[Federal Register Volume 69, Number 34 (Friday, February 20, 2004)]
[Notices]
[Pages 7904-7905]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 04-3721]


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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 
 and investigations, committee meetings, agency decisions and rulings, 
 delegations of authority, filing of petitions and applications and agency 
 statements of organization and functions are examples of documents 
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  Federal Register / Vol. 69, No. 34 / Friday, February 20, 2004 / 
Notices  

[[Page 7904]]



DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE

Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service

[Docket No. 01-009-6]


Wildlife Services; Availability of an Environmental Assessment 
and Decision/Finding of No Significant Impact for Oral Rabies Vaccine 
Program on National Forest System Lands

AGENCY: Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, USDA.

COOPERATING AGENCY: Forest Service, USDA.

ACTION: Notice of availability and request for comments.

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SUMMARY: We are advising the public that we have prepared an 
environmental assessment and proposed decision/finding of no 
significant impact relative to oral rabies vaccination programs on 
National Forest System lands in several States. Since the publication 
of our original environmental assessment and decision/finding of no 
significant impact (2001), a subsequent supplemental decision/finding 
of no significant impact (2002), and a supplemental environmental 
assessment and decision/finding of no significant impact (2003), we 
have determined there is a need to further expand the oral rabies 
vaccine program to include National Forest System lands, excluding 
Wilderness Areas, to effectively stop the westward and northward spread 
of the rabies virus across the United States and into Canada. The 
purpose of the environmental assessment and decision/finding of no 
significant impact is to facilitate planning, interagency coordination, 
and program management and to provide the public with our analysis of 
potential individual and cumulative impacts of an expanded oral rabies 
vaccine program.

DATES: We will consider all comments that we receive on or before March 
22, 2004. Unless we determine that new substantial issues bearing on 
the effects of the proposed expansion of the oral rabies vaccine 
programs have been raised by public comments on this notice, the 
proposed decision/finding of no significant impact will become final 
and take effect upon the close of the comment period.

ADDRESSES: You may submit comments by postal mail/commercial delivery 
or by e-mail. If you use postal mail/commercial delivery, please send 
four copies of your comment (an original and three copies) to: Docket 
No. 01-009-6, Regulatory Analysis and Development, PPD, APHIS, Station 
3C71, 4700 River Road Unit 118, Riverdale, MD 20737-1238. Please state 
that your comment refers to Docket No. 01-009-6. If you use e-mail, 
address your comment to [email protected]. Your comment must 
be contained in the body of your message; do not send attached files. 
Please include your name and address in your message and ``Docket No. 
01-009-6'' on the subject line.
    To obtain copies of any of the documents discussed in this notice, 
contact Tara Wilcox, Operational Support Staff, WS, APHIS, 4700 River 
Road Unit 87, Riverdale, MD 20737-1234; phone (301) 734-7921, fax (301) 
734-5157, or e-mail: [email protected]. When requesting 
copies, please specify the document or documents you wish to receive.
    You may also read the documents discussed in this notice, as well 
as any comments that we receive, in our reading room. The reading room 
is located in room 1141 of the USDA South Building, 14th Street and 
Independence Avenue SW., Washington, DC. Normal reading room hours are 
8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., Monday through Friday, except holidays. To be sure 
someone is there to help you, please call (202) 690-2817 before coming.
    APHIS documents published in the Federal Register, and related 
information, including the names of organizations and individuals who 
have commented on APHIS dockets, are available on the Internet at 
http://www.aphis.usda.gov/ppd/rad/webrepor.html.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Mr. Dennis Slate, Rabies Program 
Coordinator, Wildlife Services, APHIS, 59 Chennell Drive, Suite 7, 
Concord, NH 03301-8548; (603) 223-6832.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

Background

    The Wildlife Services (WS) program in the Animal and Plant Health 
Inspection Service (APHIS) cooperates with Federal agencies, State and 
local governments, and private individuals to research and implement 
the best methods of managing conflicts between wildlife and human 
health and safety, agriculture, property, and natural resources. 
Wildlife-borne diseases that can affect domestic animals and humans are 
among the types of conflicts that APHIS-WS addresses. Wildlife is the 
dominant reservoir of rabies in the United States.
    On December 7, 2000, a notice was published in the Federal Register 
(65 FR 76606-76607, Docket No. 00-045-1) in which the Secretary of 
Agriculture declared an emergency and transferred funds from the 
Commodity Credit Corporation to APHIS-WS for the continuation and 
expansion of oral rabies vaccination (ORV) programs to address rabies 
in the States of Ohio, New York, Vermont, Texas, and West Virginia.
    On March 7, 2001, we published a notice in the Federal Register (66 
FR 13697-13700, Docket No. 01-009-1) to solicit public involvement in 
the planning of a proposed cooperative program to stop the spread of 
rabies in the States of New York, Ohio, Texas, Vermont, and West 
Virginia. The notice also stated that a small portion of northeastern 
New Hampshire and the western counties in Pennsylvania that border Ohio 
could also be included in these control efforts, and discussed the 
possibility of APHIS-WS cooperating in smaller-scale ORV projects in 
the States of Florida, Massachusetts, Maryland, New Jersey, Virginia, 
and Alabama. The March 2001 notice contained detailed information about 
the history of the problems with raccoon rabies in eastern States and 
with gray fox and coyote rabies in Texas, along with information about 
previous and ongoing efforts using ORV baits in programs to prevent the 
spread of the rabies variants or ``strains'' of concern.

[[Page 7905]]

    Subsequently, on May 17, 2001, we published in the Federal Register 
(66 FR 27489, Docket No. 01-009-2) a notice in which we announced the 
availability, for public review and comment, of an environmental 
assessment (EA) that examined the potential environmental effects of 
the ORV programs described in our March 2001 notice. We solicited 
comments on the EA for 30 days ending on June 18, 2001. We received one 
comment by that date. The comment was from an animal protection 
organization and supported APHIS' efforts toward limiting or 
eradicating rabies in wildlife populations. The commenter did not, 
however, support the use of lethal monitoring methods or local 
depopulation as part of an ORV program.
    Finally, on August 30, 2001, we published a notice in the Federal 
Register (66 FR 45835-45836, Docket No. 01-009-3) in which we advised 
the public of APHIS' decision and finding of no significant impact 
(FONSI) regarding the use of oral vaccination to control specific 
rabies virus strains in raccoons, gray foxes, and coyotes in the United 
States. That decision allows APHIS-WS to purchase and distribute ORV 
baits, monitor the effectiveness of the ORV programs, and participate 
in implementing contingency plans that may involve the reduction of a 
limited number of local target species populations through lethal means 
(i.e., the preferred alternative identified in the EA). The decision 
was based upon the final EA, which reflected our review and 
consideration of the comments received from the public in response to 
our March 2001 and May 2001 notices and information gathered during 
planning/scoping meetings with State health departments, other State 
and local agencies, the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources, and the 
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
    Following the August 2001 publication of our original decision/
FONSI, we determined there was a need to expand the ORV programs to 
include the States of Kentucky and Tennessee to effectively stop the 
westward spread of raccoon rabies. Accordingly, we prepared a 
supplemental decision/FONSI to document the potential effects of 
expanding the programs. We published a notice announcing the 
availability of the supplemental decision/FONSI in the Federal Register 
on July 5, 2002 (67 FR 44797-44798, Docket No. 01-009-4).
    Following the publication of the supplemental decision/FONSI in 
July 2002, we determined the need to further expand the ORV program to 
include the States of Georgia and Maine to effectively prevent the 
westward and northward spread of the rabies virus across the United 
States and into Canada. To facilitate planning, interagency 
coordination, and program management and to provide the public with our 
analysis of potential individual and cumulative impacts of the expanded 
ORV programs, we prepared a supplemental EA that addresses the 
inclusion of Georgia and Maine, as well as the 2002 inclusion of 
Kentucky and Tennessee, in the ORV program. In addition, we prepared a 
new decision/FONSI based on the supplemental EA that was published in 
the Federal Register on June 30, 2003 (68 FR 38669-38670, Docket No. 
01-009-5).
    Recently, we have determined the need to further expand the ORV 
program to include portions of National Forest System lands, excluding 
Wilderness Areas, within several eastern States. The National Forest 
System lands where APHIS-WS involvement would be expanded may be 
located within the States of Maine, New York, Vermont, New Hampshire, 
Pennsylvania, Ohio, Virginia, West Virginia, Tennessee, Kentucky, 
Alabama, Georgia, Florida, North Carolina, South Carolina, 
Massachusetts, Maryland, and New Jersey. Currently, cooperative rabies 
surveillance activities and/or baiting programs are already being 
conducted on various land classes, with the exception of National 
Forest System lands, in many of the aforementioned States. The 
programs' primary goals are to stop the spread of a specific raccoon 
rabies variant or ``strain'' of the rabies virus. If not stopped, this 
strain could potentially spread to much broader areas of the U.S. and 
Canada and cause substantial increases in public and domestic animal 
health costs because of increased rabies exposures. Numerous National 
Forest System lands are located within current and potential ORV 
barrier zones. To effectively combat this strain of the rabies virus, 
it has become increasingly important to bait these large land masses. 
The EA analyzes the proposed action and several alternatives with 
respect to a number of environmental and other issues raised by 
involved cooperating agencies and the public.
    The August 2001 EA and decision/FONSI, the July 2002 supplemental 
decision/FONSI, the June 2003 supplemental EA and decision/FONSI, and 
this EA and decision/FONSI for expanded ORV program activities on 
National Forest System lands that are the subject of this notice have 
been prepared in accordance with: (1) The National Environmental Policy 
Act of 1969 (NEPA), as amended (42 U.S.C. 4321 et seq.), (2) 
regulations of the Council on Environmental Quality for implementing 
the procedural provisions of NEPA (40 CFR parts 1500-1508), (3) USDA 
regulations implementing NEPA (7 CFR part 1), and (4) APHIS' NEPA 
Implementing Procedures (7 CFR part 372).

    Done in Washington, DC, this 13th day of February 2004.
Kevin Shea,
Acting Administrator, Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service.
[FR Doc. 04-3721 Filed 2-19-04; 8:45 am]
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