[Federal Register Volume 76, Number 2 (Tuesday, January 4, 2011)]
[Notices]
[Pages 315-316]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2010-33090]


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DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE

Forest Service


Sisters Ranger District; Deschutes National Forest; Oregon; 
Popper Vegetation Management 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) on a proposed action to manage forest fuels and forest 
stand densities, including areas within a designated wildland urban 
interface, on the Sisters Ranger District, Deschutes National Forest. 
In addition, the proposal would decommission and close Forest Roads. 
The proposed action would be located on National Forest System lands 
south of the city of Sisters, Oregon; east of the Three Sisters 
Wilderness; north of the boundary with the BendFort Rock Ranger 
District; and west of the 33,000 acre Cascade Timberlands property 
which is being considered as a future Community Forest. The legal 
location is Townships 16 and 17 south and Range 9 east, Willamette 
Meridian. The project area is managed under the Northwest Forest Plan: 
Matrix (12,813 acres); Late Successional Reserve (3,078 acres); and 
Administratively Withdrawn (1,301 acres). The project area also 
contains 1,336 acres of Riparian Reserves. The alternatives will 
include the proposed action, no action, and additional alternatives 
that respond to issues generated during the scoping process. The agency 
will give notice of the full environmental analysis and the decision 
making process so interested and affected people may participate and 
contribute to the final decision.

DATES: Comments concerning the scope of analysis should be received by 
30 days following the date that this notice appears in the Federal 
Register.

ADDRESSES: Send written comments to Michael Keown, Team Leader, Sisters 
Ranger District, Pine Street and Highway 20, POB 249, Sisters, Oregon 
97759, or submit to [email protected]. Please put ``Popper Vegetation Management Project'' 
in the

[[Page 316]]

subject line of your e-mail. You will have another opportunity for 
comment when the alternatives have been developed and the Environmental 
Impact Statement is made available.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Michael Keown, Team Leader, Sisters 
Ranger District, Pine Street and Highway 20, POB 249, Sisters, Oregon 
97759, phone (541) 549-7700.
    Responsible Official: The responsible offical will be John Allen, 
Deschutes National Forest Supervisor, 1001 SW Emkay, Bend, Oregon 
97701.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
    Purpose and Need: The need for this site specific proposal is to 
reduce fuels loadings and forest vegetation density to lessen the risk 
that ongoing disturbance agents such as wildfire, insects, and disease 
would lead to a large scale threat to public firefighter, nearby 
communities and private property, and loss of key ecosystem components 
such as special habitats, scenic views, and large trees. The purpose of 
the project is to reduce the threat of large scale wildfire to people, 
property, and important ecosystem components; improve forest health; 
contribute wood products and restoration work to the local and regional 
economy; and reintroduce fire in fire dependent ecosystems in the 
Popper project area.
    Proposed Action: The Forest Service proposed action would include 
combinations of thinning forest stands, mowing brush, and controlled 
burning of forest fuels on about 12,390 acres of the 17,194-acre 
project area, including about 4,277 acres in a designated wildland-
urban interface. About 2,259 acres of thinning would occur within 
existing tree plantations to create more structurally diverse forests; 
about 1,418 acres of the lodgepole pine plant community would be 
managed to maintain ongoing public firewood cutting; about 2,480 acres 
would be thinned from below to maintain fire climax ponderosa pine; 
about 1,344 acres would be thinned and group openings created to 
restore and maintain ponderosa pine in the mixed conifer plant 
community; about 583 acres would be thinned, mowed, and burned to 
control dwarf mistletoe in ponderosa pine stands; about 3,201 acres of 
Inventoried Roadless Area (IRA) would be prescribed burned to provide a 
mosaic of age classes and stand structures within large areas of 
homogeneous stand structure (no roads will be built and no timber will 
be sold in Inventoried Roadless Areas); about 235 acres of Riparian 
Reserves would be thinned and burned to maintain and restore riparian 
function; and about 521 acres would be prescribed burned only to manage 
in-growth of trees, reduce forest fuels, and reintroduce fire back into 
the ecosystem. About 4,648 acres in the Popper project area would not 
be treated to provide a spatial array of acres across the area to 
provide dispersal and foraging habitat for various wildlife species and 
other ecological processes. These no treatment areas include nesting, 
roosting, and foraging habitat for the northern spotted owl; areas of 
topography greater than 35% slope; and sensitive habitats among others.
    Comment. Public comments about this proposal are requested in order 
to assist in identifying issues, determine how to best manage the 
resources, and to focus the analysis. Comments received to this notice, 
including names and addresses of those who comment, will be considered 
part of the public record on this proposed action and will be available 
for public inspection. Comments submitted anonymously will be accepted 
and considered; however, those who submit anonymous comments will not 
have standing to appeal the subsequent decision under 36 CFR part 215. 
Additionally, pursuant to 7 CFR 1.27(d), any person may request the 
agency to withhold a submission from the public record by showing how 
the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) permits such confidentiality. 
Persons requesting such confidentiality should be aware that, under 
FOIA, confidentiality may be granted in only very limited 
circumstances, such as to protect trade secrets. The Forest Service 
will inform the requester of the agency's decision regarding the 
request for confidentiality, and where the request is denied the agency 
will return the submission and notify the requester that the comments 
may be resubmitted with or without name and address within a specified 
number of days.
    A draft EIS will be filed with the Environmental Protection Agency 
(EPA) and available for public review by Fall 2011. The EPA will 
publish a Notice of Availability (NOA) of the draft EIS in the Federal 
Register. The final EIS is scheduled to be available Spring 2012.
    The comment period on the draft EIS will be 45 days from the date 
the EPA 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 
a draft EIS 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 EIS stage but that are not 
raised until after completion of the final EIS may be waived or 
dismissed by the courts [City of Angoon 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 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 EIS.
    To assist the Forest Service in identifying and considering issues 
and concerns on the proposed action, comments on the draft EIS 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 EIS of 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.
    In the final EIS, the Forest Service is required to respond to 
comments received during the comment period for the draft EIS. The 
Forest Service is the lead agency and the responsible official is the 
Forest Supervisor, Deschutes National Forest. The responsible official 
will decide where, and whether or not to treat forest stands to achieve 
the purpose and need for the project. The responsible official will 
also decide how to mitigate impacts of these actions and will determine 
when and how monitoring of effects will take place.
    The Popper Vegetation Management Project decision and the reasons 
for the decision will be documented in the Record of Decision. That 
decision will be subject to Forest Service Appeal Regulations (35 CFR 
part 215).

    Dated: December 27, 2010.
Robert Flores,
Acting District Ranger, Sisters Ranger District.
[FR Doc. 2010-33090 Filed 1-3-11; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 3410-11-M