[Federal Register Volume 65, Number 73 (Friday, April 14, 2000)]
[Notices]
[Page 20197]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 00-9397]


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DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR

Bureau of Indian Affairs


Final Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement for the 
Proposed Navajo Ten-Year Forest Management Plan, Navajo Nation, 
Arizona/New Mexico

AGENCY: Bureau of Indian Affairs, Interior.

ACTION: Notice.

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SUMMARY: The Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) intends to file a Final 
Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement (FPEIS) for the proposed 
Navajo Nation Ten-Year Forest Management Plan with the U.S. 
Environmental Protection Agency, for public review and comment. The 
FPEIS, prepared by the BIA in cooperation with the Navajo Nation, 
describes alternate ways to promote the protection and sustained use of 
forest resources and to guide the development of multi-year 
implementation programs for the Navajo Nation Forestry Department. A 
description of the project location and of the environmental issues 
addressed in the FPEIS follow as supplementary information.

DATES: Comments must arrive by June 12, 2000.

ADDRESSES: If you wish to comment, you may submit written comments by 
any one of several methods. You may mail or hand carry comments to 
Harold D. Russell, Regional Forester, Bureau of Indian Affairs, Navajo 
Regional Office, P.O. Box 1060, Gallup, New Mexico 87305. You may also 
comment via the Internet to [email protected]. Please submit 
Internet comments as an ASCII file, avoiding the use of special 
characters and any form of encryption. Include your name and return 
address in your Internet message. If you do not receive a confirmation 
from the system that we have received your Internet message, contact us 
directly at (502) 729-7228.
    Comments, including names and home addresses of respondents, will 
be available for public review at the above during regular business 
hours, 8:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., Monday through Friday, except holidays. 
Individual respondents may request confidentiality. If you wish us to 
withhold your name and/or address from public review or from disclosure 
under the Freedom of Information Act, you must state this prominently 
at the beginning of your written comment. Such requests will be honored 
to the extent allowed by law. We will not, however, consider anonymous 
comments. All submissions from organizations or businesses, and from 
individuals identifying themselves as representatives or officials of 
organizations or businesses, will be made available for public 
inspection in their entirety.
    The FPEIS is available for review at two locations: (1) The Branch 
of Environmental Services, Navajo Area Office, Federal Building, 301 
West Hill, Gallup, New Mexico; and (2) the Branch of Forestry, Bureau 
of Indian Affairs, 1 mile north on Route 12, Fort Defiance, Arizona. To 
obtain a copy of the FPEIS, please write to the Navajo Nation Forestry 
Department, P.O. Box 230, Fort Defiance, Arizona 86504, or call (520) 
729-4007.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Harold D. Russell, (520) 729-7228.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The proposed action is to adopt a ten-year 
management plan for the Navajo Forest. The Navajo Forest lies in the 
Chuska Mountains and Defiance Plateau areas of the Navajo Nation, along 
the Arizona-New Mexico border. The area encompasses nearly 600,000 
acres.
    The FPEIS presents a preferred alternative, the no action 
alternative and three other action alternatives. Under the preferred 
alternative, approximately 79,500 acres out of 253,754 acres designated 
as commercial timberland would be harvested over the next ten years. 
Individual treatment areas would be limited to 100 acres or less, and 
harvesting would incorporate a combination of even-aged and uneven-aged 
management systems designed to promote more diversity in the vegetative 
structure. This alternative also designates 74,735 acres as Special 
Management Areas (SMAs), which would be excluded from commercial 
timberland in order to protect critical wildlife habitat and vital 
watershed areas, even where these SMAs are located within the most 
productive areas of the forest.
    Timber protection activities under this alternative include fire 
prevention, prescribed burns, trespass control and insect and disease 
control. Other activities include monitoring and mitigation, in 
accordance with published plans, guidelines or handbooks referenced in 
the FPEIS.
    The no action alternative continues current levels of production--
approximately 88,000 acres over the next ten years, with even-aged 
management and without SMA's. The three other action alternatives 
include: (1) No timber harvesting and no SMA's; (2) even-aged 
management, with a lower rate of harvest--approximately 79,000 acres 
over the next ten years--than the no action alternative, and with 
SMA's; and (3) uneven-aged management, with approximately 84,400 acres 
to be harvested over the next ten years and without SMA's. All of the 
alternatives include timber protection plus monitoring and/or 
mitigation measures.
    The FPEIS addresses the environmental issues identified during 
public scoping. These include timber resources, other forest resources, 
water resources, biological resources, air quality, cultural resources 
and socio-economics.
    This notice is published in accordance with section 1503.1 of the 
Council on Environmental Quality Regulations (40 CFR parts 1500 through 
1508), implementing the procedural requirements of the National 
Environmental Policy Act of 1969, as amended (42 U.S.C. 4321 et seq.), 
and the Department of the Interior Manual (516 DM 1-6), and is in the 
exercise of authority delegated to the Assistant Secretary--Indian 
Affairs by 209 DM 8.

    Dated: April 11, 2000.
Kevin Gover,
Assistant Secretary--Indian Affairs.
[FR Doc. 00-9397 Filed 4-13-00; 8:45 am]
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