[Federal Register Volume 67, Number 184 (Monday, September 23, 2002)]
[Notices]
[Page 59542]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 02-24052]


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DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR

National Park Service


Notice of Intent To Prepare an Environmental Impact Statement on 
the Backcountry Management Plan and General Management Plan Amendment 
for Wrangell-St. Elias National Park and Preserve

AGENCY: National Park Service, Interior.

ACTION: Backcountry Management Plan, General Management Plan Amendment, 
and Environmental Impact Statement, Wrangell-St. Elias National Park 
and Preserve, Alaska.

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SUMMARY: The National Park Service (NPS) is amending the Wrangell-St. 
Elias National Park and Preserve General Management Plan with a 
Backcountry Management Plan and accompanying Environmental Impact 
Statement (plan/EIS). Wrangell-St. Elias National Park and Preserve was 
established by the 1980 Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act 
(ANILCA). With passage of ANILCA, Congress designated 8.9 million acres 
of wilderness within the park and preserve and set forth special 
provisions for management in recognition of the unique situations and 
traditional lifeways of Alaska.
    The purpose of the plan/EIS is to formulate a comprehensive plan 
that will provide management direction during the next 15-20 years for 
the backcountry of Wrangell-St. Elias National Park and Preserve. The 
backcountry currently is defined to include the park's designated 
wilderness and other non-developed areas of the park. The Nabesna and 
McCarthy roads would not be included in this process. Tracts in private 
ownership are excluded, including the settled areas of McCarthy/
Kennecott, Slana, Nabesna, Chisana, and May Creek. The airstrips 
associated with these settlements would be excluded as well.
    Wrangell-St. Elias National Park and Preserve is one of four 
national park units in Alaska to initiate a backcountry management 
planning process and GMP amendment. This notice of intent is being 
published simultaneously with notices to prepare plans/EISs for Glacier 
Bay National Park and Preserve and Gates of the Arctic National Park 
and Preserve. A plan/EIS for Denali National Park and Preserve is 
underway (64 FR 49503, September 13, 1999).
    The Wrangell-St. Elias National Park and Preserve plan/EIS is being 
prepared in response to the increasing level and diversity of 
activities in the park, resource management and protection needs, and 
requests for activities and facilities not anticipated or addressed in 
the 1986 General Management Plan. Specific topics to be addressed in 
the plan/EIS include, but are not limited to: backcountry hiking, sport 
hunting, mountaineering, aviation, boating, snowmobiling, dogsledding, 
commercial services, administrative and scientific/research activities, 
and the various facilities related to these activities.
    The proposed action and other action alternatives will assess 
variations in the type and levels of backcountry activities and 
facilities. Toward this end, prescriptive management zones will be 
described and allocated to park land to provide a spectrum of visitor 
experience opportunities, resource conditions, and management 
activities throughout the backcountry of Wrangell-St. Elias National 
Park and Preserve. A no-action alternative also will be evaluated.
    The NPS requests written and verbal comments about the scope of the 
planning process (e.g., issues and concerns, alternatives, potential 
environmental impacts), from federal and state agencies, local 
government, Native tribes, private organizations, backcountry users, 
and the general public. Further information on this planning process 
will be available through pubic scoping meetings, press releases, web 
sites, and newsletters. Joint public scoping meetings on the plans/EISs 
for Wrangell-St. Elias National Park and Preserve, Glacier Bay National 
Park and Preserve, and Gates of the Arctic National Park and Preserve 
will be held in Fairbanks, Anchorage, and Juneau, Alaska, as well as in 
Seattle, Washington. Additional scoping meetings will be held in 
communities near the respective parks. The public will be notified in 
the future of the specific dates, times, and locations of the scoping 
meetings.
    The Wrangell-St. Elias draft plan/EIS is anticipated to be 
available for public review in the spring of 2005. Public meetings will 
be scheduled during the 60-day comment period after release of the 
draft plan/EIS.
    Interested groups, organizations, individuals, and government 
agencies are invited to comment on the plan. Our practice is to make 
comments, including names and home addresses of respondents, available 
for public review during regular business hours. Individual respondents 
may request that we withhold their home address from the administrative 
record, which we will honor to the extent allowable by law. There also 
may be circumstances in which we would withhold from the administrative 
record a respondent's identity, as allowable by law. If you wish us to 
withhold your name and/or address, you must state this prominently at 
the beginning of your comment. We will not, however, consider anonymous 
comments. We will make all submissions from organizations or 
businesses, and from individuals identifying themselves as 
representatives or officials of organizations or businesses, available 
for public inspection in their entirety.
    The plan/EIS is being prepared in accordance with the requirements 
of the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969, as amended (42 U.S.C. 
4331 et seq.) and its implementing regulations at 40 CFR Part 1500.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Gary Candelaria, Superintendent, 
Wrangell-St. Elias National Park and Preserve, P.O. Box 439, Copper 
Center, Alaska 99573. Telephone (907) 822-5234.

    Dated: August 22, 2002.
Ralph H. Tingey,
Acting Regional Director, Alaska.
[FR Doc. 02-24052 Filed 9-20-02; 8:45 am]
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