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2013-02-27
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Bridger-Teton National Forest; Wyoming; Teton to Snake Fuels Management Project
Notices
D09002ee1bdca8f8e
D09002ee1bdca901b
United States
Department of Agriculture
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United States Government Agency or Subagency
United States
Forest Service
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United States Government Agency or Subagency
The Forest Service is preparing an environmental impact statement (EIS) to document the potential effects of the Teton to Snake Fuels Management Project. The analysis will evaluate and disclose the effects of treating National Forest land to reduce the potential fire behavior within the wildland-urban interface to better protect threatened values, to improve firefighter safety, and to allow fire to play a more natural role in the ecosystem. Treatments include understory thinning and prescribed fire some of which are located within the Palisades Wilderness Study Area (WSA) and Inventoried Roadless Areas (IRAs). Connected actions necessary to implement the proposed treatments include road maintenance, reconstruction, temporary road and landing construction and obliteration, and construction of fire control lines where needed to contain prescribed fire treatments. No road work or commercial vegetation treatments would occur within the WSA. Road maintenance would occur in a small portion of the Phillips Ridge IRA but no reconstruction would occur. The project is located in Teton and Lincoln Counties, Wyoming, west of the Jackson Hole valley and Snake River corridor, and east of the Caribou-Targhee National Forest. The Teton to Snake Fuels Management Project was previously scoped and anyalyzed through an environmental assessment (EA) process. The EIS alternatives developed to date are the same as those in the EA. Public comments received on the original Proposed Action, Alternative 2, included support of the project as proposed, but also concerns that the proposed treatments constitute human manipulation in the WSA which could adversely affect wildlife, wilderness character, and eligibility for future designation in the National Wilderness Preservation System. Concern about proposed thinning treatments in the IRAs was also expressed. Requested modifications included reducing the amount of prescribed burning and eliminating all thinning treatments in the WSA and IRAs. Additionally concern was expressed that the proposed action could have adverse effects to habitat for boreal owls and goshawks, as well as reduce old growth habitat. The Forest Service responded to these concerns by developing a new alternative (Alternative 3--Reduce Potential Impacts to Special Areas and Wildlife Habitat), which reduces activities in the WSA and IRAs and avoids goshawk habitat, whitebark pine, boreal forest, and old growth habitat. Changes include dropping, reconfiguring, and reducing the size of units, and changing treatment prescriptions. In addition to the above resource concerns, units were modified or dropped if they also had potential impacts to visual quality, implementation difficulty, or topography that could slow an advancing wildfire. Also considered was the proximity of hazardous fuels to homes and to other fuel reduction projects that could contribute to reducing fire behavior in the project area. The Jackson Ranger District may be contacted for specific treatment unit revisions made in developing Alternative 3.
78 FR 13315
https://www.govinfo.gov/app/details/FR-2013-02-27/2013-04498
2013-04498
fr27fe13-30
3410-11-P
https://www.govinfo.gov/app/details/FR-2013-02-27/2013-04498
https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/FR-2013-02-27/html/2013-04498.htm
https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/FR-2013-02-27/pdf/2013-04498.pdf
2 p.
13315
13316
78 FR 13315
Bridger-Teton National Forest; Wyoming; Teton to Snake Fuels Management Project; Federal Register Vol. 78, Issue
NOTICE
2013-04498
DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE
Forest Service
3410-11-P
2013-04498
Notice of intent to prepare an environmental impact statement.
The Forest Service is preparing an environmental impact statement (EIS) to document the potential effects of the Teton to Snake Fuels Management Project. The analysis will evaluate and disclose the effects of treating National Forest land to reduce the potential fire behavior within the wildland-urban interface to better protect threatened values, to improve firefighter safety, and to allow fire to play a more natural role in the ecosystem. Treatments include understory thinning and prescribed fire some of which are located within the Palisades Wilderness Study Area (WSA) and Inventoried Roadless Areas (IRAs). Connected actions necessary to implement the proposed treatments include road maintenance, reconstruction, temporary road and landing construction and obliteration, and construction of fire control lines where needed to contain prescribed fire treatments. No road work or commercial vegetation treatments would occur within the WSA. Road maintenance would occur in a small portion of the Phillips Ridge IRA but no reconstruction would occur. The project is located in Teton and Lincoln Counties, Wyoming, west of the Jackson Hole valley and Snake River corridor, and east of the Caribou-Targhee National Forest. The Teton to Snake Fuels Management Project was previously scoped and anyalyzed through an environmental assessment (EA) process. The EIS alternatives developed to date are the same as those in the EA. Public comments received on the original Proposed Action, Alternative 2, included support of the project as proposed, but also concerns that the proposed treatments constitute human manipulation in the WSA which could adversely affect wildlife, wilderness character, and eligibility for future designation in the National Wilderness Preservation System. Concern about proposed thinning treatments in the IRAs was also expressed. Requested modifications included reducing the amount of prescribed burning and eliminating all thinning treatments in the WSA and IRAs. Additionally concern was expressed that the proposed action could have adverse effects to habitat for boreal owls and goshawks, as well as reduce old growth habitat. The Forest Service responded to these concerns by developing a new alternative (Alternative 3--Reduce Potential Impacts to Special Areas and Wildlife Habitat), which reduces activities in the WSA and IRAs and avoids goshawk habitat, whitebark pine, boreal forest, and old growth habitat. Changes include dropping, reconfiguring, and reducing the size of units, and changing treatment prescriptions. In addition to the above resource concerns, units were modified or dropped if they also had potential impacts to visual quality, implementation difficulty, or topography that could slow an advancing wildfire. Also considered was the proximity of hazardous fuels to homes and to other fuel reduction projects that could contribute to reducing fire behavior in the project area. The Jackson Ranger District may be contacted for specific treatment unit revisions made in developing Alternative 3.
Comments submitted during the scoping period for the environmental assessment (EA) beginning in 2010 will be brought forward into the EIS analysis so there is no need to re-submit them. New comments would be most useful if they present new information or describe specific unwanted effects of implementing Alternative 3. Comments concerning the scope of the analysis must be received by April 1st, 2013. The draft environmental impact statement is expected in July 2013 and the final environmental impact statement is expected September 2013.
Visit our projects Web site at http:// www.fs.usda.gov/goto/btnf/projects or contact Jason Lawhon, North Zone Fuels Assistant Fire Management Officer, phone (307) 739-5431 or email jdlawhon@fs.fed.us.
Environmental Impact Statements; Availability, etc.:
BridgerTeton National Forest, WY; Teton to Snake Fuels Management Project
,
comments-intermtn-bridger-teton-jackson@fs.fed.us
jdlawhon@fs.fed.us
http://www.fs.usda.gov/goto/btnf/projects
Federal Register
Vol. 78, no. 39
Office of the Federal Register, National Archives and Records Administration
2013-02-27
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243 p.
Table of Contents:
AE 2.7:
GS 4.107:
AE 2.106:
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https://www.govinfo.gov/app/details/FR-2013-02-27
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https://www.govinfo.gov/app/details/FR-2013-02-27
https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/FR-2013-02-27/pdf/FR-2013-02-27.pdf
https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/FR-2013-02-27/xml/FR-2013-02-27.xml
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