[Federal Register Volume 66, Number 13 (Friday, January 19, 2001)]
[Notices]
[Pages 5508-5509]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 01-1583]


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 Notices
                                                 Federal Register
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 This section of the FEDERAL REGISTER contains documents other than rules 
 or proposed rules that are applicable to the public. Notices of hearings 
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  Federal Register / Vol. 66, No. 13 / Friday, January 19, 2001 / 
Notices  

[[Page 5508]]



DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE

Forest Service


Information Collection; Request for Comments; Improve Management 
of the Tongass National Forest and Service to Southeast Alaska 
Residents

AGENCY: Forest Service, USDA.

ACTION: Notice.

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SUMMARY: In accordance with the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995, the 
Forest Service announces its intention to establish a new information 
collection. The collected information will help the Forest Service 
identify and meet the needs of southeast Alaska residents who use, 
visit, or benefit in other ways from the Tongass National Forest in 
southeast Alaska. Information will be collected from southeast Alaska 
residents.

DATES: Comments must be received in writing on or before March 20, 
2001.

ADDRESSES: All comments should be addressed to Robert F. Schroeder, 
Forestry Sciences Lab, Forest Service, USDA, 2770 Sherwood Lane, Suite 
2A, Juneau, AK 99801.
    Comments also may be submitted via facsimile to (907) 586-7848 or 
by email to: [email protected].
    The public may inspect comments received at the Office of the 
Forestry Sciences Lab, Forest Service, USDA, 2770 Sherwood Lane, Suite 
2A, Juneau, Alaska. Visitors are asked to call (907) 586-8811, 
extension 240, to facilitate entrance into the building.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Robert F. Schroeder, Forestry Sciences 
Lab, at (907) 586-8811, extension 240.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

Background

    The Tongass National Forest encompasses nearly 85 percent of the 
land in southeast Alaska, and activities conducted on the Forest form 
the basis for the regional economy. Commercial fishing, timber 
production, mineral extraction, and the quickly growing tourism 
industry depend on the renewable and non-renewable natural resources of 
this National Forest. The Forest Service completed a revision of the 
Tongass Land Management Plan in 1997 and published a revised Record of 
Decision in the Federal Register on May 11, 1999 (64 FR 25274). The 
Tongass Land Management Plan and Record of Decision will serve as a 
blueprint for how the Forest Service will manage the Tongass National 
Forest over the next 10 to 15 years.
    While revising the Tongass Land Management Plan in 1997, the Forest 
Service identified critical information needs. Some of these 
information needs were associated with the human component of Tongass 
National Forest ecosystems, that is the people and social systems that 
benefit from these ecosystems.
    The collected data, by addressing the human component, will provide 
the Forest Service with a better understanding of how forest management 
practices influence community well-being and social change within the 
southeast Alaska geographic area and will help the agency meet the 
needs of residents of southeast Alaska who are affected by forest 
management actions on a day-to-day basis.
    The agency will gain a better understanding of the demands that 
southeast Alaska residents make on the Tongass National Forest programs 
and services, how well information about agency programs and services 
are communicated to southeast Alaska residents, and how well the agency 
meets the needs and expectations of the residents of southeast Alaska.
    Forest Service personnel from the Pacific Northwest Research 
Station Forestry Sciences Lab in Juneau, Alaska, will work in 
cooperation with University of Alaska research staff to design, 
administer, and evaluate these surveys. Interviewers will conduct 
surveys by telephone. Persons interviewed will be asked to respond to 
questions that include their perceptions of how the Tongass National 
Forest is managed by the agency, their preferences for how this 
National Forest should be managed, their perceptions of Tongass 
National Forest ecosystems, their past and planned visits to the 
Tongass National Forest, their use of the forest's resources, their 
vision of the forest of the future, their household and community 
economic dependence on the forest, and their attitudes and values 
concerning timber management.
    University of Alaska and Forestry Sciences Lab scientists will 
tabulate the results from this information collection. The results will 
be available to the public and to State and Federal agencies in printed 
and electronic formats. The results also will be published in the 
Pacific Northwest Research Station's General Technical Report series 
and in referenced journals.
    This data collection will provide information on how southeast 
Alaska residents use the Tongass National Forest, the extent of their 
economic and subsistence reliance on the forest, and their attitudes 
and values concerning future management of the Tongass National Forest.

Description of Information Collection

    The following describes the information collection to be 
established:
    Title: The Tongass Southeast Alaska Resident Survey.
    OMB Number: New.
    Expiration Date of Approval: New.
    Type of Request: This is a new information collection requirement 
and has not yet received approval from the Office of Management and 
Budget.
    Abstract: The Forest Service, other Federal agencies, and the State 
of Alaska conducted a survey in 1979 to assess the interaction of the 
southeast Alaska residents with the Tongass National Forest. This 
survey also included the perceptions these residents had of the Tongass 
as a natural resource. The 1979 survey provided the most recent 
comprehensive information on southeast Alaska residents' subsistence 
and recreational use of the Tongass, their attitudes and values 
concerning the Tongass National Forest, their interest in the 
development of a regional timber economy, and their perceptions of 
Forest Service land management practices. This important benchmark 
survey is now 20 years old and may not be an accurate reflection of the 
views, perceptions, and activities of current southeast Alaska 
residents.
    This new information collection will provide more current data and 
will identify issues that have become important to the southeast Alaska 
residents in the intervening years.

[[Page 5509]]

Respondents also will be asked questions that relate to issues that 
were not important at the time of the 1979 survey. These issues include 
large scale timber harvesting on national forest and private lands; a 
large increase in tourist and recreational use of the Tongass National 
Forest; expansion of tourist use into back-country areas; economic 
restructuring of the area that is moving away from timber, mining, and 
commercial fishing toward tourism and service industries; and an 
increasing resident and visitor population competing for limited fish 
and wildlife resources.
    Forest Service personnel and University of Alaska research staff 
will conduct a random sample survey of southeast Alaska residents, 
through telephone interviews.
    Data gathered in this information collection are not available from 
other sources.
    Estimate of Annual Burden: 30 minutes per respondent.
    Type of Respondents: Individual residents of southeast Alaska 
communities.
    Estimated Annual Number of Respondents: 1600 per year.
    Estimated Annual Number of Responses per Respondent: 1.
    Estimated Total Annual Burden on Respondents: 800 hours.

Comment Is Invited

    The agency invites comments on the following: (a) Whether the 
proposed collection of information is necessary for the stated purposes 
and the proper performance of the functions of the agency, including 
whether the information will have practical or scientific utility; (b) 
the accuracy of the agency's estimate of the burden of the proposed 
collection of information, including the validity of the methodology 
and assumptions used; (c) ways to enhance the quality, utility, and 
clarity of the information to be collected; and (d) ways to minimize 
the burden of the collection of information on respondents, including 
the use of automated, electronic, mechanical, or other technological 
collection techniques or other forms of information technology.

Use of Comments

    All comments received in response to this notice, including names 
and addresses when provided, will become a matter of public record. 
Comments will be summarized and included in the request for Office of 
Management and Budget approval.

    Dated: January 9, 2001.
Barbara C. Weber,
Associate Deputy Chief for Research & Development.
[FR Doc. 01-1583 Filed 1-18-01; 8:45 am]
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