Fire Management Plan, Environmental Impact Statement, Guadalupe Mountains National Park, Texas

DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR

National Park Service

Fire Management Plan, Environmental Impact Statement, Guadalupe

Mountains National Park, Texas

AGENCY: National Park Service, Department of the Interior.

ACTION: Notice of intent to prepare an environmental impact statement

for the Fire Management Plan for Guadalupe Mountains National Park.

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SUMMARY: Under the provisions of the National Environmental Policy Act

of 1969, the National Park Service is preparing an environmental impact

statement for the Fire Management Plan for Guadalupe Mountains National

Park. This effort will result in a new wildland fire management plan

that meets current policies, provides a framework for making fire-

related decisions, and serves as an operational manual. Development of

a new fire plan is compatible with the broader goals and objectives

derived from the park purpose that governs resources management. In

cooperation with the USDA Forest Service, Bureau of Land Management,

State of Texas, and neighboring private land owners, attention will

also be given to resources outside the boundaries that affect the

integrity of Guadalupe Mountains National Park. Alternatives are based

on internal scoping done by National Park Service staff on March 12 and

13, 2002. Besides the No-action alternative, preliminary alternatives

include the proposed Two-Fire Management Unit alternative and

Cooperative Watershed Plan alternative. The No-action alternative

maintains the current 1996 Fire Management Plan strategy of

suppression, prescribed natural fire, and prescribed burning. The

proposed alternative Two-Fire Management Unit (FMU) defines a

relatively small FMU surrounding the visitor center area and the

facilities and residences south of U.S. Highway 62/180. This FMU

applies full suppression and prescribed burning. The rest of the park

comprises the second FMU, with protection and suppression emphasis for

special features, such as historic properties, McKittrick Canyon, and

habitats of threatened and endangered species. In the second FMU,

wildland fire use, prescribed fire, and suppression are management

options. The Cooperative Watershed Plan is a variation on the two-unit

plan that extends the backcountry FMU along the north boundary to

include portions of the McKittrick Canyon watershed that lie on the

USDA Forest Service land. Ideally, the park would cooperate on

prescribed fire, wildland fire use, monitoring fire effects, as well as

suppression. This cooperative plan would be a step toward interagency

management of the entire Guadalupe Mountains landscape sometime in the

future.

Major issues will consider environmental effects of the FMP that

are potential problems and include reduction of plant and wildlife

populations, disturbance of unique sites and sensitive species, large-

scale changes to landscapes, damage to geological resources and

increased geohazards, increased air pollution, hazards to life and

property, visitor inconvenience, enhanced conditions for non-indigenous

species, and damage to cultural resources.

A scoping brochure has been prepared describing the issues

identified to date. Copies of the brochures may be obtained from

Superintendent, Guadalupe Mountains National Park, HC 60, Box 400, Salt

Flat, Texas 79847-9400, (915) 828-3251.

DATES: The Park Service will accept comments from the public for 30

days from the date this notice is published in the Federal Register.

ADDRESSES: Information will be available for public review and comment

in the office of the Superintendent, Guadalupe Mountains National Park,

HC 60, Box 400, Salt Flat, Texas 79847-9400, (915) 828-3251.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Superintendent, Guadalupe Mountains

National Park, (915) 828-3251.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: If you wish to comment on the scoping

brochure, you may submit your comments by any one of several methods.

You may mail comments to Superintendent, Guadalupe Mountains National

Park, HC 60, Box 400, Salt Flat, Texas 79847-9400. You may also comment

via the Internet to [email protected]. Please submit

Internet comments as an ASCII file avoiding the use of special

characters and any form of encryption. Please also include ``Attn:

Guadalupe Mountains NP Fire Management Plan'' and your name and return

address in your Internet message. If you do not receive a confirmation

from the system that we have received your Internet message, contact us

directly at Resources Management 915-828-3251 x251. Finally, you may

hand-deliver comments to the above address or at the three public

meetings that will be held in Dell City and El Paso, Texas, and

Carlsbad, New Mexico. Notification of the public meetings will be given

in the scoping brochure that will be mailed to the addresses generated

for the park's current General Management Plan process. The brochure

will be mailed once we are notified of the date that this Notice of

Intent is published in the Federal Register. If you are not on the

park's mailing list and would like a copy of the brochure, please

contact the Superintendent.

Our practice is to make comments, including names and home

addresses of respondents, available for public review during regular

business hours. Individual respondents may request that we withhold

their home address from the record, which we will honor to the extent

allowable by law. There also may be circumstances in which we would

withhold from the record a respondent's identity, as allowable by law.

If you wish us to withhold your name and/or address, you must state

this prominently at the beginning of your comment. We will make all

submissions from organizations or businesses, and from individuals

identifying themselves as representatives or officials of organizations

or businesses, available for public inspection in their entirety.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Superintendent, Guadalupe Mountains

National Park, 915-828-3251 x104.

Michael D. Snyder,

Acting Director, Intermountain Region, National Park Service.

[FR Doc. 02-25868 Filed 10-9-02; 8:45 am]

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