[Federal Register Volume 77, Number 179 (Friday, September 14, 2012)]
[Notices]
[Pages 56859-56860]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2012-22722]


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DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR

National Park Service

[NPS-WASO-PWR-10709; 9475-5000-NZY]


Federal Register Notification of Redesignation of Potential 
Wilderness as Wilderness, Ross Lake National Recreation Area, North 
Cascades National Park Service Complex, Washington

AGENCY: National Park Service, Interior.

ACTION: Notice of Redesignation of Potential Wilderness as Wilderness.

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SUMMARY: The 1988 Washington Parks Wilderness Act (Pub. L. 100-668, 
November 16, 1988) designated 634,614 acres of North Cascades National 
Park, Ross Lake National Recreation Area, and Lake Chelan National 
Recreation Area as the Stephen Mather Wilderness. Due to the potential 
for hydroelectric development, the Act also designated an additional 
5,226 acres of potential wilderness within Ross Lake National 
Recreation Area, including approximately 1,667 acres of land within the 
Lower Big Beaver Valley and 3,559-acres of the Lower Thunder Creek 
Valley.
    Seattle City Light (SCL), a hydroelectric utility with the City of 
Seattle, retained rights, through Section 505 of the Act of October 2, 
1968 (82 Stat. 930; 16 U.S.C. 90d-4) as amended under Title II, Section 
202 of Public Law 100-668, for hydroelectric development

``* * *in the lands and waters within the Skagit River Hydroelectric 
Project, Federal Energy and Regulatory Commission Project 53, 
including the proposed Copper Creek, High Ross, and Thunder Creek 
elements of the project''.

    In April 2008, SCL formally abandoned hydroelectric development 
plans for the potential wilderness area within the Lower Thunder Creek 
Valley after determining the proposal was not economically or 
environmentally feasible. Consequently there are no current, or 
proposed, uses of the 3,559 acres of Thunder Creek Potential Wilderness 
which are incompatible with wilderness designation.
    Title IV, Section 2 of the Washington Parks Wilderness Act 
authorized the Secretary of the Interior to designate administratively 
as wilderness any lands designated as potential wilderness upon 
publication in the Federal Register of a notice that all uses thereon 
that are inconsistent with the Wilderness Act of 1964 (Pub. L. 88-577) 
have ceased or that non-Federal interests in land have been acquired.
    Accordingly, this notice hereby converts the 3,559 acres of 
potential wilderness in Lower Thunder Creek Valley, within North 
Cascades National Park Service Complex, to designated wilderness. The 
3,559 acres shall be added to the 634,614 acres of designated 
wilderness within the Stephen Mather Wilderness, and managed in 
accordance with the Wilderness Act of 1964. The 1,667 acres of land 
within the Lower Big Beaver Valley are not affected by this Notice.


[[Page 56860]]


    Dated: July 25, 2012.
Jonathan B. Jarvis,
Director, National Park Service.
[FR Doc. 2012-22722 Filed 9-13-12; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4312-GX-P