[Federal Register Volume 65, Number 91 (Wednesday, May 10, 2000)]
[Proposed Rules]
[Pages 30276-30288]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 00-11304]



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Part III





Department of Agriculture





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Forest Service



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36 CFR Part 294



Special Areas; Roadless Area Conservation; Proposed Rules

  Federal Register / Vol. 65, No. 91 / Wednesday, May 10, 2000 / 
Proposed Rules  

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DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE

Forest Service

36 CFR Part 294

RIN 0596-AB77


Special Areas; Roadless Area Conservation

AGENCY: Forest Service, USDA.

ACTION: Notice of proposed rulemaking; request for comment.

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SUMMARY: The Forest Service is proposing new regulations to protect 
certain roadless areas within the National Forest System. This proposed 
rulemaking would prohibit road construction and reconstruction in most 
inventoried roadless areas of the National Forest System and require 
evaluation of roadless area characteristics in the context of overall 
multiple-use objectives during land and resource management plan 
revisions. This proposal is in response 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 provided by these areas. This action also 
responds to budgetary concerns and the need to balance forest 
management objectives with funding priorities. The intent of this 
rulemaking is to provide lasting protection in the context of multiple-
use management for inventoried roadless areas and other unroaded areas 
within the National Forest System. The Forest Service invites written 
comments on this proposed rule and will analyze and consider those 
comments in the development of a final rule.

DATES: Written comments must be received by July 17, 2000.

ADDRESSES: Send written comments to the USDA Forest Service--CAET, 
Attention: Roadless Areas Proposed Rule, P.O. Box 221090, Salt Lake 
City, Utah, 84122. Reviewers, who wish to send comment by e-mail, may 
do so by accessing the worldwide web at roadless.fs.fed.us and 
selecting the comment option. Comments may also be sent via fax to 877-
703-2494.
    Comments received in response to this rulemaking, including names 
and addresses when provided, will be considered part of the public 
record and will be available for public inspection and copying.
    A copy of the Draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS), the DEIS 
Summary, and other information related to this rulemaking is available 
at the roadless.fs.fed.us website. Reviewers may request printed copies 
or compact disks, as available, of the Draft Environmental Impact 
Statement and the Summary by writing to the Rocky Mountain Research 
Station, Publication Distribution, 240 West Prospect Road, Fort 
Collins, CO 80526-2098. Fax orders will be accepted at 800-777-5805. 
When ordering, requesters must specify if they wish to receive the 
summary or full set of documents and if the material should be provided 
in print or on disk. Additional information is available at the 
roadless.fs.fed.us website as well as by calling the number listed 
under the For Further Information Contact heading.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Scott Conroy, Project Director, (703) 
605-5299.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The following outline displays the contents 
of the Supplementary Information section of this proposed rule:

Background
    National Forest System Land Designations
    Management of Roadless Areas
Proposed Roadless Area Conservation Rule
Regulatory Initiatives
    Other regulatory initiatives
Section-by-Section Description of the Proposed Rule
    Authority
    Proposed section 294.10--Purpose.
    Proposed section 294.11--Definitions.
    Proposed section 294.12--Prohibition on road construction and 
reconstruction in inventoried roadless areas.
    Proposed section 294.13--Consideration of roadless area 
conservation during forest plan revision.
    Proposed characteristics.
    (1) Soil, water, and air.
    (2) Sources of public drinking water.
    (3) Diversity of plant and animal communities.
    (4) Habitat components for threatened, endangered, proposed, 
candidate, and sensitive species and for those species dependent on 
large, undisturbed areas of land.
    (5) Primitive, semi-primitive non-motorized, and semi-primitive 
motorized classes of dispersed recreation.
    (6) Reference landscapes.
    (7) Landscape character and scenic integrity.
    (8) Traditional cultural properties and sacred sites.
    (9) Other locally identified unique characteristics.
    Proposed section 294.14--Scope and applicability.
Summary
Regulatory Impact
Unfunded Mandates Reform
Environmental Impact
No Takings Implications
Civil Justice Reform Act
Controlling Paperwork Burdens on the Public
Federalism
Conclusion

Background

    The Forest Service is responsible for managing the lands and 
resources of the National Forest System, including 192 million acres of 
land in 42 states, the Virgin Islands, and Puerto Rico. The system is 
composed of 155 national forests, 20 national grasslands, and various 
other lands under the jurisdiction of the Secretary of Agriculture. The 
Multiple-Use Sustained-Yield Act of 1960 (16 U.S.C. 528) and the 
National Forest Management Act of 1976 (16 U.S.C. 1600 et seq.), direct 
that National Forest System lands are to be managed for a variety of 
uses on a multiple-use basis to provide a continued supply of products, 
services, and values without impairment of the productivity of the 
land.

National Forest System Land Designations

    The Forest Service used the most recent inventory available for 
each national forest and grassland to identify the inventoried roadless 
areas addressed by this rulemaking. It used land and resource 
management plans, other assessments, and the Roadless Area Review and 
Evaluation (RARE) II inventory. The Forest Service began identifying 
roadless areas through RARE I in 1972. In 1979, the agency completed 
RARE II, a more extensive national inventory of roadless areas. RARE II 
built on the data in RARE I, and in most cases forest plans and other 
assessments were built on RARE II. In the limited circumstances where a 
forest plan or other assessment did not have a more recent inventory of 
roadless areas, the Forest Service used the RARE II inventory.
    Using these inventories, the Forest Service has identified 54.3 
million acres of inventoried roadless areas that are the subject of 
this rulemaking (Table 1). Road building is currently not allowed in 
20.5 million of these 54.3 million acres. Many are designated as 
primitive or semi-primitive recreation areas in existing forest plans. 
Road building is allowed in the remaining 33.8 million acres of 
inventoried roadless areas subject to this rule. Within the total 54.3 
million acres of inventoried roadless areas, an estimated 2.8 million 
acres have been roaded since they were inventoried. The remaining 51.5 
million acres are the unroaded portions of inventoried roadless areas 
addressed in the rule.
    Table 1 also displays the acreage of Congressionally designated 
areas and all other National Forest System lands. The National Forest 
System contains 42.4

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million acres of Congressionally designated areas, such as Wilderness 
or Wild and Scenic Rivers. In addition to inventoried roadless areas 
and areas designated by Congress, there are 95.2 million acres of other 
National Forest System lands. There are approximately 386,000 miles of 
Forest Service roads, as well as other county, state, and federal 
roads, in these 95.2 million acres. However, some of these 95.2 million 
acres are unroaded areas where conservation of roadless characteristics 
may be desirable. Under current policy and forest plan direction, road 
building continues to be allowed in a substantial portion of the 95.2 
million acres of other National Forest System lands and the 33.8 
million acres of inventoried roadless areas.

                                                      Table 1.--National Forest System Designations
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                                                                                 Inventoried Roadless Areas              Wilderness \1\
                                                                    --------------------------------------------------- and other areas     All other
                                                                                                          Roads not      designated by   National Forest
                                                                          Total        Roads  allowed      allowed          Congress       System Lands
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Acres In Millions..................................................            54.3             33.8             20.5             42.4             95.2
Percentage of Total National Forest System.........................            28.0             17.0             11.0             22.0            50.0
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\1\ Road construction is not allowed in the 35 million acres in the National Wilderness Preservation System.

Management of Roadless Areas

    The Forest Service presently manages a 386,000-mile road system 
that supports a wide variety of uses, activities, and management 
actions. Areas without roads have inherent characteristics and values 
that are becoming scarce in an increasingly developed landscape. While 
National Forest System inventoried roadless areas represent only about 
two percent of the United States' land base, they provide significant 
opportunities for dispersed recreation, sources of public drinking 
water, and large undisturbed landscapes that provide privacy and 
seclusion. In addition, these areas serve as bulwarks against the 
spread of invasive species and often provide important habitat for rare 
plant and animal species, support the diversity of native species, and 
provide opportunities for monitoring and research. Roadless areas 
remain roadless due to the difficulties in developing facilities, 
roads, and trails in rugged terrain; the high cost of development; the 
environmental sensitivity and high ecological values of roadless areas; 
low suitability for timber production; designated use for unroaded 
forms of recreation; controversy associated with development of 
roadless areas; and other factors.
    Under current agency management policies, local agency officials 
have the authority to make decisions about road construction in the 
national forests and grasslands on a case-by-case basis. Agency 
officials make such decisions at the local level either through the 
forest planning process or through site-specific, project-level 
decisions. These planning processes require comprehensive public notice 
and comment. Additional information about the current planning process 
is included in the preamble discussion for proposed section 294.13.

Proposed Roadless Area Conservation Rule

    The proposed roadless area conservation rule has a two-fold 
purpose. First, the Forest Service is proposing to immediately stop 
activities that have the greatest likelihood of degrading desirable 
characteristics of inventoried roadless areas, based on decisions made 
at the national level through this public rulemaking process. Second, 
the Forest Service is proposing to ensure that the significant 
characteristics of both inventoried roadless and other unroaded areas 
(that is, generally smaller areas never previously inventoried) are 
identified and considered through local forest planning efforts. The 
proposed rule would establish a framework whereby the Forest Service: 
(1) manages inventoried roadless areas partly by national 
decisionmaking and partly through local forest planning efforts, and 
(2) manages other unroaded non-inventoried areas exclusively through 
the local planning process.
    At the national level, the rulemaking would apply to all National 
Forest System lands and would prohibit road construction in almost all 
inventoried roadless areas, with a few limited narrow exceptions. The 
national decision process would reduce the time, expense, and 
controversy associated with making case-by-case decisions at the local 
forest level concerning the construction and reconstruction of roads in 
inventoried roadless areas, and preserve options for dealing with these 
areas for the future.
    The proposed rule also recognizes the role of local forest 
decisionmaking for management of both inventoried roadless and smaller 
or uninventoried unroaded areas. The rule would establish procedures 
whereby local decisionmakers would consider social and ecological 
characteristics of inventoried roadless and other unroaded areas 
through their local forest planning efforts. With respect to 
inventoried areas, local responsible officials could not authorize the 
construction or reconstruction of roads but would retain discretion to 
consider appropriate additional management protection for inventoried 
roadless areas. For smaller uninventoried unroaded areas, the 
responsible official would evaluate the quality and importance of their 
characteristics, select those to be protected, and determine the level 
of protection through the forest planning process. Local officials' 
discretionary decisions would be informed by their evaluation of the 
quality and importance of the characteristics of the areas and their 
determination of whether these characteristics should be protected.
    At the national level, the proposed rule covers inventoried 
roadless areas within the Tongass National Forest in a special 
provision. That provision postpones a decision regarding protection of 
these areas until April 2004, and specifically notes that the decision 
would be subject to existing statutory direction uniquely applicable to 
the Tongass National Forest.
    Additional background information is included in the draft 
environmental impact statement accompanying this rulemaking. The draft 
statement discloses information about the physical, biological, social, 
and economic environments relevant to the proposed action. The entire 
draft environmental impact statement, or a summary, is available at the 
address listed in the ADDRESSES section of this proposed rule.

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Regulatory Initiatives

    On January 28, 1998, the Forest Service gave advance notice of its 
intent to propose revising the National Forest Transportation System 
regulations (63 FR 4350) to address needed changes in how the agency's 
road system is developed, used, and maintained. On the same date, the 
agency also proposed a rule to suspend temporarily road construction 
and reconstruction in certain areas (63 FR 4354) and requested comment. 
The agency received more than 119,000 responses. On February 12, 1999, 
the agency published an interim final rule, which temporarily suspended 
road construction and reconstruction in most roadless areas of the 
National Forest System (64 FR 7290). The interim rule is intended to 
provide time for the agency to develop a long-term road management 
strategy and to consider more fully public concerns about roadless 
areas and road management.
    On October 13, 1999, President Clinton directed the Forest Service 
to engage in rulemaking to protect roadless areas that ``represent some 
of the last, best, unprotected wildland anywhere in our Nation.'' On 
October 19, 1999, the agency published a notice of intent to prepare an 
environmental impact statement and to announce the initiation of a 
public rulemaking process to propose the protection of certain roadless 
areas within the National Forest System (64 FR 56306). To assist in the 
development of the rule and alternatives, the agency requested public 
comment on the scope of the environmental analysis, on the 
identification of alternatives to the proposal, and on whether the 
rulemaking should apply to the Tongass National Forest in Alaska.
    As part of the scoping process, the agency conducted 10 regional 
and national public meetings and also held local meetings, which were 
hosted by the 127 national forest and grassland headquarters. 
Attendance at the public meetings ranged from as few as 5 people to 
over 700; typical registration was 50 to 100 people in most 
communities. Total attendance for all public meetings was approximately 
16,000. The agency has received approximately 365,000 written responses 
to the notice of intent, including approximately 336,000 form letters, 
from individuals, groups, organizations, and other government agencies.
    The agency has used these comments to further refine the scope of 
the decision to be made, identify significant issues, shape the 
alternatives, identify possible mitigation measures, and direct the 
``effects analysis'' in the draft environmental impact statement. The 
six major topics that were identified as a result of the scoping 
process include issues related to: (1) access; (2) identification of 
``other unroaded'' areas; (3) exemptions; (4) environmental, social, 
and economic effects; (5) the degree of local involvement in roadless 
area decisions; and (6) the impacts to communities that depend on the 
use of National Forest System lands. The draft environmental impact 
statement, which accompanies this proposed rule includes a more 
complete description of the issues; alternatives; and environmental, 
social, and economic effects that were identified as a result of 
comments submitted in response to the notice of intent.
    Having considered the scoping comments and having identified and 
analyzed alternatives and effects, the agency is proposing a rule to 
amend Part 294--Special Areas, of Title 36 of the Code of Federal 
Regulations. The provisions of the proposed rule include a national 
prohibition on road construction or reconstruction in the unroaded 
portions of inventoried roadless areas and, during forest plan 
revision, evaluation of roadless characteristics in the context of 
overall multiple-use objectives.
    This rulemaking is not an effort to expand the National Wilderness 
Preservation System. The Forest Service recognizes that only Congress 
may designate wilderness. The Forest Service will continue managing 
inventoried roadless areas and other unroaded areas within the 
multiple-use framework required by law.

Other Regulatory Initiatives

    The agency has also recently proposed other regulations and 
policies that address the management of the National Forest System and 
how the agency must make decisions about road construction in national 
forests and grasslands.
    Proposed Land and Resource Management Planning Rule. The Forest 
Service proposed this rule on October 5, 1999 (64 FR 54074). This rule 
proposes to revise the agency's regulations under the National Forest 
Management Act. The proposed rule would provide for the long-term 
sustainability of national forests and grasslands, ensure collaboration 
with the public, and integrate science more effectively into the 
planning process. The proposed rule would allow the Forest Service to 
make special designations for roadless and unroaded areas.
    Proposed Road Management Rule and Policy. The agency proposed this 
rule and administrative policy on March 3, 2000 (65 FR 11676). The 
administrative policy would establish procedures for making decisions 
about road construction, reconstruction, and decommissioning in 
national forests. The proposed policy would require that the Forest 
Service incorporate a science-based road analysis into other analyses 
and assessments and also conduct a science-based road analysis for any 
new proposed road construction. The proposed policy also would require 
the Forest Service to emphasize maintenance and decommissioning of 
roads over the construction of new roads. In addition, the policy 
proposes transitional procedures (FSM 7710.32, paragraphs 2 and 3) that 
address road construction in sensitive roadless and unroaded areas 
until forest plan revision. The transitional procedures require that 
responsible officials identify a compelling need and complete an 
environmental impact statement signed by the Regional Forester before 
road construction can occur in inventoried roadless and other unroaded 
areas. The proposed roadless area conservation rule, if adopted, would 
replace the road management policy's transition language regarding 
inventoried roadless areas and other unroaded areas.

Section-by-Section Discussion of the Proposed Rule

Authority

    This proposed rule is within the scope of the Secretary of 
Agriculture's authority, as granted by the Organic Administration Act 
of 1897 (16 U.S.C. 551), ``to regulate the occupancy and use and to 
preserve the forests thereon from destruction.'' Congress elaborated on 
this duty in the Multiple-Use Sustained-Yield Act of 1960 by directing 
the Secretary of Agriculture to administer National Forest System lands 
to achieve the multiple use and sustained yield of renewable resources 
``without impairment of the productivity of the land'' (16 U.S.C. 528-
531). Furthermore, National Forest System management must be 
accomplished in compliance with a host of administrative and 
environmental laws. Of particular relevance to this proposal is the 
Secretary of Agriculture's responsibility for the administration of an 
adequate system of roads and trails on the National Forest System 
authorized by the National Forest Roads and Trails Act (16 U.S.C. 532-
538).

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    The Forest and Rangeland Renewable Resources Planning Act, as 
amended, directs the Secretary of Agriculture to install a proper 
system of transportation that is both economically and environmentally 
sound. Furthermore, all roads are to be ``designed to standards 
appropriate for the intended uses, considering safety, cost of 
transportation, and impacts on land and resources'' (16 U.S.C. 1608 
(c)).
    The Forest Service has regulations to guide road management, at 36 
CFR part 212, in accordance with their responsibility for management of 
forest development roads and trails under the authority of the Surface 
Transportation Assistance Act of 1978 (23 U.S.C. 201, 205). As 
mentioned previously, the agency has published a proposal to amend 
regulations at 36 CFR part 212. Also, the Secretary has been granted 
broad authority under the Forest and Rangeland Renewable Resources 
Planning Act, as amended, to establish such rules as he determines 
necessary and desirable to manage the national forests. (16 U.S.C. 
1613).

Proposed Sec. 294.10--Purpose

    This section of the proposed rule identifies that the agency's goal 
is to provide lasting protection for inventoried roadless areas and 
other unroaded areas in the context of multiple-use management. That 
goal would be accomplished through the combination of limited national 
prohibitions set out in Sec. 294.12 and the procedural mechanisms set 
out in Sec. 294.13.

Proposed Sec. 294.11--Definitions

    This section of the rule sets out the terms and definitions used in 
this proposed regulation. The section first defines inventoried 
roadless areas. These areas were identified using various forest 
planning and assessment processes, including RARE II, forest plan 
revisions, and the Southern Appalachian Assessment. The 1996 Southern 
Appalachian Assessment was a state and federal interagency review of 
that region's environmental health and ecological problems. Roadless 
areas were inventoried as part of that assessment.
    These plans and assessments resulted in the currently mapped 
configurations, referred to as ``inventoried roadless areas.'' The maps 
are maintained at the national headquarters of the Forest Service and 
are the official maps for the proposed rule. In the event a 
modification to correct any clerical, typographical, or other technical 
error is needed, the change will be made to the national headquarters 
maps and the corrected copies of the maps made available on the web at 
roadless.fs.fed.us/. Prior to finalizing this proposed rule, map 
adjustments may be made for forests and grasslands currently undergoing 
assessments or land and resource management plan revisions.
    For the purposes of this rulemaking, the agency is proposing 
definitions for various categories of roads. These definitions reflect 
the agency's best efforts to coordinate the use of these terms with 
other initiatives that use similar terminology. The defined road terms 
are: road, classified road, unclassified road, road construction, and 
road reconstruction. The Forest Service encourages reviewers to closely 
scrutinize these definitions with the understanding that the terms and 
definitions used in the final rule will be coordinated with the 
terminology used in other agency initiatives.
    An unroaded area is defined as any area without the presence of a 
classified road, which is of a size and configuration sufficient to 
protect the inherent characteristics associated with its unroaded 
condition. This definition also is similar to the definition used in 
the proposed road management policy (also called transportation rule).
    A definition is proposed for the term ``unroaded portion of an 
inventoried roadless area.'' This definition clarifies that the 
prohibition and evaluation requirements of this proposed rule are not 
intended to apply to the portions of inventoried roadless areas that 
have had classified roads constructed since the area was inventoried. 
It should be noted that the criteria used to identify and inventory 
roadless areas in forest planning (Forest Service Handbook 1909.17, 
chapter 7) allowed the presence of certain types of classified roads, 
as long as the area, otherwise, met certain minimum criteria.

Proposed Sec. 294.12--Prohibition on Road Construction and 
Reconstruction in Inventoried Roadless Areas.

    Paragraph (a) of this section proposes to prohibit road 
construction or reconstruction in the unroaded portions of inventoried 
roadless areas, except for the circumstances listed in proposed 
paragraphs (b)(1) through (b)(4) and paragraph (c). Nothing in this 
section is intended to prohibit the authorized construction or 
maintenance of motorized or non-motorized trails of any size that are 
classified and managed as trails pursuant to agency direction (FSM 
2350).
    Proposed paragraph 294.12 (b) would allow certain limited 
exceptions to the road construction prohibition. The exceptions in 
proposed paragraphs (b)(1) and (b)(3) parallel the exceptions used in 
the interim roads rule (64 FR 7290). The public health and safety 
exception at proposed paragraph (b)(1) would apply only when needed to 
protect public health and safety in cases of an imminent threat of a 
catastrophic event that might result in the loss of life or property. 
It is not intended to be construed as permission to engage in routine 
forest health activities, such as temporary road construction for 
thinning to reduce mortality due to insect and disease infestation.
    The exception in proposed paragraph (b)(2) would permit entry for 
activities undertaken pursuant to the Comprehensive Environmental 
Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (Superfund) and other 
identified statutes. An example of a Superfund activity is to correct 
the bleeding of toxic chemicals from an abandoned mine.
    Proposed paragraph (b)(3) would permit the construction and 
reconstruction of a road pursuant to valid existing rights granted in 
statute or treaty, or pursuant to a reserved or outstanding right. 
These include, but are not limited to, rights of access provided in the 
Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act of 1980 (ANILCA), 
highway rights-of way granted under R.S. 2477, and rights granted under 
the General Mining Law of 1872, as amended.
    Proposed paragraph (b)(4) would permit realignment of an existing 
road when it is causing irreparable resource damage in its current 
location. The road must be essential for public or private access, 
management, or public health and safety, and the damage cannot be 
corrected by maintenance.
    Proposed paragraph (c) specifies that inventoried roadless areas in 
the Tongass National Forest will be addressed in a different way, as 
proposed in paragraph 294.13 (e). The notice of intent indicated that 
the Forest Service would determine whether or not the proposed rule 
should apply to the Tongass National Forest. The Forest Service is 
proposing to delay consideration of protecting inventoried roadless 
areas for the Tongass National Forest until April 2004, in light of 
recent Forest Plan decisions that conserve roadless areas and a 
Southeast Alaska economy that is in transition. The amount and 
distribution of roadless areas figured prominently in a 1997 Regional 
Forester decision for the Tongass Land Management Plan. In 1999, the 
Under Secretary for Natural Resources and the Environment issued a 
Record of Decision for the Tongass

[[Page 30280]]

Land Management Plan in response to several appeals that identified 
issues related to roadless areas and the qualities they provide. The 
1999 decision administratively protected additional lands from road 
construction and extended harvest rotation in some areas, thus slowing 
the rate of road construction and harvest. Currently, 82 percent of the 
Tongass National Forest's approximate 17 million acres is allocated for 
land use prescriptions that prohibit or limit road construction.
    With the recent closure of pulp mills and the ending of long-term 
timber sale contracts, the timber economy of Southeast Alaska is 
transitioning to a competitive bid process. About two-thirds of the 
total timber harvest planned on the Tongass National Forest over the 
next 5 years is projected to come from inventoried roadless areas. If 
road construction is prohibited in inventoried roadless areas, 
approximately 95 percent of the timber harvest within those areas would 
be eliminated. Under current circumstances, use of the Tongass National 
Forest's inventoried roadless areas for timber production contributes 
to the Forest Service's effort to seek to meet (within the meaning of 
section 101 of the Tongass Timber Reform Act) market demand for timber 
in the Tongass National Forest, consistent with providing for the 
multiple use and sustained yield of all renewable forest resources. 
However, with the continuing transition of the southeast Alaska timber 
market to an independent bid market, coupled with the long-term 
projected decline in timber demand for southeast Alaska timber, it is 
also possible that, by 2004 (when a review of the revised Tongass Land 
Management Plan is required), the long term demand for timber may be 
substantially reduced and market demand could be met consistent with 
protecting existing inventoried roadless areas. Hence, protection of 
these areas is excluded from proposed Sec. 294.12 and, as noted in 
subsequent discussion, the decision of whether to prohibit road 
construction is deferred until 2004, as provided in proposed paragraph 
294.13 (e).
    Proposed paragraph (d) would permit maintenance activities for 
classified roads included in an inventoried roadless area; however, 
reconstruction that would expand road size or use beyond the current 
level would not be permitted. The responsible official is expected to 
apply a science-based roads analysis when determining whether an 
unclassified road is needed for long-term management of National Forest 
System lands and should be classified and maintained.

Proposed Sec. 294.13--Consideration of Roadless Area Conservation 
During Forest Plan Revision

    This section of the proposed rule would require that the 
responsible official evaluate the quality and importance of the 
roadless area characteristics and determine whether and how the 
characteristics should be protected in the context of overall multiple-
use objectives during forest plan revision. Under the Forest and 
Rangeland Renewable Resources Planning Act of 1974, as amended by the 
National Forest Management Act of 1976 (NFMA), the Secretary of 
Agriculture is required to ``develop, maintain, and, as appropriate, 
revise land and resource management plans for units of the National 
Forest System'' (16 U.S.C. 1604(a)). Land and resource management plans 
(also referred to as forest plans), in large part, furnish overall 
programmatic guidance for the management of individual national forests 
and grasslands. An approved land and resource management plan is the 
product of a comprehensive notice and comment process, which was 
established by Congress in the National Forest Management Act (NFMA). 
The land and resource management plan provides direction to ensure 
coordination of multiple uses (such as, outdoor recreation, range, 
timber, watershed, wildlife and fish, and wilderness) and the sustained 
yield of products and services (16 U.S.C. 1604(e)).
    Forest plan approval, amendment, and revision does not authorize, 
fund, or carry out any projects, unless specifically addressed in the 
document that discloses the decision. Projects are implemented through 
project-level, site-specific decisions, which are analyzed and 
disclosed to the public. The proposed rule would not alter this staged 
decisionmaking system for forest planning and project decisionmaking. 
However, the proposed rule would no doubt influence decisions made at 
each stage by requiring the consideration of roadless values and 
characteristics in the forest planning process. The prohibition against 
road construction and reconstruction in inventoried roadless areas, as 
described in proposed paragraph 294.12 (a), would establish a 
constraint on local decisionmaking, whether at the planning or project 
decisionmaking stage with respect to these areas. In contrast, the 
language in proposed Sec. 294.13 imposes no specific, substantive 
constraint on local decisionmaking, but does add additional 
considerations at the time of the revision of forest plans. These 
supplemental requirements do not alter the forest planning and project 
decisionmaking processes.
    Currently, all national forests and grasslands operate under land 
and resource management plans developed under the existing forest 
planning regulations at part 219 of title 36 of the Code of Federal 
Regulations. Plans are changed by revision and amendment. The National 
Forest Management Act requires revision of plans at least every 15 
years, although revision may occur whenever circumstances affecting the 
entire plan area or major portions of the plan have changed 
significantly.
    Proposed paragraph (a) provides that, during plan revision, the 
responsible official must evaluate the quality and importance of 
specified roadless area characteristics. Proposed paragraph (b) (1) 
would require that the evaluation be applied to the unroaded portions 
of inventoried roadless areas to determine whether additional 
management restrictions, over and above those required in proposed 
paragraph 294.12 (a), are appropriate. Proposed paragraph (b) (2) of 
this section sets out criteria for selecting other unroaded areas to be 
considered. At the time of forest plan revision, the responsible 
official must determine what unroaded areas are of a sufficient size, 
shape, and location to merit review. It is not the intent of the agency 
to create a situation where all unroaded areas, or areas of a certain 
size, must be mapped. The agency believes that the method of selection 
or delineation of unroaded areas for evaluation under Sec. 294.13 (b) 
(2) is best left to the local official's judgment.
    Proposed paragraphs (c) and (d) state that, following the 
evaluation of characteristics required in paragraph (a), the 
responsible official must determine, in the context of overall 
multiple-use objectives, whether and, if so, how the characteristics 
should be protected. Proposed paragraphs 294.13 (c) and (d) are set out 
in separate paragraphs to clarify that the requirement to determine 
whether the characteristics merit protection applies to the unroaded 
portions of inventoried roadless areas, in addition to the prohibitions 
in Sec. 294.12, as well as to other unroaded areas. During plan 
revision, responsible officials would be required to evaluate the 
characteristics in the unroaded portions of inventoried roadless areas 
to determine whether additional protection is warranted over and above 
the prohibition on new roads. In addition, with respect to other 
unroaded areas, as identified in paragraph (b) (2), the responsible 
official must select areas in which the characteristics merit 
protection.

[[Page 30281]]

    Proposed paragraph (e) identifies special review provisions for the 
Tongass National Forest. The responsible official would determine 
whether the prohibitions and provisions of paragraphs (a), (b), and (d) 
of Sec. 294.12 should apply to any or all of the unroaded portions of 
inventoried roadless areas on the Tongass National Forest. In making 
that determination, the responsible official must consider, among other 
things, the provisions of section 101 of the Tongass Timber Reform Act. 
This section, amending Section 705 of the Alaska National Interest 
Lands Conservation Act, requires the agency to seek to provide a supply 
of timber from the Tongass National Forest that meets market demand, 
consistent with providing for the multiple use and sustained yield of 
all renewable resources, subject to appropriations, other applicable 
laws, and requirements of the National Forest Management Act of 1976. 
The responsible official's evaluation would be conducted in association 
with the 5-year review (beginning in April, 2004) of the April 1999 
Tongass Land and Resource Management Plan, pursuant to 36 CFR 219 
(10)(g). A forest plan amendment or revision would be initiated, 
including full opportunity for public involvement, if the responsible 
official determines that some or all of the inventoried roadless areas 
on the Tongass National Forest merit the protection provided by section 
294.12.
    Proposed paragraph (f) is intended to clarify that nothing in this 
section requires or allows a responsible official to overrule the 
Sec. 294.12 prohibition on road construction or reconstruction in 
inventoried roadless areas during plan revision. The prohibitions 
established in proposed Sec. 294.12 are permanent limitations, which 
may only be changed through rulemaking, not through forest plan 
amendment or revision.
    The agency has identified eight broad characteristics of roadless 
areas.

Proposed Roadless Characteristics

    (1) Soil, water, and air. These three key resources are the 
foundation upon which other resource values and outputs depend. Healthy 
watersheds provide clean water for domestic, agricultural, and 
industrial uses; help maintain abundant and healthy fish and wildlife 
populations; and are the basis for many forms of outdoor recreation. 
Healthy watersheds provide a steady flow of high quality water, 
maintain an adequate supply of water, and reduce flooding. Managing 
land uses to keep watersheds properly functioning and in natural 
balance is critical to maintaining watershed health and productivity. 
Roadless areas generally have attributes that promote watershed health, 
primarily because minimal ground-disturbing activities have occurred. 
Ground disturbing activities can accelerate erosion, increase sediment 
yields, and disrupt normal flow processes. Roadless areas maintain 
healthy and productive soils, which promote water entry into aquifers, 
minimize accelerated runoff, and provide for a diverse and abundant 
plant community important to both human and animal health. Roadless 
areas are less likely to suffer from human-caused landslides and other 
soil movement that fill streams with sediment and debris and disrupt 
normal stream processes. Roadless areas also have less dust and vehicle 
emissions, which reduce air quality, elevate human health risks, and 
diminish water quality. Roadless areas help maintain the high quality 
visibility that forest users seek when visiting the national forests.
    (2) Sources of public drinking water. National Forest System lands 
contain watersheds that are important sources of public drinking water. 
Careful management of these watersheds is crucial in maintaining the 
flow of clean, cool water to a growing population. While some land 
management activities are already restricted in designated municipal 
watersheds, multiple-use management is a common practice in most 
watersheds that serve as source areas for public drinking water. 
Allowing management activities that promote roadless characteristics 
while minimizing activities that increase pollution risk are critical 
steps in protecting public drinking water sources and in saving local 
communities the financial burden of the additional water filtration and 
treatment costs.
    (3) Diversity of plant and animal communities. The diversity of 
plant and animal communities and the overall biodiversity supported by 
these areas represent an important part of the nation's natural 
heritage. Unroaded areas are more likely than roaded areas to support 
greater ecosystem health, including the diversity of native and desired 
non-native plant and animal communities, due to the absence of 
disturbances caused by roads and accompanying activities. Healthy 
ecosystems can be characterized by the degree to which ecological 
factors and their interactions are reasonably complete and functioning 
for continued resilience, productivity, and renewal of the ecosystem. 
Native plant and animal communities tend to be more intact in these 
less disturbed areas. Roadless areas also conserve native biodiversity, 
by providing a buffer against the spread of invasive species.
    Conserving biodiversity offers many benefits to society. The public 
has recognized the importance of protecting species and ecosystems for 
their utilitarian, subsistence, and intrinsic values. Important 
benefits provided by healthy ecosystems, with diverse organisms and 
intact natural processes, include: (1) conservation of air, water, and 
soil quality and (2) sustainable levels of goods and services, 
including viable and desired levels of both game and non-game species. 
In addition to these important reasons for maintaining healthy 
ecosystems with a full component of biodiversity, many species are 
valuable for medicinal and agricultural purposes.
    Protecting and maintaining biodiversity also provides the 
opportunity for the appreciation and enjoyment of natural beauty and 
gives future generations the chance to experience wild places, with 
their unique living plant and animal communities.
    (4) Habitat for threatened, endangered, proposed, candidate, and 
sensitive species and for those species dependent on large, undisturbed 
areas of land. Roadless areas function as biological strongholds and 
refuges for many species. These areas help to maintain native species 
viability and biodiversity. Based on scientific estimates, over 500 
United States species are known, or are suspected, to be extinct. Of 
the nation's species currently listed as threatened, endangered, or 
proposed for listing under the Endangered Species Act, approximately 25 
percent of animal species and 15 percent of plant species are likely to 
have habitat within inventoried roadless areas in the National Forest 
System. Many of these areas, individually and cumulatively, play an 
important role in maintaining habitat that provides for species 
viability and biological diversity, and may be instrumental in 
preserving many threatened, endangered or sensitive species.
    (5) Primitive, semi-primitive non-motorized, and semi-primitive 
motorized classes of dispersed recreation. In roadless areas, people 
have the opportunity to enjoy unique recreational experiences that are 
usually not available in more developed areas. These opportunities 
include the chance to experience renewal, isolation, independence, and 
closeness to nature in mostly undisturbed settings. The Forest Service 
manages environmental settings to provide, among other things, 
opportunities for recreational

[[Page 30282]]

experiences. The Recreation Opportunity Spectrum (ROS Users Guide, FSM 
2311 and FSH 2309.27) was developed to provide a framework for 
classifying and defining segments of outdoor recreational environments, 
potential activities, and experiential opportunities.
    The Recreation Opportunity Spectrum's settings, activities, and 
opportunities represent a continuum that is divided into six classes: 
primitive, semi-primitive non-motorized, semi-primitive motorized, 
roaded natural, rural, and urban. Inventoried roadless and other 
unroaded areas are characterized mainly by the primitive, semi-
primitive non-motorized, and semi-primitive motorized classes.
    Primitive and semi-primitive non-motorized classes often have many 
wilderness attributes; however, unlike wilderness, the use of mountain 
bikes and other mechanized means of travel, such as those used by 
people with disabilities, can be permitted. In addition, these classes 
have fewer restrictions on motorized tools, search and rescue 
operations, and aircraft use than in wilderness areas.
    In semi-primitive motorized settings, there is little evidence of 
managerial control, yet these areas allow some motorized activities, 
such as: off-highway vehicle, over-snow vehicle, motorboat, and 
helicopter use; chainsaw and other motorized tool use; and appropriate 
motor vehicle use for other resource management activities. In 
addition, persons with disabilities have enhanced access capability in 
semi-primitive motorized class areas.
    Inventoried roadless and other unroaded areas may provide 
outstanding opportunities for other dispersed recreational activities, 
such as hiking, fishing, camping, hunting, picnicking, wildlife 
viewing, cross-country skiing, and canoeing. All of these activities 
and those mentioned for the semi-primitive motorized class may occur in 
areas on the developed end of the spectrum, but the experience is 
different. Roaded natural, rural, and urban classes are characterized 
by increased interactions with other people, more sights and sounds of 
human development and activity, more management restrictions and 
controls, and more landscape modification resulting from resource 
management activities.
    Inventoried roadless and other unroaded areas are the last 
remaining relatively undisturbed landscapes outside of wilderness and 
similarly designated areas. The demand for motorized and non-motorized 
recreation opportunities is increasing. As these lands continue to be 
developed, the supply of unroaded lands that are available for 
dispersed recreation is reduced.
    (6) Reference landscapes. An objective on National Forest System 
lands is to create and maintain sustainable ecosystems that can support 
human needs indefinitely. To reach that goal, both human and ecological 
processes and their interactions must be understood. The body of 
knowledge about the effects of management activities over long periods 
of time and on large landscapes is very limited. However, there is an 
increasing emphasis on the importance of obtaining information about 
large-scale ecological patterns, processes, and the impact of 
management activities.
    Reference landscapes can provide comparison areas for evaluation 
and monitoring. These areas provide a natural setting that may be 
useful as a comparison to study the effects of more intensely managed 
areas.
    Reference areas are not intended to exclude all management 
activities. The management approach used for these lands should be 
directed by the assessment of local conditions and the questions and 
solutions sought by scientists, managers, and the public. For example, 
reference areas may provide useful long-term information about 
approaches to restoring historical fire regimes and fuel loads in the 
intermountain West. In this case, various management scenarios can be 
applied: some areas may be allowed to burn only by wildland fire, some 
allowed to use prescribed fire, others allowed a combination of 
thinning and prescribed fire, and yet still other areas selected for 
fire suppression. By applying various management scenarios, the agency 
may better understand how to more effectively manage healthy diverse 
ecosystems.
    (7) Landscape character and scenic integrity. High quality scenery, 
especially scenery with natural-appearing landscapes, is a primary 
reason that people choose to recreate. In addition, quality scenery 
contributes directly to real estate values in neighboring communities 
and residential areas.
    Scenic quality is based on two definable elements--landscape 
character and scenic integrity. ``Landscape character'' is the overall 
visual impression of landscape attributes that provides a landscape 
with an identity and sense of place. It consists of the combination of 
physical, biological, and cultural attributes that makes each landscape 
identifiable and distinct. ``Scenic integrity'' is a measure of the 
wholeness or completeness of the visual landscape, including the degree 
of deviation from the overall landscape character. A landscape that is 
perceived to have minimal to no deviation from its natural landscape is 
rated as very high or high scenic integrity. Those landscapes that are 
heavily altered may have low to very low scenic integrity.
    The scenic integrity of landscapes in inventoried roadless areas 
and other unroaded areas is generally high. However, altered 
landscapes, which exist in some of these areas due to activities such 
as mining, timber harvesting, grazing, and special uses, tend to have 
lower levels of scenic integrity.
    (8) Traditional cultural properties and sacred sites. Traditional 
cultural properties are places, sites, structures, art, or objects that 
have played an important role in the cultural history of a group. 
Sacred sites are places that have special religious significance to a 
group. Traditional cultural properties and sacred sites may be eligible 
for protection under the National Historic Preservation Act. However, 
many of them have not yet been inventoried, especially those that occur 
in roadless areas.
    Roadless areas may have traditional cultural properties and sacred 
sites, which are in a relatively unaltered state, thereby, maintaining 
their original character. There is reduced opportunity for vandalism, 
human disturbance, and unintended damage to these properties and sites 
in roadless areas because of the lack of disturbance in those areas.
    Roadless areas also enhance the ability of groups to continue 
customary uses of traditional cultural properties and sacred sites. For 
example, many sacred sites are used by Native Americans for ceremonial 
purposes. These ceremonies may require privacy, which is possible due 
to the relative remoteness of roadless areas.
    (9) Other locally identified unique characteristics. This optional 
provision is proposed to provide local officials, in partnership with 
interested members of the public, the opportunity to identify 
characteristics that are unique to a specific area. Inventoried 
roadless areas and other unroaded areas may offer unique 
characteristics and values, which are not covered by the other 
characteristics. Examples of additional characteristics might be 
uncommon geological formations, which are valued for their scientific 
and scenic qualities, or unique wetland complexes. While some of the 
unique characteristics may only have local importance, others could 
have regional or even global

[[Page 30283]]

significance, such as roadless areas that provide important stopover 
spots for long-ranging migratory birds. Such unique areas may become 
increasingly important, as other areas are developed.
    Roadless areas may have unique social, cultural, or historical 
characteristics, which are dependent on the roadless character of the 
landscape. Examples of these characteristics include ceremonial sites, 
places for local events, areas prized for collection of non-timber 
forest products, exceptional hunting and fishing opportunities, or 
areas of historic significance.
    In addition, the national requirement to evaluate characteristics 
of roadless areas, would safeguard many of the social values that are 
associated with those characteristics. These social values include: (1) 
the quality of human health through such actions as protecting air and 
water quality; (2) experiential values, such as appreciation of scenic 
beauty, solitude, and attachment to places or historical or cultural 
sites; (3) natural areas used for scientific research and teaching; and 
(4) other aspects, such as valuing the natural areas for their own sake 
or desiring to leave a legacy for future generations.

Proposed Sec. 294.14--Scope and Applicability

    If the proposed rule is adopted, it would apply prospectively, not 
retroactively. This provision is essential to avoid disruption and 
confusion among Forest Service officials and the public. Any project or 
activity decision signed prior to the effective date of the final 
regulation would be allowed, but not required, to proceed. The date of 
the responsible official's record of decision, decision notice, or 
decision memorandum would be the authorization date.
    Furthermore, road construction or reconstruction associated with 
ongoing implementation of long-term special use authorizations would 
not be prohibited. For example, all activities anticipated in an 
authorized ski area's master plan, including associated road 
construction, would not be barred even if a specific decision 
authorizing road construction has not been made as of the effective 
date of the final regulation. Subsequent authorizations would remain 
subject to all applicable laws, regulations, and permit requirements. 
Requests to expand permitted use would be subject to the prohibition in 
Sec. 294.12.
    The proposed regulation also clarifies that forest plan amendments 
would not be required when the final rule becomes effective. Just as 
development and approval of forest plans must conform to existing laws 
and regulations, forest plan management direction can be superseded by 
new laws or regulations. The Forest Service believes that requiring 
``conforming amendments'' to forest plans would be redundant of the 
rulemaking process.
    Local responsible officials' discretion to initiate land and 
resource management plan amendments, as deemed necessary, would not be 
limited by this provision. There may be instances where local officials 
elect to initiate amendment or revision of forest and grassland plans 
following final promulgation of this rule. Forest Service officials 
have several mechanisms that allow for evaluation of forest and 
grassland plan implementation, including plan-specific monitoring 
requirements, the 5-year review, the amendment and revision process, 
and, of course, project-level decisionmaking. A determination to amend 
or revise a land and resource management plan is based on a variety of 
factors. Forest Supervisors and Regional Foresters have substantial 
discretion in determining whether or not to initiate plan amendments or 
revisions.

Summary

    The Forest Service believes that it is important to protect the 
roadless characteristics of unroaded areas within the context of its 
multiple-use mandate. The agency seeks to protect these characteristics 
in two ways. First, the proposed rule proposes to place a national 
prohibition on road construction or reconstruction in inventoried 
roadless areas. Second, responsible officials would be required to 
consider and evaluate the characteristics of all roadless areas, 
including inventoried areas and smaller or uninventoried areas, in the 
context of forest plan revisions. Although the proposed rule emphasizes 
the importance of the characteristics of unroaded areas, it does not 
propose to direct local managers to reach particular results. Rather, 
it is intended to allow them the flexibility to consider the values of 
these areas in the larger context of multiple-use management. The 
Forest Service invites written comments on both the draft environmental 
impact statement and the proposed rule and will consider those comments 
in developing the final environmental impact statement and the final 
rule. The final rule will be published in the Federal Register.

Regulatory Impact

    This proposed rule has been reviewed under USDA procedures and 
Executive Order 12866 on Regulatory Planning and Review. The Office of 
Management and Budget (OMB) has determined that this is a significant 
rule as defined by Executive Order 12866 because of the level of public 
interest expressed in response to the notice of intent to prepare a 
draft environmental impact statement. Accordingly, OMB has reviewed 
this proposed rule. A cost-benefit analysis has been prepared and is 
summarized in the following discussion.

Summary of the Results of the Cost-benefit Analysis

    The agency has conducted a cost-benefit analysis on the impact of 
this proposed rulemaking. Table 2 presents the costs and benefits that 
the agency was able to quantify or qualitatively describe. The agency 
is soliciting public comment on all categories of costs and benefits 
and welcomes information to further describe these effects. Comments 
containing specific data to support estimates of potential costs and 
benefits will be most useful and are more likely to be incorporated 
into the agency's final cost-benefit analysis. The agency will make a 
reasonable effort to further pursue estimating the costs and benefits 
of this rulemaking, and will use the information gained in public 
comment to finalize the cost-benefit analysis to the extent feasible 
and appropriate.
    Few of the benefits and costs associated with the proposed rule 
were quantifiable, and; therefore, many of the costs and benefits are 
described qualitatively. Although the analysis does not provide a 
quantitative measure of net benefits, the agency believes the benefits 
of the rule, as proposed, would outweigh the costs. Local level 
analysis cannot easily incorporate the economic effects associated with 
nationally significant issues. Therefore, the agency believes the 
aggregate transactions costs (costs associated with the time and effort 
needed to make decisions) of local level decisions would be much higher 
than the transactions costs of a national policy, because of the 
controversy surrounding roadless area management.
    Most of the benefits of the rule result from maintaining roadless 
areas in their current state, and therefore maintaining the current 
stream of benefits from these areas. The costs are primarily associated 
with lost opportunities, since the proposed rule, if finalized as 
proposed, would limit some types of activities that might have occurred 
in the future without this rule. Table 2 summarizes the potential 
benefits and costs of the rule, as proposed. The benefits and costs, 
described in Table 2, are associated with the requirement to

[[Page 30284]]

prohibit road construction and reconstruction in the approximately 43 
million acres of unroaded inventoried roadless areas.

Potential Benefits of the Prohibition on Road Construction

    Undisturbed landscapes provide a variety of monetary and non-
monetary benefits to the public. Many of these benefits are associated 
with the protection of ecological, social, and economic values in 
roadless areas.
    Air and water quality would be maintained at a higher level than at 
the baseline (current management conditions). Higher water quality 
provides a higher level of protection for drinking water sources, 
reduces treatment costs at downstream facilities, and maintains the 
value of water-based recreation activities. Higher air quality protects 
values associated with visibility, including recreation and adjacent 
private property values.
    A greater degree of protection of biological diversity and 
threatened and endangered species would occur if roads were prohibited 
in inventoried roadless areas as opposed to the baseline. As a result, 
ecological values would be maintained. Passive use values related to 
the existence of biological diversity and threatened and endangered 
species would be maintained, as well as values associated with 
protecting these areas for future generations.
    A number of other benefits are associated with maintaining healthy 
wildlife and fish populations at a level higher than at the baseline. 
Some game species are likely to benefit from this protection, which 
would maintain quality hunting and fishing experiences both within the 
unroaded portions of inventoried roadless areas and beyond. Other types 
of recreation experiences, such as wildlife viewing, also would 
benefit.
    Roadless areas are important in providing remote recreation 
opportunities. A greater number of acres in these recreation settings 
would be maintained than at the baseline. Remote areas are also 
important settings for many outfitter and guide services. Maintaining 
these areas increases the ability of the agency to accommodate 
additional demand for these types of recreation special use 
authorizations.
    Roadless areas provide a remote recreation experience without the 
activity restrictions of wilderness use (for example, off-highway 
vehicle use and mountain biking). Maintaining roadless areas would 
likely lessen pressure on wilderness areas compared to the baseline.
    The risk of introducing non-native invasive species would be 
reduced if road access were not available. This is beneficial to 
grazing permittees with allotments in roadless areas, and to collectors 
of non-timber forest products because forage quality and quantity, and 
forest products that cannot compete with invasive species would be 
maintained. The reduced probability of introduction would also be 
beneficial to forest health in inventoried roadless areas, and would 
contribute to the maintenance of biological diversity.
    Some planned timber sales into the unroaded portions of inventoried 
roadless areas would likely be below cost. To the extent that these 
sales would not take place, a financial efficiency savings would be 
realized.
    Implementing the rule, as proposed, could result in agency cost 
savings. First, local appeals and litigation about some management 
activities in roadless areas could be reduced, which would avoid future 
costs. Secondly, the reduction in miles of roads constructed would 
reduce the number of miles the agency is responsible for maintaining, 
resulting in avoiding up to an additional $565,000 per year of costs.

Potential Costs of the Prohibition on Road Construction

    The prohibition on road construction and reconstruction would 
reduce roaded access to resources within the unroaded portions of 
inventoried roadless areas compared to the baseline. Roads are required 
for most timber sales to be economically feasible. For those sales that 
are financially profitable, the proposed rule would reduce net 
revenues. In addition to lost revenue, there would be fewer jobs (250 
direct timber jobs) and less income ($11.7 million in timber-related 
labor income per year) generated from timber harvest.
    Receipts from timber sales would also decline, which would reduce 
payments to states by about $1.4 million per year. Jobs associated with 
road construction and reconstruction for timber harvest and other 
activities would also be less than at the baseline. Somewhere between 6 
and 32 direct jobs could be affected by reduced road construction and 
reconstruction.
    The impact on mineral resources is expected to be greatest for 
leasable (such as oil, gas, coal, and geothermal) and saleable (such as 
sand, gravel, stone, and pumice) minerals, since development might not 
be economically feasible without road access. The agency also has more 
management discretion regarding whether to allow access to these 
commodities than locatables (metallic and nonmetallic minerals on 
public domain land). Exploration costs for locatable minerals may 
increase under the restrictions of this rule as well. The increase in 
exploration and development costs may reduce the number of leases 
relative to the baseline, which reduces the number of jobs, income, and 
payments to states associated with these activities. In the near term 
the impact is expected to be minimal, since there has been limited 
industry interest in most leasables on National Forest System lands.
    New roads have the potential to reduce operating costs for other 
users, for example, grazing permittees and collectors of non-timber 
forest products by allowing faster and easier access. These potential 
cost reductions would not be realized if road construction is 
prohibited. However, it is unknown whether planned roads would in fact 
be useful to these groups, since their proximity to grazing allotments 
and desirable products is unknown.
    New roads built for other purposes also provide additional access 
for recreationists, including hunters and anglers. The agency builds 
few roads for recreation purposes, and this pattern is unlikely to 
change. However, the costs imposed on these groups by not building new 
roads would be minimal, since the agency would close most of the roads 
built for resource extraction once the extraction is complete. 
Therefore, the number of road miles that would be available for 
recreational or other uses would be small.
    Opportunities for some types of recreation special uses may be 
limited in the future. Developed recreation use and roaded recreation 
uses in general are likely to occur at higher densities than under the 
baseline, since expansion into the unroaded portions of inventoried 
roadless areas would not occur. However, this expansion would be a 
small area in any particular year. The development of new ski areas 
would be unlikely.
    Other, non-recreation special uses may be limited in the future as 
well. Such special uses include communication sites, and energy-related 
transmission uses (such as ditches and pipelines, and electric 
transmission lines).
    Fewer acres of inventoried roadless areas would likely be treated 
for forest health purposes. Most moderate and high risk forests in 
inventoried roadless areas would be given a low priority for treatment, 
unless there was an imminent threat to public safety, private property, 
water quality, or threatened and endangered species. The change in the 
number of acres that potentially would be treated is small relative to 
the

[[Page 30285]]

total acres at risk, but there could be a slight increase in the risk 
from catastrophic fire or insect and disease from reduced treatment 
opportunities.
    Agency costs would increase compared to the baseline for some types 
of activities. Fuel treatment and other forest health treatment costs 
in the unroaded portions of inventoried roadless areas would increase.
    The goods and services that could not be produced on the unroaded 
portions of inventoried roadless areas without road construction are 
likely to be produced either on other parts of National Forest System 
lands, or on other lands. Substitute production could result in adverse 
environmental effects on these other lands.

Potential Costs and Benefits of the Requirement to Consider Roadless 
Characteristics

    The procedural provisions in the proposed rule do not directly 
implement or prohibit any ground-disturbing activity. The procedures 
are designed to give local decision-makers direction in design and 
implementation of local projects. The exact location and acreage of 
each potentially affected area is unknown. The procedural provisions 
would be applied to the 54 million acres of inventoried roadless areas, 
as well as up to 95 million acres of other National Forest System 
lands. The procedures would add about $11 million to planning costs 
over the next 5-15 years.
    Since individual project proposals and local roadless 
characteristics are highly variable, estimating associated benefits and 
costs of implementing procedures would be speculative. Since it is 
reasonable to assume that the proposed procedural requirements would 
reinforce the effects achieved by the proposed requirements to prohibit 
road construction and reconstruction and that the procedural 
requirements would apply to a greater area than inventoried roadless 
areas, the economic effects are likely to be somewhat greater than the 
effects described by resource area.

  Table 2.--Summary of Costs and Benefits of the Prohibition on Road Construction in the Proposed Roadless Area
                   Conservation Rule Compared to Continuation of Current Management Practices
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
                        Category                                            Assessment method
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Potential Benefits:
    Air quality maintained at higher level in roadless   Qualitative discussion.
     and unroaded areas.
    Water quality maintained at higher level in          Qualitative discussion.
     roadless and unroaded areas.
    Larger land base for dispersed recreation            Qualitative discussion.
     activities in remote settings in roadless and
     unroaded areas.
    Quality of fishing and hunting maintained at higher  Qualitative discussion.
     level for recreation, commercial, and subsistence
     users in roadless and unroaded areas.
    Forage quality for livestock grazing and some non-   Qualitative discussion.
     timber forest products maintained at higher level
     due to smaller probability of introduction of non-
     native invasive species.
    Existence and bequest values maintained at higher    Qualitative discussion.
     levels because of increased protection of
     biological diversity and threatened and endangered
     species..
    Agency costs savings from reduced appeals and        Qualitative discussion.
     litigation on roadless management.
    Agency cost savings of up to $565,000 per year from  Agency estimate based on previous expenditures.
     reduced road maintenance costs.
Potential Costs:
    Fewer timber related jobs: about 250 direct and 480  Agency estimate using TSPIRS 1 data and IMPLAN 2 model
     total jobs.                                          multipliers.
    Less timber related income per year: $11.7 million   Agency estimate using TSPIRS data and IMPLAN 2 model
     direct income and $21 million total income.          multipliers.
    Less timber-related payments to states, up to $1.4   Agency estimate using TSPIRS data and National Forest
     million per year.                                    Fund receipts data.
    Fewer jobs associated with road construction,        Agency estimate using previous expenditures and IMPLAN
     ranging from 6-36 jobs.                              model multipliers.
    Increased exploration and development costs for      Qualitative discussion.
     leasable minerals (such as oil, gas, coal,
     geothermal).
    Increased exploration costs for locatable minerals   Qualitative discussion.
     (metallic or nonmetallic minerals).
    Increased exploration costs for saleable minerals    Qualitative discussion.
     (such as sand, stone, gravel, pumice).
    Increased operating costs for grazing permittees     Qualitative discussion.
     and collectors of non-timber products.
    Reduced opportunities for roaded recreation........  Qualitative discussion.
    Decline in special-use authorizations (such as       Qualitative discussion.
     communications sites, electric transmission lines,
     pipelines).
    Fewer opportunities for forest health treatments...  Qualitative discussion.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1 TSPIRS is the Forest Service's Timber Sales Program Information Reporting System.
2 IMPLAN (Impact Analysis for Planning) is the input-output model used by the Forest Service.

Summary of the Results of the Initial Regulatory Flexibility 
Analysis

    For any agency that is subject to the notice and comment 
requirements of 5 U.S.C. 553 or any other law, the Regulatory 
Flexibility Act (5 U.S.C. 601 et seq.) directs that the agency prepare 
and make available for public comment an initial regulatory flexibility 
analysis. If the agency determines that the rulemaking will not have a 
significant impact on a substantial number of small entities, the 
initial regulatory flexibility analysis requirement does not apply, but 
the agency must make a certification of no significant impact.
    The Forest Service expects that this roadless area conservation 
rulemaking will not have a significant impact on a substantial number 
of small entities, as defined by the Regulatory Flexibility Act (RFA). 
Moreover, because the proposed rule does not directly regulate small 
entities, the Forest Service does not believe that an initial 
regulatory

[[Page 30286]]

flexibility analysis is required. Nevertheless, given the significant 
public interest in the rulemaking and the comment received on this 
specific issue during the scoping process, the agency has prepared an 
initial regulatory flexibility analysis. Public comment is invited on 
the initial regulatory flexibility analysis, a summary of which 
follows. The full analysis is available upon request by calling the 
telephone number noted in the FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT section 
of this document and on the world wide web at roadless.fs.fed.us/.
    Data for linking the proposed rule to effects on small businesses 
is limited. The agency does not typically collect information about the 
size of businesses that seek permission to operate on National Forest 
System lands.
    The rulemaking has the potential to affect a subset of small 
businesses that may seek opportunities on National Forest System lands 
in the future. The primary effect of the rule, when finalized, is the 
potential to affect the future supply of outputs or opportunities for 
businesses. The effect of the rulemaking on local governments is tied 
to any possible reductions in commodity outputs in cases where some 
portion of federal receipts is returned to the states for distribution 
to counties.
    Small businesses in the wood products sector most likely to be 
affected are logging and sawmill operations. Reductions in the harvest 
of softwood sawtimber, particularly in the western United States are 
most likely to affect small businesses, since these sectors are 
dominated by small business. With the exception of the Forest Service 
Intermountain Region (Utah, Nevada, western Wyoming, and southern 
Idaho), reductions in harvest are estimated to range from less than 1 
percent to 2 percent. The reduction in the Intermountain Region is 
estimated to be 8 percent.
    Small businesses in the mineral sector most likely to be affected 
are businesses that develop saleable minerals such as sand and gravel, 
and leasable minerals such as oil, gas, and coal. The prohibition on 
road construction and reconstruction could reduce opportunities in the 
future to develop mineral commodities that cannot be extracted without 
road access. Small businesses are more likely to be involved in the 
development of saleable minerals, and less likely to be involved in 
development of energy minerals.
    The potential effects on small businesses involved in livestock 
grazing and the collection of non-timber forest products are expected 
to be negligible. There will be fewer roads available for their future 
use under the proposed rule, but the number of miles is minor compared 
to the entire National Forest System road system.
    Special use authorizations on National Forest System land could be 
affected by the proposed rule, if road access is required. Most of the 
special uses potentially affected are dominated by large businesses, 
such as businesses in communication, electric services, gas production 
and distribution, and resort development. Small businesses with 
outfitter and guide permits are expected to benefit from the proposed 
rule, since these businesses are often dependent on providing services 
to recreation users interested in remote recreation activities that are 
often found in inventoried roadless and other unroaded areas.
    The proposed rule is also likely to affect small governments that 
qualify as small entities. Many small communities around National 
Forest System lands receive a portion of receipts from commodity sales 
on National Forest System lands. A reduction in commodity production is 
likely to reduce revenues to these entities, although the estimated 
reduction is expected to be small in most regions. The estimated 
reduction in payments to states related to timber receipts would be 
about 1 to 2 percent, except in the Intermountain Region, where the 
reduction is estimated to be 8 percent.
    The agency is soliciting comment and information on the potential 
impacts that this proposed rule and the alternatives to this rule 
(detailed in the Draft Environmental Impact Statement) might have on 
small entities. (Pursuant to the Regulatory Flexibility Act, these 
entities include small businesses, small organizations, and small 
governmental jurisdictions.) The agency welcomes information on the 
number and types of small entities potentially impacted and the 
significance of these potential impacts, specifically information about 
potential costs, changes in revenue or prices, regional or community-
level impacts, and characteristics of the potentially impacted 
entities. The agency also welcomes suggestions from the public on how 
alternatives to this rule may minimize the impacts on small businesses. 
For more information on the agency's small entity impact analysis, 
including a list of specific questions on small entity impacts to which 
the agency is seeking responses from the public, please see the Initial 
Regulatory Flexibility Analysis, available at the website address 
listed under ADDRESSES or by calling the telephone number listed under 
the FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT sections of the preamble. The 
agency will use the information provided to make a determination on the 
regulatory flexibility analysis needed at the final rule stage.

Unfunded Mandates Reform

    Pursuant to Title II of the Unfunded Mandates Reform Act of 1995 (2 
U.S.C. 1531-1538), the Department has assessed the effects of this 
proposed rule on state, local, and tribal governments, and on the 
private sector. This proposed rule does not compel the expenditure of 
$100 million or more by any state, local, or tribal government, or 
anyone in the private sector. Therefore, a statement under section 202 
of the Act is not required.

Environmental Impact

    The agency has elected to prepare a draft environmental impact 
statement in concert with this proposed rule. This document may be 
obtained from various sources as indicated in the ADDRESSES section of 
this document. Reviewers are encouraged to include comments on the 
draft environmental impact statement along with any comments submitted 
on the proposed rule.

No Takings Implications

    This proposed rule has been reviewed for its impact on private 
property rights under Executive Order 12630. It has been determined 
that this proposed rule does not pose a risk of taking 
Constitutionally-protected private property; in fact, the proposed rule 
honors access to private property pursuant to statute and to 
outstanding or reserved rights.

Civil Justice Reform Act

    This proposed rule revision has been reviewed under Executive Order 
12988, Civil Justice Reform. The proposed revision: (1) Preempts all 
state and local laws and regulations that are found to be in conflict 
with or that would impede its full implementation; (2) does not 
retroactively affect existing permits, contracts, or other instruments 
authorizing the occupancy and use of National Forest System lands, and 
(3) does not require administrative proceedings before parties may file 
suit in court challenging these provisions.

Controlling Paperwork Burdens on the Public

    This proposed rule does not contain any recordkeeping or reporting 
requirements or other information collection requirements as defined in 
5 CFR Part 1320 and, therefore, imposes no paperwork burden on the 
public. Accordingly, the review provisions of the Paperwork Reduction 
Act of 1995

[[Page 30287]]

(44 U.S.C. 3501, et seq.) and implementing regulations at 5 CFR Part 
1320 do not apply.

Federalism

    The agency has considered this proposed rule under the requirements 
of Executive Order 12612 and has made a preliminary assessment that the 
proposed rule will not have substantial direct effects on the states, 
on the relationship between the national government and the states, or 
on the distribution of power and responsibilities among the various 
levels of government. Therefore, the agency has determined that no 
further assessment on federalism implications is necessary at this 
time. In addition, the agency has reviewed the consultation 
requirements under Executive Order 13132, effective November 2, 1999. 
This new Order calls for enhanced consultation with state and local 
government officials and emphasizes increased sensitivity to their 
concerns.
    In the spirit of these new requirements, Forest Service line 
officers in the field were asked to make contact with tribes to ensure 
awareness of the initiative and of the rulemaking process. Outreach to 
tribes has been conducted at the national forest and grassland level, 
which is how Forest Service government-to-government dialog with tribes 
is typically conducted.
    Outreach to state and local governments has taken place both in the 
field and Washington offices. Forest Service officials have contacted 
state and local governmental officials and staffs to explain the notice 
of intent and the rulemaking process. The agency has met with and 
responded to a variety of information requests from local officials and 
state organizations, such as the National Governors Association and the 
Western Governors Association.
    Also, the agency has carefully considered, in the development of 
this proposed rule, the comments received from states, tribes, and 
local governments in response to the Notice of Intent to Prepare an 
Environmental Impact Statement published October 19, 1999 (64 FR 
56306). Following publication of this proposed rule, the agency will 
meet with state, tribal, and local government officials to explain and 
clarify the proposed rule and the accompanying environmental impact 
statement. Finally, prior to adopting a final rule, the agency will 
consider the extent to which additional consultation is appropriate 
under Executive Order 13132.

Conclusion

    The Forest Service proposes to prohibit road construction in 
inventoried roadless areas with certain limited exceptions. In 
addition, the agency proposes to require responsible officials to 
consider and evaluate roadless characteristics at the time of forest 
plan revision. The Forest Service invites written comments and will 
consider those comments in developing the final rule that will be 
published in the Federal Register and in preparing the Final 
Environmental Impact Statement.

List of Subjects in 36 CFR Part 294

    National forests, Navigation (air), Recreation and recreation 
areas, Wilderness areas.

    For the reasons set forth in the preamble, the Forest Service 
proposes to amend Chapter II of Title 36 of the Code of Federal 
Regulations as follows:

PART 294--SPECIAL AREAS

    1. Designate Secs. 294.1 and 294.2 as subpart A and add a subpart 
heading to read as follows:

Subpart A--Special Areas

    2. Add subpart B to part 294 to read as follows:
Subpart B--Protection of Roadless Areas
Sec.
294.10   Purpose.
294.11   Definitions.
294.12   Prohibition on road construction and reconstruction in 
inventoried roadless areas.
294.13   Consideration of roadless area conservation during forest 
plan revision.
294.14   Scope and applicability.

    Authority: 16 U.S.C. 472, 551, 1131, 1608, 1613; 23 U.S.C. 201, 
205.

Subpart B--Protection of Roadless Areas


Sec. 294.10  Purpose.

    The purpose of this subpart is to provide lasting protection in the 
context of multiple-use management for inventoried roadless areas and 
other unroaded areas within the National Forest System.


Sec. 294.11  Definitions.

    The following definitions apply to this subpart:
    Inventoried roadless areas. Undeveloped areas typically exceeding 
5,000 acres that met the minimum criteria for wilderness consideration 
under the Wilderness Act and that were inventoried during the Forest 
Service's Roadless Area Review and Evaluation (RARE II) process, 
subsequent assessments, or forest planning. These areas are identified 
in a set of inventoried roadless area maps, contained in Forest Service 
Roadless Area Conservation, Draft Environmental Impact Statement, 
Volume 2, dated May 2000, which are held at the National headquarters 
office of the Forest Service.
    Responsible official. The Forest Service line officer with the 
authority and responsibility to make decisions regarding protection and 
management of inventoried roadless areas and other unroaded areas 
pursuant to this subpart.
    Road. A motor vehicle travelway over 50 inches wide, unless 
classified and managed as a trail. A road may be classified or 
unclassified.
    (1) Classified road. A road within the National Forest System 
planned or managed for motor vehicle access including state roads, 
county roads, private roads, permitted roads, and Forest Service roads.
    (2) Unclassified road. A road not intended to be part of, and not 
managed as part of, the forest transportation system, such as temporary 
roads, unplanned roads, off-road vehicle tracks, and abandoned 
travelways.
    Road construction. A capital improvement that results in the 
addition of new road miles to the forest transportation system.
    Road maintenance. The ongoing minor restoration and upkeep of a 
road necessary to retain the road's approved traffic service level.
    Road reconstruction. A capital improvement that requires the 
alteration or expansion of a road and usually results in realignment, 
improvement, or rebuilding as defined as follows:
    (1) Realignment. Construction activities that result in the new 
location of an existing road or portions of roads in order to expand 
its capacity, change its original design function, or increase its 
traffic service level. The investment may include decommissioning the 
abandoned sections of roadway.
    (2) Improvement. Construction activities that are needed to 
increase a road's traffic service level, expand its capacity, or change 
its original design function.
    (3) Rebuilding. Construction activities that are needed to restore 
a road to its approved traffic service level and that result in 
increasing its capacity or changing its original design function.
    Unroaded area. Any area, without the presence of a classified road, 
of a size and configuration sufficient to protect the inherent 
characteristics associated with its unroaded condition.
    Unroaded portion of an inventoried roadless area. A portion of an

[[Page 30288]]

inventoried roadless area in which no classified road has been 
constructed since the area was inventoried.


Sec. 294.12  Prohibition on road construction and reconstruction in 
inventoried roadless areas.

    (a) Roads may not be constructed or reconstructed in the unroaded 
portions of inventoried roadless areas of the National Forest System, 
except as provided in paragraphs (b) through (c) of this section. This 
prohibition covers classified and unclassified roads.
    (b) Notwithstanding the prohibition in paragraph (a) of this 
section, a road may be constructed or reconstructed in an inventoried 
roadless area if the responsible official determines that one of the 
following circumstances exists:
    (1) A road is needed to protect public health and safety in cases 
of an imminent threat of flood, fire, or other catastrophic event that, 
without intervention, would cause the loss of life or property;
    (2) A road is needed to conduct a response action under the 
Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act 
(CERCLA) or to conduct a natural resource restoration action under 
CERCLA (42 U.S.C. 9601, 9603, 9607, 9620), section 311 of the Clean 
Water Act (33 U.S.C. 1251, 1254, 1323, 1324, 1329, 1342, 1344), or the 
Oil Pollution Act (33 U.S.C. 2701 et seq.);
    (3) A road is needed pursuant to reserved or outstanding rights or 
as provided for by statute or treaty; or
    (4) Road realignment is needed to prevent irreparable resource 
damage by an existing road that is deemed essential for public or 
private access, management, or public health and safety, and such 
damage cannot be corrected by maintenance.
    (c) The prohibition in paragraph (a) of this section does not apply 
to the Tongass National Forest, except as provided for in 
Sec. 294.13(e).
    (d) The responsible official may maintain classified roads that 
were constructed in inventoried roadless areas prior to the effective 
date of this rule.


Sec. 294.13  Consideration of roadless area conservation during forest 
plan revision.

    (a) At the time of land and resource management plan revision, for 
the areas listed in paragraph (b) of this section, the responsible 
official must evaluate the quality and importance of the following 
characteristics:
    (1) Soil, water, and air;
    (2) Sources of public drinking water;
    (3) Diversity of plant and animal communities;
    (4) Habitat for threatened, endangered, proposed, candidate, and 
sensitive species and for those species dependent on large, undisturbed 
areas of land;
    (5) Primitive, semi-primitive non-motorized, and semi-primitive 
motorized classes of dispersed recreation;
    (6) Reference landscapes;
    (7) Landscape character and scenic integrity;
    (8) Traditional cultural properties and sacred sites; and
    (9) Other locally identified unique characteristics.
    (b) The evaluation of characteristics required in paragraph (a) of 
this section applies to the following areas:
    (1) The unroaded portions of inventoried roadless areas; and
    (2) Unroaded areas (other than inventoried roadless areas) that, in 
the judgment of the responsible official, are of a sufficient size, 
shape, and position within the landscape to reasonably achieve the 
long-term conservation of the characteristics in paragraph (a) of this 
section. Such areas may include those that provide important corridors 
for wildlife movement, or areas that share a common boundary of 
considerable length with an inventoried roadless area, with a component 
of the National Wild and Scenic River System, or with unroaded areas of 
5,000 acres or more on lands administered by Federal agencies. In 
selecting areas, the responsible official should consider the distance 
from, and the scarcity of, other unroaded areas, particularly for those 
areas east of the 100th meridian.
    (c) At the time of land and resource management plan revision, 
based on the evaluation required by paragraph (a) of this section, the 
responsible official must determine, in the context of overall-multiple 
use objectives, whether management protections, in addition to those 
set forth in Sec. 294.12, should apply to the unroaded portions of 
inventoried roadless areas.
    (d) At the time of land and resource management plan revision, 
based on the evaluation required by paragraph (a) of this section, the 
responsible official must determine with respect to unroaded areas, 
other than inventoried roadless areas, in the context of overall 
multiple-use objectives, which areas warrant protection and the level 
of protection to be afforded.
    (e) As part of the 5-year review of the April 1999 revised Tongass 
Land and Resource Management Plan pursuant to Sec. 219.10 (g) of this 
chapter, the responsible official must initiate an evaluation pursuant 
to paragraph (a) of this section for the unroaded portions of 
inventoried roadless areas in the Tongass National Forest and must 
determine whether the prohibitions and provisions in Sec. 294.12 (a), 
(b), and (d) should be applied to any or all of such inventoried 
roadless areas. In making that determination, the responsible official 
must consider the provisions of section 101 of the Tongass Timber 
Reform Act (Public Law 101-626, 104 Stat. 4426).
    (f) No provision in this section authorizes the responsible 
official to reconsider or set aside the prohibition established in 
Sec. 294.12.


Sec. 294.14  Scope and applicability.

    (a) This subpart does not suspend or modify any existing permit, 
contract, or other legal instrument authorizing the occupancy and use 
of National Forest System land.
    (b) This subpart does not compel the amendment or revision of any 
land and resource management plan.
    (c) This subpart does not suspend or modify any decision made prior 
to [Effective date of final rule].
    (d) If any provision of the regulations in this subpart or its 
application to any person or circumstances is held invalid, the 
remainder of the regulations in this subpart and their application 
remain in force.

    Dated: April 21, 2000.
Mike Dombeck,
Chief.
[FR Doc. 00-11304 Filed 5-9-00; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 3410-11-P