[Federal Register Volume 69, Number 184 (Thursday, September 23, 2004)]
[Notices]
[Pages 56992-56993]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: E4-2346]


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DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE

Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service

[Docket No. 01-009-7]


Wildlife Services; Availability of a Supplemental Environmental 
Assessment and Decision/Finding of No Significant Impact for Oral 
Rabies Vaccination Program

AGENCY: Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, USDA.

ACTION: Notice and request for comments.

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SUMMARY: We are advising the public that we have prepared a 
supplemental environmental assessment and proposed decision/finding of 
no significant impact relative to oral rabies vaccination programs 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), a supplemental environmental assessment and decision/finding of 
no significant impact (2003), and an environmental assessment and 
decision/finding of no significant impact (2004) concerning expansion 
to National Forest System lands, we have determined there is a need to 
further expand the oral rabies vaccination program to include 26 States 
and the District of Columbia to effectively stop the westward and 
northward spread of the rabies virus across the United States and into 
Canada. The purpose of the supplemental environmental assessment and 
proposed 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 vaccination program.

DATES: We will consider all comments that we receive on or before 
October 25, 2004. Unless we determine that new substantial issues 
bearing on the effects of the proposed expansion of the oral rabies 
vaccination 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 any of the following methods:
     Postal Mail/Commercial Delivery: Please send four copies 
of your comment (an original and three copies) to Docket No. 01-009-7, 
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. 01-009-7.
     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. 01-009-7'' on the subject 
line.
     Agency Web site: Go to http://www.aphis.usda.gov/ppd/rad/cominst.html for a form you can use to submit an e-mail comment through 
the APHIS Web site.
    Reading Room: You may 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.
    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.
    Other Information: You may view APHIS documents published in the 
Federal Register and related information, including the names of groups 
and individuals who have commented on APHIS dockets, on the Internet at 
http://www.aphis.usda.gov/ppd/rad/webrepor.html.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Mr. Dennis Slate, National Rabies 
Program Coordinator, Wildlife Services, APHIS, 59 Chennell Drive, Suite 
7, Concord, NH 03301-8548; phone (603) 223-9623.

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

[[Page 56993]]

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.
    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 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 ORV programs to include 
the States of Kentucky and Tennessee in order 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 addressed 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).
    Following the publication of the supplemental EA and decision/FONSI 
in June 2003, we determined the need to further expand the ORV program 
to portions of National Forest System lands, excluding Wilderness 
Areas, within several eastern States. APHIS-WS involvement was expanded 
to include National Forest System lands 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. 
Numerous National Forest System lands are located within current and 
potential ORV barrier zones. To effectively combat this strain of the 
rabies virus, it became increasingly important to bait these large land 
masses. We prepared an EA, in cooperation with the USDA-Forest Service, 
which addressed the expansion of National Forest System lands in the 
ORV program. In addition, we prepared a decision/FONSI based on the EA 
that was published in the Federal Register on February 20, 2004 (69 FR 
7904-7905, Docket No. 01-009-6).
    Recently, we have determined the need to further expand the ORV 
program to include 26 States and the District of Columbia to 
effectively prevent the westward and northward spread of the rabies 
virus across the United States and into Canada. The States where APHIS-
WS involvement would be continued or expanded include: Alabama, 
Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Kentucky, Louisiana, 
Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Mississippi, New Hampshire, 
New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, 
South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Vermont, Virginia, and West Virginia. 
The programs' primary goals are to stop the spread of specific raccoon 
(eastern States), gray fox (Texas), and coyote (Texas) rabies variants 
or ``strains'' of the rabies virus.
    The August 2001 EA and decision/FONSI, the July 2002 supplemental 
decision/FONSI, the June 2003 supplemental EA and decision/FONSI, the 
February 2004 EA and decision/FONSI, and this supplemental EA and 
decision/FONSI for expanded ORV program activities in 26 States and the 
District of Columbia 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 16th day of September 2004.
Kevin Shea,
Acting Administrator, Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service.
[FR Doc. E4-2346 Filed 9-22-04; 8:45 am]
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