[Federal Register Volume 78, Number 87 (Monday, May 6, 2013)]
[Notices]
[Pages 26317-26318]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2013-10489]


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DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE

Forest Service


Klamath National Forest, California, Jess Project

AGENCY: Forest Service, USDA.

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

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SUMMARY: The Klamath National Forest will prepare an environmental 
impact statement (EIS) to document and publicly disclose the 
environmental effects of fuels treatments on ridge tops and along 
roadways, thinning in natural stands and plantations, and meadow 
treatments to improve ecosystem function and resiliency while 
contributing to rural economic health. The project area is south of 
Sawyers Bar, California. Treatments are proposed on approximately 1,950 
acres.

DATES: Comments concerning the scope of the analysis must be received 
by June 20, 2013. The draft environmental impact statement is expected 
November 2013 and the final environmental impact statement is expected 
January 2014.

ADDRESSES: Send written comments to Klamath National Forest 
Headquarters, ATTN: Angie Bell, Project Leader, 1711 S. Main Street, 
Yreka, CA 96097. Electronic comments can be made at the project's Web 
page: http://www.fs.fed.us/nepa/nepa_project_exp.php?project=38943, 
or via facsimile to (530) 841-4571.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Angie Bell, 530-842-6131, or Patty 
Grantham, Forest Supervisor, 530-842-6131.
    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: 

Purpose and Need for Action

    The Jess project was developed to improve ecosystem function and 
resiliency while contributing to rural economic health. A Forest 
Service interdisciplinary team (IDT), composed of specialists from a 
wide array of disciplines in collaboration with interested parties, 
developed a purpose and need. The collaboration efforts included 
several public meetings and a field trip to discuss the need for change 
and potential actions in the project area. The IDT identified the 
following purpose and need for this project by comparing the existing 
conditions in the project area with the desired conditions described in 
the Forest Plan, Late-Successional Reserve Assessments, the North Fork 
Salmon Watershed Assessment and the Sawyers Bar Wildfire Community 
Protection Plan:
     Manage fuel loadings to reduce the risk of wildfires 
affecting nearby communities.
     Improve compositional, structural, and functional 
attributes of biologically diverse forest ecosystems by restoring 
ecological processes that build resiliency to high-intensity wildfire 
and insect and disease.
     Provide a broad range of ecosystem services, including 
wood products, rural economic health, biodiversity, and the beneficial 
uses of water.

Proposed Action

    The IDT, in conjunction with the informal collaborative group 
composed of local, interested parties, inventoried the project area to 
identify resource concerns and develop management activities (proposed 
actions) to achieve the purpose and need for the Jess Project. The 
following proposed actions have been identified to move the project 
area from the existing condition to the desired condition. Project 
design features (PDFs) and best management practices (BMPs) are 
incorporated into this proposed action. The Forest Service proposes the 
following treatments on about 1,950 acres within the 8,735 acre project 
boundary:
     Commercially harvest about 810 acres, including natural 
stands and plantations, with about 120 acres proposed for skyline and 
690 acres of ground-based yarding;
     Treating fuels on strategic ridge tops on about 165 acres, 
including 95 acres of thinning, handpiling, and burning and 70 acres of 
mastication;
     Reducing roadside fuels on about 615 acres over 15 miles 
of National Forest Transportation System (NFTS) roads;
     Prescribed underburning about 250 acres;
     Planting rust-resistant sugar pine on scattered acres 
throughout the project area;
     Enhancing meadows around Mud Lake and other locations in 
the project area; and
     Masticating and handpiling/burning brush on about 150 
acres for stand health and big game habitat enhancement.
    Acres by treatment type do not account for the overlap in treatment 
types. Thinning treatments are likely to take place over the first five 
years after decision, followed by prescribed burning and pile burning 
in subsequent years. A more detailed description of this proposal, 
including access, is below.
    Commercial harvest of trees larger than 9 inches dbh will occur on 
over 800 acres. Commercial treatments will vary with species preference 
and would be driven by topographic location, amount of disease present, 
and desired regeneration species. Trees with greater than 20-50% of 
their crown infected with mistletoe, depending on unit, will be 
candidates for removal. Dominant and co-dominant trees with full 
crowns, despite mistletoe infection will be maintained in treatment 
units. Several units have groups of older trees that will be retained 
as islands to provide spatial variation. Some small openings will be 
increased to resemble more historic gap sizes of 1-2\1/2\ acres. 
Hardwoods will be favored and will be thinned around in areas. 
Enhancement of hardwoods and reduction of conifer competition is 
prescribed in several units. Patches of saplings and pole size trees 
will be avoided during treatment. Overall, the best crowns will be 
maintained with crown spacing varying from five to twenty feet wide. 
Sugar pines proven to be rust-resistant from a local seed zone

[[Page 26318]]

and appropriate elevation bands will be planted in newly created 
openings within areas of historical dominance.
    Small diameter (less than 9 inches diameter at breast height (dbh)) 
conifers in ridge top fuel treatments will be thinned, handpiled, and 
burned. Mastication will occur along strategic ridges between the 
handpiled areas to complete the ridge treatments.
    Roadside treatments will manually cut, handpile, and burn brush and 
small diameter trees (less than 6 inches dbh) within buffers about 100 
feet wide on either side of the road. Actual treatment may vary in size 
and width depending on fuel conditions. Trees less than 10 inches dbh 
will be thinned to an average of 20-foot bole spacing. Existing brush 
densities will be reduced by 40-60% where they exist. All hazard trees 
will be identified and removed in accordance with danger tree 
guidelines. Roadside fuels treatments would complement treatments 
proposed by the local fire safe council.
    Pre-commercial treatments will thin small diameter conifers (less 
than 9 inches dbh) to approximately 28-30 foot bole spacing or a 
specified distance from trees of a certain diameter. For example, if a 
tree is four inches dbh, then spacing will be dbh times 12 plus 10 
feet, equaling 14-foot bole spacing. There will be species specific 
preferences for thinning in some units.
    Meadow treatments will consist of manually removing small diameter 
conifers (less than 9 inches dbh). The removed trees will be handpiled 
and burned. Noxious weed will be removal using manual techniques. 
Willows may be planted in and around the meadows where needed to 
increase shade and bank stability.
    Three miles of existing roadbeds will be used as temporary roads 
for short-term access and then closed following project completion to 
reduce log skidding distances and associated impacts to soils and other 
resources. No new temporary roads are proposed. Existing landings will 
be used to the extent possible. The estimated number of new landings 
needed for the project is 30, with a maximum size less than one-acre 
each.

Responsible Official

    Patricia Grantham, Klamath National Forest Supervisor, 1711 South 
Main Street, Yreka, California 96097, will prepare and sign the Record 
of Decision at the conclusion of the National Environmental Policy Act 
(NEPA) review.

Nature of Decision To Be Made

    The Forest Service is the lead agency for the project. Based on the 
result of the NEPA analysis, the Forest Supervisor's Record of Decision 
regarding the Jess Project will recommend implementation of one of the 
following: (1) The proposed action and mitigation necessary to minimize 
or avoid adverse impacts; (2) An alternative to the proposed action and 
mitigation necessary to minimize or avoid adverse impacts; or (3) The 
no-action alternative. The Record of Decision will also document the 
consistency of the proposed action or one of the alternatives with the 
Klamath National Forest Land and Resource Management Plan.

Scoping Process

    This notice of intent initiates the scoping process, which guides 
the development of the environmental impact statement. To assist the 
Forest Service in identifying and considering issues and concerns on 
the proposed action, comments should be as specific as possible.
    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.
    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.
    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.

    Dated: April 25, 2013.
Patricia A. Grantham,
Klamath National Forest Supervisor.
[FR Doc. 2013-10489 Filed 5-3-13; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 3410-11-P