[Federal Register Volume 77, Number 215 (Tuesday, November 6, 2012)]
[Notices]
[Pages 66578-66580]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2012-27030]


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DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE

Forest Service


San Bernardino National Forest, Mountaintop Ranger District, CA, 
Santa Ana Watershed Hazardous Fuels Reduction and Forest Health Project

AGENCY: Forest Service, USDA.

ACTION: Notice of intent to prepare an environmental impact statement.

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SUMMARY: The Mountaintop Ranger District, San Bernardino National 
Forest proposes to reduce fire risk and improve forest health within 
approximately 19,850 acres around the Barton Flats area of the upper 
Santa Ana Watershed under the authority of the Healthy Forests 
Restoration Act (HFRA) of 2003. To meet the primary purposes of 
providing for firefighter safety and community protection, it is 
proposed to create shaded fuelbreaks along private property boundaries 
adjacent to communities, along roads, and ridge tops that are 
strategically important as defensible fire-fighting zones. Outside of 
these fuelbreaks, it is proposed to reduce the potential for stand-
replacing wildfire by reducing tree densities and removing excess 
fuels, while at the same time maintaining essential forest structure 
required by wildlife. The proposed action includes the long-term 
maintenance of the treatments proposed to meet the desired conditions.

DATES: Comments concerning the scope of the analysis must be received 
by December 6, 2012. The draft environmental impact statement is 
expected July 2013 and the final environmental impact statement is 
expected September 2013.

ADDRESSES: Send written comments to San Bernardino National Forest, 602 
S. Tippecanoe Ave., San Bernardino, CA 92408. Comments may also be sent 
via email to [email protected], on the 
project Web site at https://cara.ecosystem-management.org/Public/CommentInput?Project=24122, or via facsimile to (909) 383-5770.
    It is important that reviewers provide their comments at such times 
and in such a way that they are useful to the Agency's preparation of 
the EIS. Therefore, comments should be provided prior to the close of 
the comment period and should clearly articulate the reviewer's 
concerns and contentions.
    Comments received in response to this solicitation, including names 
and addresses of those who comment, will be part of the public record 
for this proposed action. Comments submitted anonymously will be 
accepted and considered, however.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Tom Hall, Environmental Coordinator at 
[email protected]; (909) 382-2905; or 602 S. Tippecanoe Ave., San 
Bernardino, CA 92408.
    Individuals who use telecommunication devices for the deaf (TDD) 
may call the Federal Information Relay Service (FIRS) at 1-800-877-8339 
between 8 a.m. and 8 p.m., Eastern Time, Monday through Friday.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: This project will be performed under the 
authority of, and must comply with, the Healthy Forests Restoration Act 
(HFRA) of 2003. This project qualifies under Title 1 of the HFRA 
because the project area is in Wildland-Urban Interface (WUI) as 
designated in the Mill Creek Canyon (2006), Angelus Oaks (2005), and 
Big Bear Valley (2006) Community Wildfire Protection Plans (CWPPs) and 
the San Bernardino National Forest Land Management Plan (2006); and the 
project reduces the risk of wildland fire to the quality of the 
municipal water supply for communities downstream in San Bernardino, 
Riverside, and Orange counties, California. The predecisional 
administrative review, ``objection'', process that was authorized under 
the HFRA will be implemented per 36 Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) 
218 for this project.

Purpose and Need for Action

    The probability of stand-replacing wildfire is high in much of the 
project area. No large communities occur within the project area, but 
thousands of recreationists use the area during summer and a number of 
communities occur just outside the project area, including Angelus Oaks 
to the west, and Big Bear Lake, Big Bear City, and other smaller 
communities to the north. Of major concern are the high concentrations 
of recreationists during the summer months, specifically organizational 
camps and recreational residence cabins on both NFS and private lands 
in the watershed, coupled with the limited ability to evacuate them 
quickly from the watershed in case of wildland fire. There is a high 
risk of accidental fire being started by the thousands of 
recreationists that occupy the watershed during summer, especially on 
weekends. There is a need to reduce the rate of fire spread throughout 
the watershed in order to provide for firefighter safety in the event

[[Page 66579]]

of a wildfire, protect the recreationists using the watershed, and 
protect the neighboring communities.
    The watershed has experienced a range of fires in the past century; 
approximately 31 percent of the project area has burned. However, only 
about 1,700 acres have burned within the past 50 years. Some mechanical 
treatments, thinning, and prescribed burning have occurred in Barton 
Flats and in other areas within the watershed. Nevertheless, the lack 
of recent fuels reduction treatments and fires in much of the 
watershed, has resulted in forest conditions where the vegetation is 
denser, ladder fuels are present, and there are unnaturally high levels 
of woody material in some parts of the project area. The San Bernardino 
National Forest has experienced drought conditions in recent years, the 
forest conditions with unnaturally high levels of fuel loading are 
still evident. Extensive crown fires are now occurring in similar 
southern California forests because of accumulated surface fuels. There 
is a need to improve forest health within the watershed in order to 
improve stand composition and the overall watershed condition.
    Many wildlife species occur within the project area, including 
Southwestern willow flycatcher and California spotted owl. California 
spotted owl forest habitat is characterized by high canopy cover, as 
well as greater within-stand vertical (e.g., tree regeneration layers, 
snags) and horizontal (e.g., downed woody material) heterogeneity. 
There is a need to protect wildlife habitat and improve forest health 
to help sustain wildlife habitat and complement ecological restoration 
of the watershed.

Proposed Action

    Strategically, the proposed treatments would provide defensible 
zones for firefighting within WUI defense zones, and would break up 
fuel continuity in WUI threat zones. To meet the primary purposes of 
providing for firefighter safety and community protection, shaded 
fuelbreaks will be created or maintained along private property 
boundaries adjacent to communities and along roads and ridge tops that 
are strategically important as defensible fire-fighting zones. Shaded 
fuelbreaks provide firefighters a defensible space from which to carry 
out firefighting operations. Most shaded fuelbreaks in the project area 
will be about 600 feet wide. For the Sugarloaf fuelbreak and along 
private property boundaries, this width may be expanded to meet desired 
conditions. Most of the proposed fuelbreaks in the project area would 
be new fuelbreaks. However, the fuelbreaks along the Jenks Lake County 
Road, the Santa Ana River Road (Forest Road 1N45), and Highway 38 have 
already been established and this project would include the maintenance 
of those fuelbreaks so that they meet the desired conditions.
    Treatment Level 1 is the most intensive treatment and would result 
in an open forest structure with no standing dead trees, down logs, or 
other fuels on the ground. Treatment Level 2 is a little less intensive 
and would occur as outer bands on both sides of most Treatment level 1 
corridors, as well as within relatively narrow areas between Treatment 
Level 1 corridors. Forest structure would be opened, but not as 
extensively as in Treatment level 1. Treatment Level 3 includes 
treatments in areas outside of shaded fuelbreaks and habitat suitable 
for California spotted owls. The objective is to reduce the potential 
of stand-replacing fires. The focus of this objective is to break up 
the continuity of the canopy fuels that now exists and change fire 
behavior under the 90th percentile weather conditions, so that flame 
length and rates of spread are reduced. There are many areas with 
sensitive resources (e.g., heritage resources, rare plants, riparian 
areas, designated Critical Habitat, etc.) within the project area and 
they may fall within any treatment level. Design Features have been 
developed to protect those individual sites either through avoidance or 
through modification of the treatment at and around those areas. The 
project area also contains large amounts of habitat for the California 
spotted owl, including mapped nest stands, protected activity centers 
(PACs), home range core (HRC) areas, and suitable habitat. Treatment 
Level 4 is designed to protect habitat components and characteristics 
important to spotted owls while improving the fire behavior under some 
conditions.
    When trees are thinned the residual slash (limbs, tops, etc) would 
be treated either by chipping, direct removal, or through hand or 
machine piling and burning. Wood slash piles would be burned, once the 
wood has dried, under controlled conditions that minimize smoke within 
the communities. Prescribed broadcast burns are proposed to reduce 
fuels in some areas and would serve to break up the continuity of the 
shrub and herbaceous fuels and down wood in these areas. In some of 
these areas, dead trees would be cut and piled or removed prior to 
burning. Prescribed broadcast burning may also be used after thinning 
has been conducted to reduce fine fuels. Broadcast burns would only 
occur when weather conditions provide for safe burning around adjacent 
communities.
    The proposed action also includes reforestation/native plant 
restoration in treatment areas. Reforestation will be focused in 
disturbed areas such as landings but may also include fire scars and 
areas damaged by off-road vehicles, etc. The intent would be to enhance 
the restoration progress of those sites. Reforestation and native plant 
restoration units are not specifically identified in the Proposed 
Action maps but planting opportunities would be indentified during the 
implementation phase and could occur in any of the mapped treatment 
areas. Restoration would be done with native plant species from 
locally-collected seeds and would represent the historic species 
composition on the site.
    A complete description of the proposed action and maps can be found 
at http://data.ecosystem-management.org/nepaweb/nepa_project_exp.php?project=24122 or can be requested from the project contact.

Possible Alternatives

    A ``No Action'' alternative will be analyzed as a part of this 
project. Under this alternative no actions would be taken to reduce 
wildland fire behavior, protect communities and the municipal 
watershed, or improve firefighter safety and forest health at this 
time.

Responsible Official

    The responsible Official will be the Mountaintop District Ranger, 
San Bernardino National Forest.

Nature of Decision To Be Made

    The Responsible Official will decide whether or not to implement 
the action as proposed or an alternative way to achieve the desired 
outcomes.

Preliminary Issues

    The Santa Ana Watershed Hazardous Fuels Reduction and Forest Health 
project was scoped for 30 days beginning on July 7, 2011 and a public 
fieldtrip was held on July 23, 2011. Based on the comments received on 
the project the issues were identified and will be analyzed for 
recreation, wildlife, fire behavior, hydrology and soils, and plants.
    Significant issues included: the impacts to recreational residence 
tract cabins, impacts to California spotted owl habitat, the scale of 
treatments, and cumulative beneficial affects of treatments within the 
project.

[[Page 66580]]

Scoping Process

    This notice of intent initiates the scoping process, which guides 
the development of the environmental impact statement. A public meeting 
will be held on Thursday, November 29, 2012 at 6-8 p.m. in the Big Bear 
Discovery Center located at 41374 North Shore Drive, Highway 38, 
Fawnskin, CA 92333.
    It is important that reviewers provide their comments at such times 
and in such manner that they are useful to the agency's preparation of 
the environmental impact statement. Therefore, comments should be 
provided prior to the close of the comment period and should clearly 
articulate the reviewer's concerns and contentions.

    Dated: October 26, 2012.
Scott Tangenberg,
Mountaintop District Ranger, San Bernardino National Forest.
[FR Doc. 2012-27030 Filed 11-5-12; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 3410-11-P