[Federal Register Volume 71, Number 209 (Monday, October 30, 2006)]
[Notices]
[Pages 63351-63352]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 06-8949]


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DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR

National Park Service


Environmental Impact Statement/General Management Plan; Ross Lake 
National Recreation Area, North Cascades National Park Complex, Skagit 
and Whatcom Counties, WA; Notice of Intent To Prepare an Environmental 
Impact Statement

    Summary: In accord with Sec.  102(2)(c) of the National 
Environmental Policy Act of 1969 (42 U.S.C. 4321, et seq.), the 
National Park Service is undertaking a conservation planning and 
environmental impact analysis process for updating the General 
Management Plan (General Management Plan) for the Ross Lake National 
Recreation Area, in northwestern Washington. Ross Lake National 
Recreation Area is administratively managed as part of the North 
Cascades National Park Service Complex; however, this GMP will 
specifically address the Ross Lake unit of the part complex. An 
Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) will be prepared concurrently with 
the GMP. The GMP is intended to set forth the basic management 
philosophy for this unit of the National Park System and provide the 
strategies for addressing issues and achieving identified management 
objectives for that unit. Thus, the GMP will serve as a blueprint to 
guide management of natural and cultural resources and visitor use 
during the next 15-20 years. One or more Development Concept Plans, 
which guide more detailed, site-specific preservation and development 
actions, may be included with the GMP.
    Consistent with NPS Planning Program Standards, the update GMP 
will: (1) Describe the Ross Lake National Recreation Area's (Ross Lake 
NRA) purpose, significance, and primary interpretive themes; (2) 
identify the fundamental resources and values of Ross Lake NRA, its 
other important resources and values, and describe the condition of 
these resources; (3) describe desired conditions for cultural and 
natural resources and visitor experiences throughout the Ross Lake NRA; 
(4) develop management zoning to support these desired conditions; (5) 
develop alternative applications of these management zones to the Ross 
Lake NRA's landscape (i.e., zoning alternatives); (6) address user 
capacity; (7) analyze potential boundary modifications; (8) ensure that 
management recommendations are developed in conclusion with interested 
stakeholders and the public and adopted by NPS after a thorough 
analysis of the benefits, potential environmental consequences, and 
economic costs of alternative courses of action; (9) develop cost 
estimates implementing each of the alternatives; and (10) identify and 
prioritize subsequent detailed studies, plans and actions that may be 
needed to implement the updated GMP.
    Scoping Process: A comprehensive scoping outreach effort is planned 
so as to elicit early public comment regarding issues and concerns, the 
nature and extent of potential environmental impacts (and as 
appropriate, mitigation measures), and possible alternatives that 
should be addressed in the preparing of the Draft EIS and proposed 
update to the GMP. Through the various scoping outreach activities 
planned, the NPS welcomes information and suggestions from the public 
regarding resource protection, visitor use, and land management. This 
notice formally initiates the public scoping comment phase for the EIS 
process. All written scoping comments must be postmarked not later than 
December 30, 2006. All comments should be addressed to: General 
Management Plan, Ross Lake National Recreation Area, Attn: Bill Paleck, 
Superintendent, North Cascades National Park Service Complex, 810 State 
Route 20, Sedro-Woolley, WA 92884-1289. At this time, it is expected 
that public workshops will be hosted in towns near Ross Lake NRA, and 
the metropolitan area of Seattle, Washington the week of October 16, 
2006, and the week of October 23, 2006. Detailed information regarding 
these meetings will be posted on the GMP Web site (http://parkplanning.nps.gov/rola). All participants will be given the 
opportunity to ask questions and provide comments to the planning team. 
The GMP Web site will provide the most up-to-date information regarding

[[Page 63352]]

the project, including project description, planning process updates, 
meeting notices, reports and documents, and useful links associated 
with the project; direct mailings will also be made periodically.
    Please note that our practice is to make comments, including names, 
home addresses, home phone numbers, and e-mail addresses of 
respondents, available for public review. Individual respondents may 
request that we withhold their names and/or home addresses, etc., but 
if you wish us to consider withholding this information you must state 
this prominently at the beginning of your comments. In addition, you 
must present a rationale for withholding this information. This 
rationale must demonstrate that disclosure would constitute a clearly 
unwarranted invasion of privacy. Unsupported assertions will not meet 
this burden. In the absence of exceptional, documentable circumstances, 
this information will be released. We will always make submissions from 
organizations or businesses, and from individuals identifying 
themselves as representatives of or officials of organizations or 
businesses, available for public inspection in their entirety.
    Supplementary Information: As noted above, Ross Lake NRA is managed 
as one unit of the North Cascades National Park Complex (North 
Cascades), which also includes North Cascades National Park (north and 
south units), and Lake Chelan National Recreation Area (which adjoins 
the park on the south). North Cascades is located deep in the 
northernmost reaches of the Cascades Range in Washington State and 
borders British Columbia, Canada.
    Management guidance for Ross Lake NRA was included in the North 
Cascades GMP (now 18 years old) and has become inadequate to address 
the policy and operational issues now facing park management for Ross 
Lake NRA. Since the completion of the North Cascades GMP, many changes 
have occurred that affect NRA management. Seattle City Light's three 
dam facilities have been re-licensed by the Federal Energy Regulatory 
Commission (FERC). The mitigation package approved as part of the 
relicensing agreement included several large-scale changes and 
improvements for Ross Lake NRA that were not included or fully 
envisioned in the 1988 North Cascades GMP. It is timely to update the 
GMP to address these large scale changes that are occurring in Ross 
Lake NRA and to address resource protection, visitor use, and 
management issues surrounding these enhancements.
    Additionally, Ross Lake NRA also faces other broad natural and 
cultural resource protection issues--these include bioregional 
management strategies for grizzly bear recovery, control of invasive 
species, local climate change effects, changing lake levels, air 
quality, archeology, and American Indian traditional uses. 
Complementary management strategies will be pursued for these resource 
challenges.
    Visitor use within Ross Lake NRA has diversified and significantly 
increased since the 1988 North Cascades GMP, due in part to the 
enhanced recreational facilities. Boating on Diablo and Ross Lakes has 
intensified. Use of Washington State's North Cascades Highway 20 (which 
bisects approximately 25 miles of Ross Lake NRA) has increased 
dramatically and is the most popular motorcycle touring route in the 
region. The GMP update is needed to adequately provide management 
guidance for visitor use, boats, and motor vehicles within the Ross 
Lake NRA and address carrying capacity for visitor experience and 
resource protection.
    Following the completion of the 1988 North Cascades GMP, the 
Stephen Mather Wilderness within the North Cascades National Park 
Complex was designated by Congress in November 1988. This act brought 
93% of the park complex under the provisions of the 1964 Wilderness 
Act, and 69% of Ross Lake NRA is designated wilderness (4% is 
designated potential wilderness). The new GMP is needed to adequately 
update zoning for the management of wilderness lands within Ross Lake 
NRA, and will ratify the current management contained in the Wilderness 
Management Plan.
    Trans-boundary ecosystem and recreation management is also a 
significant issue for Ross Lake NRA, which borders British Columbia 
provincial parks for five miles along its northern border. Hozomeen, at 
the US-Canada border, is the most developed access point onto Ross 
Lake. Ross Lake NRA is within a large extended watershed that begins in 
Canada, continues through the North Cascades and lower river valley, 
and then drains into the Pacific Ocean. An effort by Skagit 
Environmental Endowment Commission (SEE), an endowed organization 
established by international treaty, is underway to manage the upper 
Skagit watershed more holistically between Canada and the United 
States. The new GMP will address trans-boundary resource management 
issues as well as partnership opportunities with U.S. and Canadian 
entities. In addition, SEE has provided funding to the province of 
British Columbia to complete a managment plan for its provincial park 
units adjacent to Ross Lake NRA and within the upper Skagit watershed.
    Decision Process: Following the scoping phase and consideration of 
public concerns and other agency comments, a Draft EIS and proposed GMP 
will be prepared and released for public review. Availability of the 
forthcoming Draft EIS for public review and written comment will be 
formally announced with publication of a Notice of Availability in the 
Federal Register, as well as through local and regional news media, 
direct mailings, and via Web site postings. Following due consideration 
of all agency and public comment, a Final EIS will be prepared; it is 
anticipated that the final GMP proposal will be available in September 
2009. As a delegated EIS, the official responsible for the decision on 
the proposed GMP is the Regional Director, Pacific West Region, 
National Park Service. Subsequently, the official responsible for 
implementation of the approved GMP would be the Superintendent, North 
Cascades National Park Service Complex.

    Dated: September 14, 2006.
Patricia L. Neubacher,
Acting Regional Director, Pacific West Region.
[FR Doc. 06-8949 Filed 10-27-06; 8:45 am]
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