certain exemptions under specific 
situations. In light of the recent revision of the Tongass National 
Forest Land management plan and the transition in the timber program in 
Southeast Alaska, we specifically solicit comments on whether or not 
the proposed rule should apply to the Tongass National Forest and, if 
so, whether inventoried Tongass roadless areas should be covered under 
part one of the rule or only under part two.

Proposed NEPA Scoping Process

    This Notice of Intent initiates the scoping process. As part of the 
scoping period, the Forest Service solicits public comment on the 
nature and scope of the environmental, social, and economic issues 
related to the proposed rulemaking that should be analyzed in depth in 
the Draft Environmental Impact Statement. Comments on this proposal and 
possible alternatives should be sent to the Content Analysis Enterprise 
Team (CAET) at the address shown earlier in this notice. Dates and 
locations of scoping meetings will be announced shortly.

The Importance of Participating in Scoping

    The Forest Service believes 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). Also, 
environmental objections that could be raised at the draft 
environmental impact statement stage, but are not raised until after 
completion of the final environmental impact statement, may be waived 
or dismissed by the courts. City of Angoon v. Hodel, 803 F.2d 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 policy 
participate by the close of the 60-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 draft environmental impact statement.

Time Frame

    Upon completion of the scoping process, a draft environmental 
impact statement will be prepared. The draft environmental impact 
statement and proposed rule are expected to be available for public 
review and comment in Spring 2000, and a final environmental impact 
statement and final rule will follow.

The Responsible Official

    The Responsible Official is Mike Dombeck, Chief, Forest Service, 
USDA, P.O. Box 96090, Washington, DC 20090-6090.

    Dated: October 14, 1999.
Mike Dombeck,
Chief.
[FR Doc. 99-27300 Filed 10-18-99; 8:45 am]
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