[Federal Register Volume 78, Number 76 (Friday, April 19, 2013)]
[Rules and Regulations]
[Pages 23491-23492]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2013-08839]


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DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE

Forest Service

36 CFR Part 219

RIN 0596-AB86


National Forest System Land Management Planning; Correction

AGENCY: Forest Service, USDA.

ACTION: Correcting amendment.

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SUMMARY: This document contains a technical correction to 36 CFR 
219.11(d)(6). This technical correction concerns the estimation of the 
quantity of timber that can be removed on a sustained yield basis. The 
final rule was published in the Federal Register, on April 9, 2012 (77 
FR 21162).

DATES: These corrections are effective April 19, 2013.

ADDRESSES: Written inquiries about this correction document may be sent 
to the Director, Ecosystem Management Coordination Staff, USDA Forest 
Service, 1400 Independence Ave. SW., Mailstop Code 1104, Washington, DC 
20250-1104.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Ecosystem Management Coordination 
staff's Planning Specialist Regis Terney at (202) 205-1552.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

[[Page 23492]]

Background

    In volume 77 of the Federal Register, page 21162, April 9, 2012, 
(77 FR 21162) the United States Department of Agriculture (Department) 
published a final rule setting forth directions for developing, 
amending, revising, and monitoring land management plans (the planning 
rule).
    The National Forest Management Act (NFMA) at 16 U.S.C. 
1604(g)(3)(D) requires planning regulations to specify guidelines for 
land management plans which ``permit increases in harvest levels based 
on intensified management practices, such as reforestation, thinning, 
and tree improvement'' under certain conditions. This provision 
requires that the planning regulations must permit such increases in 
harvest levels if ``(i) such practices justify increasing the harvests 
in accordance with the Multiple-Use Sustained-Yield Act of 1960,'' and 
``(ii) if such harvest levels are decreased at the end of each planning 
period if such practices cannot be successfully implemented or funds 
are not received to permit such practices to continue substantially as 
planned.'' Id. Because the planning rule did not explicitly include 
this mandated requirement, the Department is making a technical 
amendment at 36 CFR 219.11(d)(6), to explicitly include this 
requirement for intensified management practices. Accordingly, section 
219.11(d)(6) now contains, in an introductory paragraph and paragraphs 
(i) and (iii), the regulatory text that appeared in the planning rule 
upon its issuance in April, and paragraph (ii), which contains new text 
tracking the text of 16 U.S.C. 1604(g)(3)(D) of the NFMA. This 
clarification does not have any substantive legal effect but it simply 
makes clear that the planning rule complies with the NFMA's requirement 
that such rule allow for intensified management practices as set forth 
in 16 U.S.C. 1604(g)(3)(D).
    The Department has also concluded that additional documentation 
under the National Environmental Policy Act is not necessary to make 
the decision to make this rule amendment. There is no need to consider 
the effects of an explicit intensified-management-practices provision 
among alternatives, because such a provision would be included in every 
alternative. See 16 U.S.C. 1604(g)(3)(D). Therefore, there is no need 
to supplement the National Forest System Land Management Planning Rule 
Final Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement of January 2012.

List of Subjects in 36 CFR Part 219

    Administrative practice and procedure, Environmental impact 
statements, Indians, Intergovernmental relations, National forests, 
Reporting and recordkeeping requirements, Science and technology.

    Accordingly 36 CFR part 219 is corrected by making the following 
correcting amendment:

PART 219--PLANNING

0
1. The authority citation for part 219 continues to read as follows:

    Authority: 5 U.S.C. 301; 16 U.S.C. 1604, 1613.


0
2. In Sec.  219.11 revise paragraph (d)(6) to read as follows:


Sec.  219.11  Timber requirements based on the NFMA.

* * * * *
    (d) * * *
    (6) The quantity of timber that may be sold from the national 
forest is limited to an amount equal to or less than that which can be 
removed from such forest annually in perpetuity on a sustained yield 
basis. This limit may be measured on a decadal basis.
    (i) The plan may provide for departures from this limit as provided 
by the NFMA when departure would be consistent with the plan's desired 
conditions and objectives. Exceptions for departure from this limit on 
the quantity sold may be made only after a public review and comment 
period of at least 90 days.
    (ii) This limit may be based upon increases in harvest levels based 
on intensified management practices, such as reforestation, thinning, 
and tree improvement if such practices justify increasing the harvests 
in accordance with the Multiple-Use Sustained-Yield Act of 1960. The 
plan must require that such harvest levels be decreased at the end of 
each planning period if such practices cannot be successfully 
implemented or funds are not received to permit such practices to 
continue substantially as planned.
    (iii) The Chief must include in the Forest Service Directive System 
procedures for estimating the quantity of timber that can be removed 
annually in perpetuity on a sustained-yield basis, and exceptions, 
consistent with 16 U.S.C. 1611.
* * * * *

     Dated: March 13, 2013.
Thomas L. Tidwell,
Chief.
[FR Doc. 2013-08839 Filed 4-18-13; 8:45 am]
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