[Federal Register Volume 68, Number 151 (Wednesday, August 6, 2003)]
[Notices]
[Pages 46662-46663]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 03-19962]


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DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR

National Park Service


Golden Gate National Recreation Area Fire Management Plan, Marin, 
San Francisco, San Mateo Counties, CA; Notice of Intent To Prepare an 
Environmental Impact Statement

SUMMARY: Notice is hereby given, in accordance with the provisions of 
the National Environmental Policy Act (42 U.S.C. 4321 et seq.) that the 
National Park Service (NPS) is undertaking a conservation planning and 
impact analysis process for a fire management plan for Golden Gate 
National Recreation Area (GGNRA) and Muir Woods National Monument and 
Fort Point National Historic Site, two units of the National Park 
system also under the administration of GGNRA. The purpose of the fire 
management plan and environmental impact statement (EIS) process is to 
develop and assess alternative strategies for reducing risks to the 
public, firefighters, sensitive resources and park facilities posed by 
unplanned and uncontrolled wildland ignitions and examine the 
opportunities to use fire as a tool to work towards achieving resource 
protection objectives. Notice is hereby given that a public scoping 
process has been initiated with the purpose of eliciting early public 
comment regarding issues and concerns, a suitable range of alternatives 
and appropriate mitigating measures, and the nature and extent of 
potential environmental impacts that should be addressed in the EIS.
    Background: The current GGNRA fire management plan (FMP) was 
adopted in 1993 following a NEPA assessment process that culminated in 
the NPS approving a Finding of No Significant Impact decision 
(September 30, 1993). Since that time, a wide spectrum of new issues, 
improved information, and unforeseeable constraints have emerged which 
have the potential to affect the future direction of the fire 
management program within the park. Some of these factors include the 
continued decline in ecosystem health due to the absence of fire, 
increased risk of damage to sensitive natural and cultural resources as 
well as adjacent developed communities, increased suppression costs, 
and more stringent air quality regulations.
    The new FMP will tier from the 1980 GGNRA General Management Plan 
which called for a park-wide vegetation management planning effort to 
examine major influences (including fire effects) on the health of 
native plant communities. Subsequently park boundaries have expanded, 
and as noted environmental conditions have changed. More recently, 
major revisions of NPS policy guidance for fire management activities 
have occurred (Director's Order 18 was re-issued in 2002), and the need 
for conformance with new Management Policies (2001), have substantially 
increased the necessary scope of the FMP planning process. As a result, 
the proposed FMP will supersede the current fire program, rather than 
update or supplement the 1993 FMP.
    Scope of Planning and Analysis: The jurisdictional area of GGNRA 
covers 75,389 acres in San Mateo, San Francisco and Marin counties. Of 
the total acreage, 31,100 acres are directly managed by GGNRA in the 
three park units B GGNRA, Muir Woods National Monument and Fort Point 
National Historic Site. The northern lands of GGNRA, comprising 18,000 
acres on Bolinas Ridge, east of Highway One in Marin County, are 
managed by the Point Reyes National Seashore under an agreement between 
the two park units. These northern lands are part of the conservation 
planning area for the Point Reyes National Seashore FMP currently in 
preparation. The Point Reyes environmental impact analysis process is 
in advance of the GGNRA effort, and the two parks will coordinate 
closely so as to develop a complementary strategy for fire management 
activities that meets each park's objectives.
    In addition to lands under the direct management of the NPS, the 
scope of the pending EIS analysis and the affected area to be addressed 
in GGNRA FMP will include lands within the park's jurisdictional 
boundary that be acquired for NPS management during the implementation 
period of the FMP. However, the interior portion of the Presidio of San 
Francisco (managed by the federal corporation known as Presidio Trust,) 
is not under the direct management of the NPS and is not included in 
the planning area. Some of the existing park sites to be addressed in 
the EIS process are the coastal portion of the Presidio of San 
Francisco (Area A), Stinson Beach, Tennessee Valley, Muir Beach, the 
Marin Headlands, Alcatraz Island, Fort Mason, the coastal areas of the 
Presidio of San Francisco, Ocean Beach, Fort Funston, Milagra Ridge, 
Sweeney Ridge, and the Phleger Estate.
    Naturally occurring fire is an important ecological process 
necessary for maintaining the native plant communities of the park, but 
wildfire poses a hazard to life and property in the park's urban-
wildland interface boundary area and developed sites within the park. 
GGNRA practice has been to aggressively suppress all wildland fire in 
the park whether naturally occurring or human-caused. To that end, 
GGNRA has conducted fire management projects to control fuel buildup in 
the last decade, reviewing each project individually for conformance 
with federal environmental regulations. The park has employed 
prescribed burning and mechanical fuel reduction to reduce hazardous 
fuels and to enhance natural and cultural resources.
    NPS management policies adopted in December 2000 requires each park 
with burnable vegetation to prepare a fire management plan. The purpose 
of the FMP will be to guide a fire management program that protects 
park values and its cultural and natural resources; provides for safety 
considerations for park visitors, employees, neighbors, and developed 
facilities; and addresses potential impacts to public and private 
property adjacent to the park. Guided by

[[Page 46663]]

the range of issues raised and alternative concepts identified in the 
scoping period, the draft EIS likely will assess potential impacts of 
several alternative fire management plan strategies. Issues could 
include, but may not be limited to: hazards to firefighters, the public 
and property; effects on native plant and animal species; impacts to 
rare and endangered species; adverse impacts to cultural resources; 
risk of fire spread across the wildland-urban interface; increased use 
of mechanical and manual vegetation management techniques; air and 
water quality impacts; and effects on park visitors and neighbors.
    Supplementary Information and Public Scoping: As described above, 
the NPS is undertaking a conservation planning and environmental impact 
analysis effort to identify issues and concerns which should be 
addressed in the future fire management program, to evaluate 
alternative concepts for fire management, and to obtain information 
regarding potential impacts and appropriate mitigation strategies which 
should be addressed in the EIS process.
    As an early step in this undertaking, public scoping meetings will 
be conducted in the summer and early fall of 2003 in both San Mateo and 
Marin counties. The San Mateo County meeting will be held in 
conjunction with the regularly scheduled bi-monthly GGNRA public 
meeting on September 16, 2003. The meeting will be held at the Pacifica 
City Council Chambers, 2212 Beach Boulevard, Pacifica, California. An 
open-house to provide information and solicit input from the public 
will be conducted from 6-7 p.m. The EIS FMP will also be agendized 
during the bi-monthly meeting (which begins at 7 p.m.). The Marin 
County meeting will be held September 24, 2003 from 7-9 p.m. at the 
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers San Francisco Bay Model Visitor's Center, 
2100 Bridgeway, Sausalito, CA 94965. Information on these and all 
future public meetings, and status of the EIS process, will be 
regularly posted on the park's Web site at http://www.nps.gov/goga/fire; information will also be released through direct mailings and 
local and regional media. For those unable to attend either of these 
meetings, a scoping document will be available upon request. The main 
topics include: background information on the fire management program; 
a review of relevant policy and law affecting the fire management 
program; an assessment of current fire management needs; and the 
identification of issues and potential alternatives related to future 
fire management in the park.
    All interested individuals, organizations, and agencies are 
encouraged to provide comments, suggestions, and relevant information. 
All written comments regarding the current and future fire management 
program must be postmarked or transmitted not later than 60 days 
following the date of publication of this notice in the Federal 
Register. Immediately upon determining this date it will be posted on 
the park's Web site. To request the scoping materials or to provide 
comments, please contact: Superintendent, Golden Gate National 
Recreation Area, Fort Mason, Building 201, San Francisco, CA 94123, 
Attn: Fire Management Plan. E-mail comments or requests for scoping 
materials and information on meeting locations may be transmitted 
electronically to [email protected] (the subject line 
should indicate ``EIS Scoping for FMP'').
    Our practice is to make comments, including respondent names and 
home addresses, available for public review during regular business 
hours. If individuals submitting comments request that their name and/
or address be withheld from public disclosure, it will be honored to 
the extent allowable by law. Such requests must be stated prominently 
at the beginning of the comments. There also may be circumstances 
wherein the NPS may withhold a respondent's identity as allowable by 
law. As always: NPS will make available to public inspection all 
submissions from organizations or businesses, and from individuals 
identifying themselves as representatives or officials of organizations 
or businesses; and, anonymous comments may not be considered.
    Decision: Availability of the draft EIS and fire management plan 
for review and written comment will be announced in the Federal 
Register, as well as via direct mailing and announcements in local and 
regional media. At this time it's expected these documents will be 
available for public review in August 2004. Availability of the final 
EIS will be similarly announced (which at this time is expected to 
occur not sooner than January 2005). As a delegated EIS, the official 
responsible for the NEPA decision is the Regional Director, Pacific 
West Region, National Park Service. Subsequently, the official 
responsible for implementation would be the Superintendent, Golden Gate 
National Recreation Area.

    Dated: July 25, 2003.
Arthur E. Eck,
Deputy Regional Director, Pacific West Region.
[FR Doc. 03-19962 Filed 8-5-03; 8:45 am]
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