[Federal Register Volume 69, Number 168 (Tuesday, August 31, 2004)]
[Notices]
[Pages 53085-53087]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 04-19787]


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DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR

National Park Service


Final Environmental Impact Statement/Fire Management Plan, Point 
Reyes National Seashore, Marin County, CA; Notice of Availability

    Summary: Pursuant to section 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 (NPS), Department of the Interior, has 
prepared a Final Environmental Impact Statement identifying and 
evaluating three alternatives for a Fire Management Plan for Point 
Reyes National Seashore administered lands. Potential impacts, and 
appropriate mitigations, are assessed for each alternative. When 
approved, the plan will guide all future fire management actions on 
lands administered by Point Reyes National Seashore. The Fire 
Management Plan and Final Environmental Impact Statement (FMP/FEIS) 
documents the analyses of two action alternatives, and a ``no action'' 
alternative.
    Revisions to the 1993 Fire Management Plan are needed to meet 
public and firefighter safety, natural and cultural resource 
management, and wildland urban interface objectives for the Point Reyes 
National Seashore and the north district of Golden Gate National 
Recreation Area. 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 and conducting limited 
fuel reduction in strategic areas, but has not been able to fully 
accomplish resource management, fuel reduction, and prescribed fire 
goals.
    The planning area for the Fire Management Plan (FMP) includes NPS 
lands located approximately 40 miles northwest of San Francisco in 
Marin County, California. These lands include the 70,046-acre Point 
Reyes National Seashore, comprised primarily of beaches, coastal 
headlands, extensive freshwater and estuarine wetlands, marine 
terraces, and forests; as well as 18,000 acres of the Northern District 
of Golden Gate National Recreation Area (GGNRA), primarily supporting 
annual grasslands, coastal scrub, and Douglas-fir and coast redwood 
forests.
    Proposed Fire Management Plan. Alternative C is the preferred 
alternative in the final FMP/FEIS and remains unchanged from the draft 
EIS. Under Alternative C ``Increased Natural Resource Enhancement and 
Expanded Hazardous Fuel Reduction'', fire management actions will be 
used to markedly increase efforts to enhance natural resources and 
reduce hazardous fuels. This alternative includes objectives for 
increasing the abundance and distribution of federally listed species, 
reducing infestations of invasive, non-native plants and increasing 
native plant cover. Prescribed burning and mechanical treatments will 
be used to protect or enhance cultural resources, such as reducing 
vegetation in areas identified as important historic viewsheds. 
Alternative C permits the highest number of acres treated annually for 
hazardous fuels reduction concentrating on high priority areas (e.g., 
along road corridors, around structures, and in strategic areas to 
create fuel breaks). Up to 3,500 acres could be treated per year using 
prescribed fire and mechanical treatments. Under this alternative, 
research efforts will be expanded to determine the effects of fire on 
natural resources of concern (e.g., rare and non-native species) and to 
determine the effectiveness of various treatments for fuel reduction. 
Research results will be used adaptively to guide the fire

[[Page 53086]]

management program in maximizing benefits to natural resources, while 
protecting lives and property. This alternative will reduce the threat 
of a catastrophic wildland fire to a more stable fire condition at Year 
13 of implementation rather than Year 23 as in Alternative B or 
indefinite extension of the program under Alternative A, the No Action 
Alternative. Ten of eleven Fire Management Units (FMUs) will be treated 
under Alternative C; the eleventh FMU--the Minimum Management FMU--is 
primarily leased for agriculture and is subject to defensible space and 
roadside clearing under all three alternatives. As documented in the 
final EIS, Alternative C was also deemed to be the ``Environmentally 
Preferred'' Alternative.
    Alternatives: The final FMP/FEIS analyzes two other alternatives. 
Alternative A, Continued Fuel Reduction for Public Safety and Limited 
Resource Enhancement, is the No Action Alternative representing the 
current fire management program. The current program uses a limited 
range of fire management strategies--including prescribed fire, 
mechanical treatment, and suppression of all wildland fires, including 
natural ignitions. Alternative A would continue the existing program 
described in the 1993 Fire Management Plan including mechanical 
treatments of hazardous fuels of up to 500 acres per year, primarily 
mowing in grasslands. Up to 500 acres per year would be treated by 
prescribed burning, primarily for fuel reduction in grasslands and for 
Scotch and French broom control. Total treatments per year will not 
exceed 1,000 acres. Research projects already in progress on reducing 
Scotch broom and velvet grass through prescribed burning would continue 
under this alternative. In continuing current practices, treatments 
would occur in four of eleven FMUs sited along the primary roadways. 
This program does not place emphasis on wildland/urban interface 
communities.
    Alternative B--Expanded Hazardous Fuel Reduction and Additional 
Natural Resource Enhancement. Alternative B calls for a substantial 
increase over present levels in the reduction of hazardous fuels 
through prescribed burning and mechanical treatments (up to a combined 
total of 2,000 acres treated per year). Efforts would be concentrated 
where unplanned ignitions will be most likely to occur (e.g., road 
corridors), and where defensible space could most effectively contain 
unplanned ignitions and protect lives and property (e.g., around 
structures and strategically along the park interface zone). Natural 
resource enhancement would occur as a secondary benefit only. For 
example, prescribed burning to reduce fuels may have the secondary 
resource benefit of controlling a flammable, invasive non-native plant. 
Fire management actions would occur in nine of eleven FMUs with no 
projects occurring at the low grasslands within the Headlands FMU or in 
the Minimum Management FMU. Assuming full annual implementation, a 
stable fire condition with a lowered potential for a catastrophic fire 
such as the 1995 Vision Fire, could be achieved by Year 23 of plan 
implementation.
    Planning Background: On January 27, 2000, a ``Notice of Scoping'' 
for Fire Management Plan at Point Reyes National Seashore was published 
in the Federal Register. The beginning of public scoping was announced 
on January 29, 2000, at a public meeting of the Point Reyes National 
Seashore Citizens Advisory Commission with a presentation on the FMP 
planning process. In a series of internal and public scoping meetings 
input on fire management issues of concern and range of alternatives 
was solicited from the public, federal, state and local agencies, and 
NPS resource specialists. Briefing continued for local fire management 
and protection agencies during the FMP preparation. Scoping comments 
were solicited from January 27 through March 28, 2000. The major issues 
raised during the public review period are summarized in Chapter 1, 
Purpose of and Need for the Action. Approximately 50 people were 
involved in public scoping activities.
    A ``Notice of Availability'' of the Draft FMP EIS was published in 
the Federal Register on February 20, 2004, noted in San Francisco Bay 
area newspapers and mailed to the Point Reyes National Seashore mailing 
list (210 individuals and organizations). Fifteen copies of the Draft 
FMP EIS were sent to the California Clearinghouse for distribution. 
Copies of the document were also sent to interested parties, public 
libraries and state and federal agencies and the full document was 
posted on the park internet site. Approximately 15 other copies were 
distributed to the public when requested. A public workshop was held at 
the Point Reyes National Seashore Red Barn meeting room on the evening 
of March 18, 2004. The workshop was advertised by a mass mailing (210 
individuals and organizations) and a notice was placed in the local 
newspapers. Approximately 15 people came to the public workshop on the 
Draft FMP EIS.
    Comments on the draft were accepted until April 20, 2004. The NPS 
received seven written responses, including two letters comprising the 
informal consultation process as required for Endangered Species Act 
conformance. All comments were duly considered in preparing the FMP 
FEIS. All comments are reprinted in the FMP FEIS and are part of the 
administrative record for the FMP. The main issues and concerns 
expressed by the respondents included: clarification of conformance 
with air district regulations and prescribed burning procedures, smoke 
effects on public health, visual impacts of prescribed burns, effects 
on vegetation clearing on wildlife and privacy, and opportunity for 
continued communication between wildlife resources agency and the park.
    As part of this planning process, consultation for NEPA Section 7 
was held with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS), NOAA 
Fisheries Service. For NHPA, 106 Compliance, the State of California 
Preservation Offices (SHPO), and the Advisory Council for Historic 
Preservation were also contacted. Only the Washington State Historic 
Preservation Office responded with formal written comments. Neither the 
SHPOs nor the Advisory Council raised any concerns regarding the 
implementation of the Selected Plan. The USWFS provided comments that 
are incorporated in the Final FMP FEIS and NOAA concurred with the 
parks finding of not likely to adversely affect listed species.
    Addresses:
    Printed or CD copies of the FMP FEIS may be obtained from the 
Superintendent, Point Reyes National Seashore, Point Reyes, CA 94956, 
Attn: Fire Management Plan, or by e-mail request to: [email protected] (in the subject line, type: Fire Management Plan)--it 
will be sent directly to those who have requested it. The FEIS FMP can 
be obtained on the park's Web page (http://www.nps.gov/pore/pphtml/documents.html), and the printed document and digital version on 
compact disk will also be available at the park headquarters and local 
libraries. Please note that names and addresses of people who comment 
become part of the public record. If individuals commenting request 
that their name or/and address be withheld from public disclosure, it 
will be honored to the extent allowable by law. Such requests must be 
stated prominently in the beginning of the comments. There also may be 
circumstances wherein the NPS will withhold from the record a 
respondent's identity, as allowable by law. As always:

[[Page 53087]]

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 businesses; and, 
anonymous comments may not be considered.
    Decision:
    As a delegated EIS, the official responsible for the final decision 
is the Regional Director, Pacific West Region; a Record of Decision may 
be approved not sooner than 30 days after EPA's publication of the 
notice of filing of the FMP FEIS in the Federal Register. Notice of the 
final decision will be similarly posted in the Federal Register and 
announced in local and regional newspapers. Following approval of the 
Fire Management Plan, the official responsible for implementation will 
be the Superintendent, Point Reyes National Seashore.

    Dated: June 25, 2004.
Jonathan B. Jarvis,
Regional Director, Pacific West Region.
[FR Doc. 04-19787 Filed 8-30-04; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4312-FW-P