[Federal Register Volume 83, Number 194 (Friday, October 5, 2018)]
[Notices]
[Pages 50331-50332]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2018-21619]


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 Notices
                                                 Federal Register
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 This section of the FEDERAL REGISTER contains documents other than rules 
 or proposed rules that are applicable to the public. Notices of hearings 
 and investigations, committee meetings, agency decisions and rulings, 
 delegations of authority, filing of petitions and applications and agency 
 statements of organization and functions are examples of documents 
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  Federal Register / Vol. 83, No. 194 / Friday, October 5, 2018 / 
Notices  

[[Page 50331]]



DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE

Forest Service


Idaho (Boise, Caribou-Targhee, Salmon-Challis, and Sawtooth 
National Forests and Curlew National Grassland); Nevada (Humboldt-
Toiyabe National Forest); Utah (Ashley, Dixie, Fishlake, Manti-La Sal, 
and Uinta-Wasatch-Cache National Forests); Wyoming (Bridger-Teton 
National Forest); and Wyoming/Colorado (Medicine Bow-Routt National 
Forest and Thunder Basin National Grassland) Amendments to Land 
Management Plans for Greater Sage-Grouse Conservation

AGENCY: Forest Service, USDA.

ACTION: Notice of Availability of the Draft Greater Sage-grouse 
Proposed Land Management Plan Amendments and Draft Environmental Impact 
Statement for the Intermountain and Rocky Mountain Regions.

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SUMMARY: The U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service has 
prepared the Draft Greater Sage-grouse Proposed Land Management Plan 
Amendments (LMPA) and Draft Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) for 
the Intermountain and Rocky Mountain Regions. This notice is announcing 
the opening of the comment period and the Forest Service is soliciting 
comments on the Draft LMPA and Draft EIS.

DATES: To ensure that comments will be considered, the Forest Service 
must receive written comments on the Draft LMPA/Draft EIS within 90 
days following the date the Environmental Protection Agency publishes a 
notice of availability of the Draft LMPA/Draft EIS in the Federal 
Register. The Forest Service will announce future meetings or hearings 
and any other public participation activities at least 15 days in 
advance through public notices, media releases, and/or mailings.

ADDRESSES: Please submit comments via one of the following methods:
    1. Public participation portal (preferred): https://cara.ecosystem-management.org/Public/CommentInput?project=52904.
    2. Mail: Sage-grouse Amendment Comment, USDA Forest Service 
Intermountain Region, Federal Building, 324 25th Street, Ogden, UT 
84401.
    3. Email: [email protected].
    4. Facsimile: 801-625-5277.
    All comments, including names and addresses when provided, are 
placed in the record and are available for public inspection and 
copying. The public may inspect comments received online via the public 
reading room at: https://cara.ecosystem-management.org/Public/ReadingRoom?project=52904.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: John Shivik at 801-625-5667 or email 
[email protected]. Individuals who use telecommunication devices 
for the deaf (TDD) may call the Federal Information Relay Service 
(FIRS) at 1-800-877-8339 between 8:00 a.m. and 8:00 p.m., Eastern Time, 
Monday through Friday.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Greater sage-grouse (Centrocercus 
urophasianus) is a species that is dependent on sagebrush steppe 
ecosystems. These ecosystems are managed in partnership across the 
range of the greater sage-grouse by federal, state, and local 
authorities and private landowners. Efforts to conserve the species and 
its habitat date back to the 1950s. Over the past two decades, state 
wildlife agencies, federal agencies, and many others have been 
collaborating to conserve greater sage-grouse and its habitats.
    The National Forest Management Act of 1976 (NFMA) directs the 
Forest Service to develop, maintain, and, as appropriate, revise land 
management plans which guide management of National Forest System (NFS) 
lands (16 U.S.C. 1604(a)). In March 2010, the United States Department 
of the Interior Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) issued a 12 Month 
Finding for Petitions to List the greater sage-grouse as Threatened or 
Endangered (75 FR 13910). In that 12-Month Finding, the USFWS concluded 
that listing the greater sage-grouse as a threatened or endangered 
species was ``warranted, but precluded by higher priority listing 
actions.'' The 2010 USFWS listing decision prompted a Forest Service 
and Bureau of Land Management (BLM) joint planning effort to amend 
Forest Service land management plans and BLM equivalents to incorporate 
conservation measures to support the continued existence of the greater 
sage-grouse. For the Forest Service, this effort culminated in the 
Forest Service Greater Sage-grouse Records of Decisions (RODs) that 
were signed on September 16, 2015.
    On October 2, 2015, the USFWS found that listing the greater sage-
grouse under the Endangered Species Act was not warranted (80 FR 
59858). The USFWS based its finding on regulatory certainty from the 
conservation measures in the Forest Service and BLM greater sage-grouse 
land management plan amendments and revisions, as well as on other 
private, state, and federal conservation efforts.
    The plan amendments have been challenged in court. One challenge 
involved the designation of sagebrush focal areas between the Draft and 
Final EISs. On March 31, 2017, the United States District Court for the 
District of Nevada held that the Forest Service violated the National 
Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) by failing to provide the public with 
enough information to meaningfully participate in the EIS process in 
the Nevada and Northeastern California Greater Sage-grouse Land 
Management Plan Amendment. The court ordered the Forest Service to 
prepare a Supplemental EIS to allow the public the opportunity to 
comment on the designation of sagebrush focal areas in the amendments. 
Western Exploration, LLC v. U.S. Dept. of Interior, 250 F. Supp.3d 718, 
750-751.
    Since approving the plan amendments in 2015, the Forest Service has 
gathered information and determined that the conservation benefits of 
Forest Service plans in Nevada and other states can be improved. That 
is, through repeated scoping, close collaboration with state and other 
federal agencies, and internal review, the Forest Service has 
identified proposed changes in the text of the greater sage-grouse plan 
amendments which would improve their clarity and efficiency and better 
align them with the Bureau of Land Management and state plans.

[[Page 50332]]

    The substantive requirements of the 2012 Planning Rule (36 CFR 219) 
that are applicable to the amendments are in sections 219.8(a) and (b) 
(ecological and social and economic sustainability), 219.9 (diversity 
of plant and animal communities), and 219.10(a) (integrated resource 
management for ecosystem services and multiple use) have been 
incorporated into the proposed amendment.

Purpose and Need for Action

    The purpose of the proposed action is to incorporate new 
information and to improve the clarity, efficiency, and implementation 
of greater sage-grouse plans, including better alignment with BLM and 
state plans, in order to benefit greater sage-grouse conservation on 
the landscape scale. The need for further plan amendments is that the 
Forest Service has gained new information and understanding from new 
science, as well as having received approximately 55,000 comments from 
the 2017 Notice of Intent, approximately 8,700 comments from the 2018 
Supplemental NOI, and comments from within-agency scoping and 
monitoring and from coordinating with the Western Governors' 
Association Sage Grouse Task Force.

Proposed Action and Alternatives

    The Forest Service analyzed three alternatives. Under Alternative 
1, the No Action Alternative, the Forest Service would not amend 
current land management plans. This alternative retains sagebrush focal 
areas and all other aspects of the plans. Alternative 2, the Preferred 
Alternative, is the proposed action and makes modifications to the No 
Action Alternative. Specifically, the Preferred Alternative makes 
modifications to land management plans within the issue areas of: 
Habitat management area designation, including designating sagebrush 
focal areas as Priority Habitat Management Areas compensatory 
mitigation and net conservation gain; minerals plan components and 
waivers; exceptions and modifications; desired conditions; livestock 
grazing guidelines; adaptive management; treatment of invasive species; 
and changes to clarify text and eliminate errors and redundancies. 
Alternative 3, the State of Utah Alternative, incorporates all aspects 
of Alternative 2, with the addition of two additional modifications to 
plans within the state of Utah. Specifically, the Forest Service would 
remove the General Habitat Management Areas (GHMA) designation from 
Forest Service lands in Utah and would also remove the Anthro Mountain 
management area from habitat management area designation on the Ashley 
National Forest.
    The Draft EIS analyzes the reasonably foreseeable effects of these 
changes. The entire text of the Draft EIS can be found on the 
Intermountain Region home page: https://www.fs.usda.gov/detail/r4/home/?cid=stelprd3843381.

Responsible Officials

    The responsible officials who would approve plan amendments are the 
Regional Foresters for the Intermountain and Rocky Mountain Regions.

Public Comment Opportunity

    The public is encouraged to comment on the Draft EIS and proposed 
plan amendments. 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, anonymous comments will not 
provide the Agency with the ability to provide the respondent with 
subsequent environmental documents.

    Dated: September 6, 2018.
Allen Rowley,
Acting Associate Deputy Chief, National Forest System.
[FR Doc. 2018-21619 Filed 10-4-18; 8:45 am]
 BILLING CODE 3411-15-P