[Federal Register Volume 67, Number 182 (Thursday, September 19, 2002)]
[Notices]
[Pages 59074-59075]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 02-23842]


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DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR

Bureau of Indian Affairs


Notice of Intent To Prepare a Programmatic Environmental Impact 
Statement for the Coeur d'Alene Tribe's Integrated Resource Management 
Plan, Coeur d'Alene Reservation, Plummer, ID

AGENCY: Bureau of Indian Affairs, Interior.

ACTION: Notice.

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SUMMARY: This notice advises the public that the Bureau of Indian 
Affairs (BIA), with the cooperation of the Coeur d'Alene Tribe, intends 
to prepare a Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement (PEIS) for an 
Integrated Resource Management Plan (IRMP) for the approximately 
345,000 acre Coeur d'Alene Indian Reservation, located within both 
Benewah and Kootenai Counties in the northern Idaho panhandle. 
Descriptions of this area and of the proposed action are provided in 
the SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION section. This notice also announces 
public scoping meetings for the content of the PEIS.

DATES: Comments on the scope of the PEIS/IRMP must arrive by October 
18, 2002. The public scoping meetings will be held on Tuesday, October 
8, 2002, and Wednesday, October 9, 2002, from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m.

ADDRESSES: You may mail or hand deliver written comments, or requests 
to be placed on the project mailing list, to Tiffany Allgood, 
Environmental Action Plan Coordinator, 850 A Street, P.O. Box 408, 
Plummer Idaho 83851. You may also comment via the Internet to 
[email protected]. Please include your name and return address in 
Internet messages, and avoid the use of special characters or any form 
of encryption. If you do not receive a confirmation from the system 
that your Internet message has been received, contact Tiffany Algood at 
(208) 686-8802.
    The October 8, 2002, public meeting will be held at the Tribal 
Wellness Center in Plummer, Idaho. The October 9, 2002, meeting will be 
held at the St. Maries Middle School in St. Maries, Idaho.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Tiffany Allgood, (208) 686-8802, or 
June Boynton, (503) 231-6749.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The Coeur d'Alene Indian Reservation is 
situated in an area that is rural in character, and includes portions 
of Lake Coeur d'Alene, the St. Joe River, Hangman Creek and other 
streams. Land on the reservation is comprised of trust lands, which are 
lands held in trust by the United States for the use and benefit of 
Indian tribes or individuals, and fee lands, which are lands held in 
fee simple status. Land use is mainly agriculture and forest, with a 
small amount of land used for cities and for commercial and subdivision 
developments. There are 6,451 people living on the Coeur d'Alene 
Reservation according to U.S. Census 2000.
    The proposed action is to develop a Coeur d'Alene Tribal IRMP for 
natural and cultural resources. The tribe, in response to increasing 
population and accelerated development on the reservation, is 
developing this IRMP as it leads the reservation community in planning 
for a future that integrates development with maintenance and 
enhancement of natural and cultural resources. With input from an IRMP 
Interdisciplinary Team, an IRMP Community Advisory Committee and an 
extensive public involvement, public workshop, and consensus building 
process, the IRMP will assess changes in the physical, biological, and 
social elements of the Coeur d'Alene Reservation. The IRMP will benefit 
the tribe by documenting the desired conditions for natural and 
cultural resources on both tribal lands and the tribe's aboriginal 
lands for the next 20 to 100 years.
    The Coeur d'Alene Tribe has done a comparison of past to existing 
environmental conditions in order to establish the parameters for which 
the desired future conditions will be assessed in the IRMP. General 
project goals are to (1) improve local environmental conditions to 
benefit human health, ecology and quality of life; (2) provide tools 
for tribal and community environmental planning and action; (3) improve 
environmental management by increasing communication and cooperation; 
and (4) involve the public throughout the planning process.
    Expected issues and concerns to be addressed in the PEIS include 
impacts on wildlife, fish, water quality, recreation, roads, air 
quality, cultural and sacred sites and on residents from changes in 
land use, as well as socioeconomic feasibility and infrastructure 
changes. Alternatives will be developed to modify or eliminate the 
impacts from proposed activities or address unresolvable issues, while 
still meeting the purpose for this project.

Public Comment Availability

    Comments, including names and addresses of respondents, will be

[[Page 59075]]

available for public review at the mailing address shown in the 
ADDRESSES section, during regular business hours, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., 
Monday through Friday, except holidays. Individual respondents may 
request confidentiality. If you wish us to withhold your name and/or 
address from public review or from disclosure under the Freedom of 
Information Act, you must state this prominently at the beginning of 
your written comment. Such requests will be honored to the extent 
allowed by law. We will not, however, consider anonymous comments. All 
submissions from organizations or businesses, and from individuals 
identifying themselves as representatives or officials of organizations 
or businesses will be made available for public inspection in their 
entirety.

Authority

    This notice is published in accordance with section 1503.1 of the 
Council on Environmental Quality Regulations (40 CFR parts 1500 through 
1508) implementing the procedural requirements of the National 
Environmental Policy Act of 1969, as amended (42 U.S.C. 4321 et seq.), 
and the Department of the Interior Manual (516 DM 1-6), and is in the 
exercise of authority delegated to the Assistant Secretary--Indian 
Affairs by 209 DM 8. Nothing in this notice limits Coeur d'Alene rights 
as outlined in agreements between the tribe and the U.S. Government.

    Dated: September 5, 2002.
Neal A. McCaleb,
Assistant Secretary--Indian Affairs.
[FR Doc. 02-23842 Filed 9-18-02; 8:45 am]
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