[Federal Register Volume 69, Number 115 (Wednesday, June 16, 2004)]
[Notices]
[Pages 33657-33659]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 04-13519]


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DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR

National Park Service


Final Environmental Impact Statement/Fire Management Plan, 
Whiskeytown National Recreation Area, Shasta County, CA; Notice of 
Availability

    Summary: Pursuant to Sec.  102(2) (C) of the National Environmental 
Policy Act of 1969 (Pub. L. 91-190, as amended), and the Council on 
Environmental Quality Regulations (40 CFR Part 1500-1508), the National 
Park Service, Department of the Interior, has prepared a Final 
Environmental Impact Statement identifying and evaluating four 
alternatives for a Fire Management Plan for Whiskeytown National 
Recreation Area, California. Potential impacts and mitigating measures 
are described for each alternative. The alternative selected upon 
conclusion of the conservation planning/environmental impact analysis 
process will guide future fire management actions at Whiskeytown 
National Recreation Area over the next 10 years.
    The Whiskeytown Fire Management Plan (FMP) and Final Environmental 
Impact Statement (FEIS) describes and evaluates three action 
alternatives and a no action alternative for an updated fire management 
program at Whiskeytown National Recreation Area. Revisions to the 
current plan are needed to meet public and firefighter safety, natural 
and cultural resource management, and wildland urban interface 
objectives of the park. The action alternatives vary in the emphasis 
they place on fire management goals developed by the park. The current 
program has been effective in fire suppression, but has not been able 
to restore large portions of the park landscape to circa 1800 
conditions as required by the park's General Management Plan (GMP). 
Also, each action alternative would amend the park's GMP to allow 
future consideration of rebuilding the park's administration building 
at its current headquarters location, in conjunction with relocating 
the fire cache to the Oak Bottom recreational complex.
    Whiskeytown National Recreation Area is located eight miles west of 
Redding, California and encompasses 42,500 acres, including the 3000-
acre Whiskeytown Lake--a reservoir created as part of California's 
Central Valley Project, Trinity River Diversion. In the past, wildland 
fire occurred naturally in the environs of the park as an important 
ecosystem process that kept forest fuels and vegetation structure 
within a natural range of variability. Mining, logging and fire 
suppression activities (mostly pre-dating the establishment of the 
park) have lead to increased fuel loads and changes in vegetation 
community structure. In turn this has increased the risk of large, 
high-intensity wildland fire within the park, threatening developed 
zones, the park's natural and cultural resources, and neighboring 
landowners and communities.
    Planning Background: A Notice of Intent was published in the 
Federal Register on August 8, 2001; the public scoping period 
officially ended on September 15, 2001, although comments were accepted 
throughout 2002. During this time the park held discussions and 
briefings with local communities; local residents; local, regional and 
state fire organizations; air quality regulators; other agency 
representatives; tribes; elected officials; representatives of city and 
county government; public service organizations and other interested 
members of the public. A public scoping meeting was conducted on August 
23, 2001 in the town of Old Shasta at Shasta Elementary School. The 
meeting was advertised in the local media and letters were sent to 
agencies, organizations and members of the public inviting them to 
participate in the scoping process. Twenty members of the public 
attended. Issues raised during scoping included air quality concerns; 
the management capacity for wildland fire use in a wildland urban 
interface zone; how well the park met past prescribed fire goals; the 
use of herbicides; interactions between overstocked forests and beetle 
infestations; and the use of heavy equipment in forest lands for 
thinning operations.
    Response to the Draft Plan: A Notice of Availability of the Draft 
Environmental Impact Statement was published in the Federal Register on 
April 23, 2003, and a press release was issued coinciding with 
publication of the Federal Register notice (and notice was posted on 
the park's Web site). Postcards announcing the availability of the 
draft document were mailed out to the park's mailing list. Copies of 
the document were available at the park's Visitor Center and at local 
libraries in Shasta, Tehama and Trinity counties. The public comment 
period concluded on June 24, 2003.
    During April and May, 2003 several hundred copies of the draft plan 
were mailed to agencies, organizations and interested individuals. 
During the public comment period, two public meetings were held (May 28 
& June 12) and two public tours of the park were held (June 10 & 14). A 
total of seven pieces of written correspondence were received--
including letters from agencies, organizations and individuals (the 
written comments were received from the local area, with two 
exceptions, one from Crescent City, California and one from Wisconsin. 
In addition, 15 people attended public meetings and tours. The 
following elements received the most comments: Support for addressing 
the wildland urban interface area; clarifications of the air quality 
analysis; and qualified support for forest thinning. Comments on 
wildland fire use were uniformly against the practice of using this 
management tool at Whiskeytown. All letters with substantive comments 
noted are reproduced in the WFMP FEIS.
    Throughout the overall conservation planning and environmental 
impact analysis, consultations were held with the U.S. Fish and 
Wildlife Service, the U.S. Forest Service, the National Marine 
Fisheries Service, the Bureau of Land Management, the California 
Department of Forestry and Fire Protection and the California State 
Historic Preservation Office. Additional consultations were held with 
local Native American groups and county air districts. With the 
exceptions of the Bureau of Land Management, the Shasta County air 
quality district and the California

[[Page 33658]]

Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, no written comments were 
received.
    Final Proposed Plan and Alternatives: The WFMP FEIS includes three 
action alternatives and a no action alternative. No substantive changes 
in actions proposed or attendant mitigation strategies have occurred as 
a result of public review and comment. Under all of the action 
alternatives, the park's 2001 GMP would be amended to allow future 
consideration of rebuilding the park's administration building at its 
current headquarters location, in conjunction with relocating the fire 
cache to the Oak Bottom recreational complex.
    Under the no-action alternative (Alternative I), the current fire 
management program would continue utilizing a limited range of fire 
management strategies--including prescribed fire, limited mechanical 
treatment and suppression of all wildland fires (including natural 
ignitions). The current program includes both broadcast and pile 
burning components, with prescribed fire projects ranging in size from 
0.5 to 1000 acres occurring in all vegetation types. Maximum burning in 
a given year typically is about 1400 acres. Limited mechanical 
treatment methods would continue to be utilized to reduce hazardous 
fuel levels in the park. These would include the use of chain saws, 
weed-eaters, hand crews, and chippers to clear around buildings, to 
install and maintain shaded fuel breaks, and to clear along roadways. 
Total maintained shaded fuel break system would be 850 acres, with 
maintenance occurring at least once every three years as needed. Annual 
average maintenance of all mechanically treated areas would be 275 
acres.
    Under Alternative II, the fire program would focus on the 
application of prescribed fire to meet ecological restoration 
objectives, and to reduce hazardous fuels throughout the park. All 
other fires would be suppressed including natural ignitions. Mechanical 
treatment would only be used to construct prescribed fire burn unit 
boundaries and to reduce fuels around developed areas. Alternative II 
would only utilize hand tools, chainsaws, weed eaters and chippers for 
mechanical treatment for an average 80 acres annually. This alternative 
would include pile burning and broadcast burning. Projects under 
Alternative II would include areas up to 1,000 acres in size to 
simulate, to the greatest extent feasible, the scale and pattern of 
natural fire events. Up to 3,000 acres would be burned during each year 
of implementation. Due to windows of opportunity during the dormant 
season, Alternative II would implement prescribed burns during the non-
dormant season from 10%-20% of the time to maximize opportunities for 
execution of prescribed fire projects.
    Under Alternative III, all natural and human-ignited wildland fires 
would be suppressed. Prescribed burning would only occur in conjunction 
with mechanical fuel treatments around developments and on shaded fuel 
breaks. Alternative III would consist of pile burning and a few 
prescribed fire projects to strengthen and widen by up to \1/4\ to \1/
2\ mile shaded fuel breaks for tactical purposes in the case of 
suppression fire events. No large, prescribed fires would be conducted. 
Up to 250 acres would be burned during each year of implementation. 
This alternative would use mechanical treatment to reduce forest fuels 
in and around developed areas, and to install new, and widen existing 
shaded fuel breaks. Hand tools, chainsaws, weed eaters, chippers, and 
brush masticators would be used. Annual program levels would be up to 
225 acres for each of the two mechanical treatment levels proposed in 
this alternative.
    Under the preferred alternative (Alternative IV), the park would 
focus on restoring Whiskeytown's plant communities to reduce the risk 
of high severity wildland fire by decreasing forest stand density, 
reducing surface fuels, and attempting to restore fire as a natural 
disturbance process to the greatest extent feasible using prescribed 
fire and mechanical treatment. Up to 2,200 acres per year would be 
treated through prescribed fire. Three levels of mechanical treatment 
would be utilized to reduce fuel levels and mimic the effects of fire 
on structural patterns of woody vegetation, including the use of hand 
tools, chainsaws, weed eaters, chippers, brush mastication and small-
scale logging of trees up to 12 inches in diameter at breast height. 
Mechanical treatment would be used to reduce forest fuels in and around 
developed areas, and to install and widen some new and existing shaded 
fuel breaks. Mechanical treatment would be used on up to 1075 acres per 
year.
    As documented in the FEIS, this alternative is ``environmentally 
preferred'' because with the expanded range of management options, 
Whiskeytown will be able to more quickly reduce the hazardous fuels 
issues in the wildland urban interface'focusing on community safety. 
Additionally, greater flexibility in mechanical treatment will allow 
the park to be better able to manage second growth forest stands and 
their attendant fuels problems. Improved second growth management is 
expected to improve wildlife habitat and ecological functions. The 
other alternatives are not ``environmentally preferred'' because of the 
reliance on limited management actions, such as prescribed fire, 
suppression or simple mechanical treatment. The limited nature of how, 
where and when each of these alternatives could be implemented 
increases the public and fire fighter exposure to unsafe conditions and 
do not adequately address habitat improvement and biological diversity 
issues.
    In addition to minor corrections and editorial changes in preparing 
the final EIS and WFMP, one element of the proposed plan (as identified 
in the draft EIS) was modified based on public comment. Comments from 
the public meetings and letters stressed the importance of protection 
of private property adjacent to the park and concern about the park's 
capacity in managing wildland fire use. In response, the NPS planning 
team recommended removing wildland fire use from consideration as a 
management tool in the park's fire management program. This change does 
not constitute an impairment of park resources or a significant impact 
of a singular or cumulative nature.
    Public Availability: The FEIS is now available; copies may be 
obtained from the Superintendent, Whiskeytown NRA, P.O. Box 188, 
Whiskeytown, CA 96095; telephone (530) 242-3400. The document will also 
be posted electronically at the park's Web site (http://www.nps.gov/whis), and distributed to Shasta, Trinity, and Tehama county libraries. 
Any responses received will be documented and will become part of the 
public record. If individuals responding request that their name or/and 
address be withheld from public disclosure, the request will be honored 
to the extent allowable by law. Such requests must be stated 
prominently in the beginning of the letter. There also may be 
circumstances wherein the NPS will withhold a commenter's identity as 
allowable by law. As always, the NPS will make available to public 
inspection all submissions from organizations or businesses and from 
persons identifying themselves as representatives or officials of 
organizations; and, anonymous comments may not be considered.
    Decision: Not sooner than 30 days after EPA's notice of the FEIS 
filing is published in the Federal Register a Record of Decision will 
be prepared.

[[Page 33659]]

Notice of the approved Record of Decision will also be published in the 
Federal Register. As this is a delegated EIS, the official responsible 
for the final decision is the Regional Director, Pacific West Region; 
subsequently the official responsible for implementing the approved 
fire management plan would be the Superintendent, Whiskeytown National 
Recreation Area.

    Dated: May 7, 2004.
Jonathan B. Jarvis,
Regional Director, Pacific West Region.
[FR Doc. 04-13519 Filed 6-15-04; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4312-52-P