[Federal Register Volume 73, Number 14 (Tuesday, January 22, 2008)]
[Notices]
[Pages 3689-3691]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: E8-982]


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DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE

Forest Service


Umpqua National Forest, Douglas County, Oregon; D-Bug Hazard 
Reduction Timber Sale Project

AGENCY: Forest Service, USDA.

ACTION: Notice of Intent to Prepare an Environmental Impact Statement.

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SUMMARY: The USDA Forest Service will prepare an environmental impact 
statement (EIS) for reducing fuels, improving forest stand conditions, 
salvaging present and future bark beetle mortality, and creating fuel 
breaks around the Diamond Lake and Lemolo Lake Wildland Urban Interface 
(WUI) areas, and along evacuation routes that lead to and from these 
areas. Fuel loadings have increased due to fire exclusion and an 
ongoing bark beetle outbreak in both lodgepole and mixed conifer stands 
throughout the area. This EIS will be prepared under the authority of 
the Healthy Forest Restoration Act (HFRA). The project proposes 
variable density commercial thinning on about 3,146 acres of lodgepole 
pine, leaving between 20-50 trees per acre (TPA), interspersed with 10% 
of the area with no treatment; commercial thinning from below on about 
2,244 acres of mixed conifer stands, leaving 50-200 TPA; overstory 
removal on 59 acres of lodgepole pine stands, leaving about 20 TPA; 
non-commercial treatment of fuels using pre-commercial thinning, 
mastication, whip felling, chipping, piling and burning on about 2,013 
acres; treating all activity-created fuels by underburning, crushing, 
machine piling, masticating, handpile burning, and/or yarding tops 
attached; using 25 miles of existing unclassified roads to access 
thinning/treatment areas, then decommissioning about 5 miles that are 
not used for trails or as the old highway; building 15 miles of new 
temporary spur roads for access, then decommissioning them after use; 
road reconstruction and maintenance throughout the planning area; and 
use of existing rock pits; all acreages and miles are approximate and 
are refined during sale layout. The project includes amending the 1990 
Umpqua National Forest Land and Resource Management Plan (LRMP). The 
planning area is located approximately 75 miles east of Roseburg, 
Oregon. The project is expected to be implemented starting in Fiscal 
Year 2009. The agency gives notice of the full environmental analysis 
and decision-making process that will occur on the proposal so that 
interested and affected people may become aware of how they can 
participate in the process and contribute to the final decision.

DATES: Comments concerning the scope of the analysis must be received 
by February 5, 2008. The draft environmental impact statement is 
expected to be available in April or May of 2008 and the final 
environmental impact statement is expected to be available in June or 
July of 2008.

ADDRESSES: Send written comments and suggestions concerning this 
proposal to Clifford J. Dils, Forest Supervisor, Umpqua National 
Forest, 2900 NW. Stewart Parkway, Roseburg, OR 97470; you may also 
submit comments electronically to [email protected].

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: For information about the proposal, 
contact Barbara Fontaine, D-Bug Project Manager, phone 541-957-3422, e-
mail [email protected], Umpqua National Forest, 2900 NW. Stewart 
Parkway, Roseburg, OR 97470; or Debbie Anderson, D-Bug 
Interdisciplinary Team Leader, phone 541-957-3466, e-mail 
[email protected], Umpqua National Forest, 2900 NW. Stewart 
Parkway, Roseburg, OR 97470. The proposal is also listed on the 
Forest's Web site at http://www.fs.fed.us/r6/umpqua/projects/projectdocs/d-bug-ts/index.shtml.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The planning area being analyzed in the D-
Bug Hazard Reduction Timber Sale Project encompasses almost 40,000 
acres, and is bounded by Lemolo Lake to the North, Crater Lake National 
Park to the South, the Oregon Cascades Recreation Area and the Mt. 
Thielsen Wilderness to the East, and the Mt. Bailey Inventoried 
Roadless Area to the West. The planning area includes all or portions 
of T26S, R5E, Sections 10, 11, 13-15, 23-26, 34-36; T26S, R6E, Sections 
16-21, 28-33; T27S, R5E, Sections 1-5, 25, 36; T27S, R6E, Sections 5-8, 
17, 20, 29-32; T28S, R5.5E, Sections 4, 9, 16, 18-21, 28-30, 33-35; 
T28S, R6E, Sections 1, 12, 13, 22-26, 35; and T29S, R5.5E, Sections 2-
4.

Purpose and Need for Action

    The purpose of the D-Bug Hazard Reduction Timber Sale Project is to 
lessen the severity and reduce the impacts of both an on-going mountain 
pine beetle outbreak and existing and anticipated fuel accumulations by 
the timely commercial harvest and non-commercial treatments of high 
risk stands in strategic locations. The need for action is focused on 
four elements:
    Element 1: The need for modifying pine beetle habitat conditions in 
stands containing lodgepole pine to reduce potential infestation by 
mountain pine beetles.
    Element 2: The need to reduce existing and predicted fuel loads in 
areas identified as high fire hazard within the Diamond and Lemolo Lake 
wildland-urban interface areas (WUIs) and the evacuation routes from 
these at risk communities.
    Element 3: The need for removing existing dead and eminently dying 
pine in areas already infested where human use is high in order to 
protect the recreating public from hazard trees.
    Element 4: The need for increasing stand vigor in densely-stocked 
mixed conifer stands containing older, large ponderosa pine, western 
white pine, Shasta red fir, and Pacific silver fir in order to improve 
stand resiliency during future wildfires.

Proposed Action

    The proposed action was developed to address the elements of the 
purpose and need. It would implement recommendations of the Douglas 
County Community Wildfire Protection Plans for Lemolo and Diamond Lakes 
to treat hazardous fuels in the WUIs and install fuelbreaks along 
evacuation routes such as Highways 138, 230, and roads leading away 
from both the WUIs. Additional fuelbreaks are also included in the 
proposed action to help slow down a wildfire between the Mt. Thielsen 
Wilderness and the Lemolo Lake area. In stands containing pine, timely 
thinning in advance of beetle outbreaks would increase the vigor of the 
remaining trees as well as the likelihood that they would survive an 
outbreak when it arrives, thus lessening the fuel accumulation that 
naturally follows behind pine beetle outbreaks. In stands already 
infested by mountain pine beetles and located near high use recreation 
areas, the dead trees would be salvaged to lower safety hazards and 
fuel accumulations. Finally, reducing stand density will approximate 
more natural stand conditions potentially allowing older fire-tolerant 
trees more of a chance to survive future fires.
    Specifically the Proposed Action includes the following activities:
     Variable density commercial thinning of 3,146 acres in 
lodgepole pine stands leaving 20-50 trees per acre

[[Page 3690]]

(TPA) interspersed with 10% of the area with no treatment, and 
commercial thinning of 2,244 acres in mixed conifer stands (leaving 50-
200 TPA). The thinnings would use ground-based and skyline logging 
systems in both the matrix and riparian reserve land allocations to 
generate about 44 million board feet of timber. These commercial 
thinnings include 620 acres within outer edges of the Mt. Bailey and 
Thirsty Creek Appendage Inventoried Roadless Areas (IRA's), and 318 
acres along the edge of the Oregon Cascades Recreation Area (OCRA). The 
lodgepole variable density thinning would not generate any individual 
openings greater than 40 acres in size.
     Overstory removal (leaving about 20 overstory TPA) in two 
lodgepole pine stands on 59 acres. These overstory removals would not 
generate any openings greater than 40 acres.
     Non-commercial removal of fuels on about 2,013 acres by 
pre-commercial thinning, mastication, whip felling, chipping, and 
piling and burning of slash. This includes treatment on about 344 acres 
of stands along the edges of the Mt. Bailey and Thirsty Creek Appendage 
IRA and 15 acres in the OCRA.
     Treating activity-created fuels (slash) on all acres 
commercially thinned by underburning (195 acres), crushing (976 acres), 
machine piling (1,223 acres), masticating (1,146 acres), handpile 
burning (107); yarding tops attached (3,333 acres), or using a 
combination of the above (663 acres).
     Using about 25 miles of existing spur roads to access 
thinning areas then decommissioning about 5 miles after use (about 20 
miles of these existing roads are now designated as winter use trails, 
are the remnants of the old North Umpqua Highway, or are used for other 
access needs and would not be obliterated after use).
     Building a total of about 15.5 miles of new temporary spur 
roads to provide access for logging machinery and for accessing stands 
for non-commercial treatments, then obliterating them after use.
     Reconstructing portions of 9 sections of existing system 
roads (work would occur along 3.3 miles of road) including: Road re-
alignment; intersection improvement; road widening; placing or 
replacing surface rock; reshaping road beds; and hazard tree felling.
     Maintaining about 66 miles of existing roads 
(approximately 9 miles are currently closed) including: Grading and 
shaping of existing road surfaces; dust abatement; blading road beds 
and ditches; hazard tree felling; cleaning/maintaining ditches as 
needed; opening and re-closing existing closed roads; removing debris 
from the roadway; and cutting of intruding vegetation along roadsides.
     Utilizing the existing Boundary and Lemolo Dam rock pits 
(including drilling, blasting, rock crushing and rock hauling), along 
with several rock disposal sites as the rock source for the road work.

Forest Plan Amendments

    The 1990 Umpqua National Forest Land and Resource Management Plan 
(LRMP) would be amended in the following areas:
    1. The LRMP assigned Visual Quality Objectives of Retention and 
Partial Retention along Highway 138 and Highway 230, and areas 
surrounding Diamond Lake and Lemolo Lakes. The LRMP would be amended to 
modify these objectives in the short term in order to meet the purpose 
and need.
    2. The LRMP does not permit timber harvest in Management Areas 1, 
except in the event of catastrophic damage; there are about 60 acres of 
commercial treatment planned in MA 1 in order to lower the effects of 
the on-going mountain pine beetle outbreak and reduce fuels in the 
vicinity of the Wildland Urban Interface Area. The LRMP would be 
amended to allow timber harvest to help reduce the fire risk to the 
area.
    3. The LRMP places a size limitation on timber harvest openings 
(units) that can be created within Management Area 2, the Diamond Lake 
Recreation Composite. In order to allow for removal of beetle killed 
trees and to allow for the lodgepole pine to be removed, the LRMP would 
be amended to allow for timber harvest units greater than \1/2\-acre in 
size.
    4. The LRMP excluded most of the lodgepole pine ecosystem from the 
timber harvest base because of poor site conditions and low growing 
capacity. A recent analysis (Blackburn 2007) of stand conditions shows 
that these sites are growing at a rate that exceeds plan expectations; 
however, in order to harvest timber for this project, the 1990 LRMP 
would be amended to allow for timber harvest in the lodgepole pine 
ecosystem.
    5. The LRMP excludes timber harvest around unique habitats for a 
distance of 150 feet. The LRMP would be amended to allow for fuel 
reduction treatments adjacent to some unique habitats in order to 
reduce existing and predicted fuel loads.

Possible Alternatives

    The alternatives to be considered include the No Action 
Alternative, the Proposed Action, and another alternative that may be 
developed if scoping identifies any issues with the proposed action.

Lead and Cooperating Agencies

    The USDA Forest Service, Umpqua National Forest is the lead agency. 
Douglas County has been granted cooperating agency status.

Responsible Official

    Clifford J. Dils, Forest Supervisor of the Umpqua National Forest, 
is the responsible official for this project. The address for the 
Umpqua National Forest is 2900 NW Stewart Parkway, Roseburg, OR 97470.

Nature of Decision To Be Made

    The Forest Supervisor of the Umpqua National Forest will decide 
whether to implement the action as proposed, whether to take no action 
at this time, or whether to implement any alternatives that are 
proposed. The Forest Supervisor will also decide whether to amend the 
1990 Umpqua National Forest Land and Resource Management Plan, if an 
action alternative is chosen.

Scoping Process

    Scoping begins with the publication of this Notice of Intent to 
prepare an EIS. The project has also been listed in the quarterly 
schedule of proposed actions (SOPA) since October of 2007. A scoping 
packet, detailing the proposed action, along with maps of the proposal, 
was mailed to over 350 interested publics on January 10, 2008. The 
scoping effort is intended to identify issues, which may lead to the 
development of alternatives to the proposed action.

Preliminary Issues

    At this time, no preliminary issues have been identified.

Comment Requested

    This notice of intent initiates the scoping proces which guides the 
development of the environmental impact statement. In order to help the 
Forest Service identify any issues related to the proposal, comments 
are requested by February 5, 2008. Issues that are raised with the 
proposal may lead to alternative ways to meet the purpose and need of 
the project.

[[Page 3691]]

Early Notice of Importance of Public Participation in Subsequent 
Environmental Review

    A draft environmental impact statement will be prepared for 
comment. The comment period on the draft environmental impact statement 
will be 45 days from the date the Environmental Protection Agency 
publishes the notice of availability in the Federal Register. The 
Forest Service believes, at this early stage, it is important to give 
reviewers notice of several court rulings related to public 
participation in the environmental review process. First, reviewers of 
draft environmental impact statements must structure their 
participation in the environmental review of the proposal so that it is 
meaningful and alerts an agency to the reviewer's position and 
contentions. Vermont Yankee Nuclear Power Corp. v. NRDC, 435 U.S. 519, 
553 (1978). Also, environmental objections that could be raised at the 
draft environmental impact statement stage but that are not raised 
until after completion of the final environmental impact statement may 
be waived or dismissed by the courts. City of Angoon v. Hodel, 803 F.2d 
1016, 1022 (9th Cir. 1986) and Wisconsin Heritages, Inc. v. Harris, 490 
F. Supp. 1334, 1338 (E.D. Wis. 1980). Because of these court rulings, 
it is very important that those interested in this proposed action 
participate by the close of the 45-day comment period so that 
substantive comments and objections are made available to the Forest 
Service at a time when it can meaningfully consider them and respond to 
them in the final environmental impact statement.
    To assist the Forest Service in identifying and considering issues 
and concerns on the proposed action, comments on the draft 
environmental impact statement should be as specific as possible. It is 
also helpful if comments refer to specific pages or chapters of the 
draft statement. Comments may also address the adequacy of the draft 
environmental impact statement or the merits of the alternatives 
formulated and discussed in the statement. Reviewers may wish to refer 
to the Council on Environmental Quality Regulations for implementing 
the procedural provisions of the National Environmental Policy Act at 
40 CFR 1503.3 in addressing these points.
    Comments received, including the names and addresses of those who 
comment, will be considered part of the public record on this proposal 
and will be available for public inspection.

(Authority: 40 CFR 1501.7 and 1508.22; Forest Service Handbook 
1909.15, Section 21)

    Dated: January 15, 2008.
Clifford J. Dils,
Forest Supervisor..
[FR Doc. E8-982 Filed 1-18-08; 8:45 am]
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