[Federal Register Volume 69, Number 150 (Thursday, August 5, 2004)]
[Notices]
[Page 47456]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 04-17841]


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DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR

Bureau of Indian Affairs


Notice of Intent To Prepare a Supplemental Programmatic 
Environmental Impact Statement for the Proposed Navajo Ten-Year Forest 
Management Plan, Navajo Nation, Arizona/New Mexico

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) as lead agency, with the Navajo Nation as cooperating 
agency, intends to prepare a Supplemental Programmatic Environmental 
Impact Statement (SPEIS) for the proposed Navajo Nation Ten-Year Forest 
Management Plan. The purpose of the proposed action is to pursue forest 
management in a manner that is both environmentally sound and 
economically beneficial to the Navajo Nation.

DATES: Written comments must arrive by September 7, 2004.

ADDRESSES: You may mail written comments to Mr. Jonathan Martin, 
Regional Forester, Bureau of Indian Affairs, Navajo Regional Office, 
P.O. Box 1060, Gallup, New Mexico 87305.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Jonathan Martin, (928) 729-7228.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The proposed action is to adopt a ten-year 
forest management plan for the Navajo Forest. The Navajo Forest lies in 
the Chuska Mountains and Defiance Plateau areas of the Navajo Nation, 
along the Arizona-New Mexico border. The forest area encompasses nearly 
600,000 acres.
    A Final Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement (FPEIS) for the 
proposed action was originally issued in April 2002. The Environmental 
Protection Agency published a Notice of Availability of the FPEIS and 
the BIA published a Supplemental Notice in the Federal Register on 
April 14, 2002 (65 FR 20156 and 20197, respectively). The BIA and the 
Navajo Nation then deliberated for 2\1/2\ years to select an 
alternative for the Record of Decision on the proposed action, but 
because of questions about the adequacy of the FPEIS subsequently 
raised by Department of the Interior legal staff, no Record of Decision 
was issued. Instead, the BIA has decided to prepare a SPEIS to address 
the issues raised by the legal staff, plus any relevant information 
that has become available or circumstances that have changed over the 4 
years since the FPEIS was issued.
    The original FPEIS included five alternatives, as follows: (1) 
Even-aged and uneven-aged management for timber harvesting with Special 
Management Areas (SMAs) protecting critical wildlife habitat and vital 
watersheds (preferred); (2) even-aged management with SMAs; (3) uneven-
aged management without SMAs; (4) no commercial harvesting; and (5) no 
action, which would continue current harvest levels with even-aged 
management and without SMAs. Areas of environmental concern addressed 
in the FPEIS included timber and other forest resources, biological, 
water and cultural resources, air quality and socio-economics. The 
SPEIS will further elaborate on alternatives considered, but eliminated 
from detailed study, such as homesites, grazing and range conditions, 
distribution and condition of riparian systems, wildlife occurrence and 
habitat, water quality and cumulative impacts.

Public Comment Availability

    Comments, including names and addresses of respondents, will be 
available for public review at the mailing address shown in the 
ADDRESSES section, during regular business hours, 8 a.m. to 4:30 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.

    Dated: July 28, 2004.
David W. Anderson,
Assistant Secretary--Indian Affairs.
[FR Doc. 04-17841 Filed 8-4-04; 8:45 am]
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