[Federal Register Volume 73, Number 15 (Wednesday, January 23, 2008)]
[Notices]
[Pages 3922-3923]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 08-229]


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DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE

Forest Service


Bull Run Watershed Management Unit Agreement, Multnomah County, 
OR

AGENCY: Forest Service, USDA.

ACTION: Notice of Availability of Final Agreement.

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SUMMARY: The Mt. Hood National Forest (Forest) in coordination with the 
City of Portland Water Bureau (City) has prepared a new Bull Run 
Watershed Management Unit Agreement pursuant to Public Law 95-200, 
section 2(d). This Agreement will guide and be applicable to all 
occupancy, use, and management of the Bull Run Watershed Management 
Unit by the City and the Forest. This Agreement replaces the 1979 
Memorandum of Understanding (MOU). This new Agreement provides the 
revised administrative direction and agreements needed to structure the 
parties' roles, responsibilities, business processes, and working 
relationships for the coming decades. The Agreement was approved on 
December 17, 2007. A copy of the Final Agreement is available on the 
following Internet Web sites, http://www.fs.fed.us/r6/mthood under 
projects & plans, or http://www.portlandonline.com/water/. Hard copies 
of the Final Agreement may be obtained by contacting the contact person 
listed below.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Questions about the Agreement or 
requests for copies should be directed to Rick Acosta, Mt. Hood 
National Forest, Public Affairs Officer, 16400 Champion Way, Sandy, 
Oregon 97055-7248, (e-mail: [email protected]), or phone: 503-668-1791, 
or Terry Black, City of Portland Water Bureau, Outreach Specialist, 
1120 SW., 5th Avenue, Portland, OR 97204, (e-mail: 
[email protected]), or phone: 503-823-1168.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The Bull Run watershed, located in the Mt. 
Hood National Forest, is the largest and oldest of the several water 
supplies serving the Portland metropolitan area. Its role in the 
region's past, present and future, along with its unprecedented level 
of water quality, make it a high priority for both the City and the 
Forest Service to take the steps necessary to ensure its continuing 
quality, productivity and protection.
    As the City and the Forest Service began to look closely at the 
administrative and policy frameworks that guided their interactions 
they noted that much of that framework dated from the late 1970s and 
arose from the direction provided in the 1977 Bull Run Management Act 
(Pub. L. 95-200). As little of that framework had been updated over 
time, its applicability to current issues and needs is limited. Thus, 
this new agreement replaces the 1979 MOU, aligns practice with existing 
legislation, and provides the revised administrative direction and 
agreements needed to structure the parties' roles, responsibilities, 
business processes, and working relationships for the coming decades.
    The City and the Forest Service, along with community interests in 
the greater Portland metropolitan area, have had a long and sometimes 
contentious history of working together to protect and manage the 
valuable ecological and water resources of the Bull Run watershed. But 
with the coming of the 21st century, the issues and conflicts in policy 
and direction that held attention for the last fifty years have all but 
disappeared. Now, the parties are turning to the future, responding to 
new

[[Page 3923]]

fiscal realities, and working together to frame the structures, 
processes, roles and responsibilities that will allow them to act 
effectively as joint stewards of this valuable regional and national 
resource, in concert with citizens who increasingly desire to redeem 
their responsibilities in stewardship of their lands.
    Officials from the City of Portland and the Mount Hood National 
Forest prepared this new Agreement between the City and the Forest 
Service to identify preferred administrative arrangements for their 
joint management of the Bull Run Watershed Management Unit. The purpose 
and hope of the Agreement is to document a new and more relevant 
relationship between the City and the Forest Service for the long-term 
stewardship of the Bull Run Watershed Management Unit that is built on 
a firm foundation of citizen involvement.
    The final Agreement was approved on December 17, 2007. In 
completing the Agreement, the Forest and the City responded to comments 
received during the comment period and also jointly prepared a Report 
to the Community. This Report discussed the history and background of 
discussions that led to the new agreement. This Report is also 
available on both of the Web sites listed above. The Agency officials 
are Gary Larsen, Forest Supervisor, Mt. Hood National Forest for the 
Forest Service, and the City official is Randy Leonard, Commissioner-
in-Charge, City of Portland Water Bureau for the City of Portland.

(Authority: Sec. 2, Pub. L. 95-200, 91 Stat. 1425 (16 U.S.C. 482b)

    Dated: January 2, 2008.
Gary L. Larsen,
Forest Supervisor.
[FR Doc. 08-229 Filed 1-22-08; 8:45 am]
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