[Federal Register Volume 87, Number 230 (Thursday, December 1, 2022)]
[Notices]
[Pages 73775-73776]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2022-26151]


=======================================================================
-----------------------------------------------------------------------

DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR

Bureau of Indian Affairs

[223A2100DD/AAKC001030/A0A501010.999900]


Final Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement for the 2015 
Integrated Resource Management Plan for the Colville Indian 
Reservation, Nespelem, Washington

AGENCY: Bureau of Indian Affairs, Interior.

ACTION: Notice of availability.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

SUMMARY: This notice advises the public that the Bureau of Indian 
Affairs (BIA), as lead agency, and the Confederated Tribes of the 
Colville Reservation (Tribes) intends to file a Final Programmatic 
Environmental Impact Statement (FEIS) with the Environmental Protection 
Agency (EPA) for the 2015 Colville Reservation Integrated Resource 
Management Plan (IRMP). This notice announces that the FEIS is now 
available for public review.

DATES: The BIA will not issue a final decision on the proposal for a 
minimum of 30 days after the date that the EPA publishes its Notice of 
Availability (NOA) in the Federal Register. Any comments on the FEIS 
must arrive on or before the date 30 days after the EPA publishes a 
Notice of Availability in the Federal Register. The Record of Decision 
(ROD) on the proposed action will be issued no sooner than 30 days 
after the release of the FEIS.

ADDRESSES: 
    Comments: You may mail or hand-deliver written comments to Randall 
Friedlander, Superintendent, Bureau of Indian Affairs, Colville Agency, 
P.O. Box 111, 21 Colville Street, 3rd Floor NE, Nespelem, WA 99155-
0111. Please include your name, return address, and the caption ``FEIS 
Comments, Colville Reservation IRMP,'' on the first page of your 
written comments. You can also submit comments by email to 
[email protected]. If emailing comments, please use ``FEIS 
Comments, Colville Reservation IRMP,'' as the subject of your email.
    Public Review: The FEIS is available online at http://www.colvilletribes.com/irmp. The FEIS is also available for review 
during regular business hours at the following locations:
     BIA Colville Agency, 21 Colville St., 3rd Floor NE, 
Nespelem, WA 99155-0111.
     Inchelium Resource Center, 12 Community Center Loop, 
Inchelium, WA 99138.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Randall Friedlander, Superintendent, 
Bureau of Indian Affairs, Colville Agency, P.O. Box 111, Nespelem, WA 
99155-0111, (509) 634-2316.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The purpose of the proposed action is 
approval the IRMP for the Tribes' natural and cultural resources. The 
proposed action updates the original IRMP that was prepared and 
implemented in 2000. The IRMP incorporates management goals and 
objectives for the commercial forest, rangeland, and agricultural lands 
of the Tribes.
    The Tribes' forest products industry, livestock grazing, and 
agriculture have the potential to impact the natural and human 
environments of the Reservation. The FEIS analyzes the potential 
impacts associated with these activities. These include impacts to land 
resources such as geology, minerals, and soils, watershed function, 
surface and groundwater resources, air quality, biological resources, 
cultural and paleontological resources, socioeconomic conditions, 
transportation and forest access roads, land use, public services, 
noise, aesthetics, recreation, climate change, cumulative effects, and 
indirect and growth-inducing effects.
    The FEIS considers five management alternatives developed by the 
Tribes' IRMP Core Team. The interdisciplinary team developed these 
management alternatives for consideration and analysis and designated a 
preferred alternative (Alternative 2) that was approved by the Colville 
Business Council in June 2014. The team also conducted a community 
survey in 2014 that asked community members to choose a preferred 
alternative. All groups were unanimous in selecting Alternative 2 as 
the preferred alternative. The alternatives are:

1. Continue the Current Management Strategy
2. Enhance and Improve the Current Management Strategy (Preferred 
Alternative)
3. Concentrate on Forest and Rangeland Health Problems
4. Expand Forest and Livestock Production
5. Eliminate Timber Harvesting and Livestock Grazing

    A Notice of Intent (NOI) to prepare an EIS was released in the 
Federal Register on November 21, 2014 (79 FR 69521). Public scoping 
meetings were held in four Reservation communities in October 2015, and 
a Scoping Meetings Report was released in March 2016. An administrative 
draft DEIS was prepared and reviewed by the IRMP Core Team and 
appropriate revisions were incorporated along with supplemental 
information.
    The Draft EIS (DEIS) was completed in November 2016. Notices of 
Availability (NOA) were published in the Federal Register by the BIA on 
June 14, 2017 (82 FR 27278) and the EPA on July 28, 2017 (82 FR 35200). 
The public review period ended on September 11, 2017. The Response to 
Comments was released on January 24, 2018. The original FEIS was 
completed on August 14, 2018, and page-count revisions were completed 
on December 18, 2018.

Public Comment Availability

    Comments, including names and addresses of respondents, will be

[[Page 73776]]

available for public review during regular business hours at the BIA 
mailing address shown in the ADDRESSES section of this notice. Before 
including your address, telephone number, email address, or other 
personal identifying information in your comment, you should be aware 
that your entire comment--including your personal identifying 
information--may be made publicly available at any time. While you can 
ask us in your comment to withhold your personal identifying 
information from public review, we cannot guarantee that we will be 
able to do so.

Authority

    This notice is published pursuant to 40 CFR 1506.10(a) of the 
Council of Environmental Quality Regulations (40 CFR 1500 et seq.) and 
43 CFR 46.305 of the Department of Interior Regulations (43 CFR part 
46), the procedural requirements of the National Environmental Policy 
Act of 1969, as amended (42 U.S.C. 4371 et seq.), and is in accordance 
with the exercise of authority delegated to the Assistant Secretary--
Indian Affairs by 209 DM 8.

Bryan Newland,
Assistant Secretary--Indian Affairs.
[FR Doc. 2022-26151 Filed 11-30-22; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4337-15-P