Augusta Timber Sale, Willamette National Forest, Lane County, Oregon

DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE

Augusta Timber Sale, Willamette National Forest, Lane County,

Oregon

AGENCY: Forest Service, USDA.

ACTION: Notice; intent to prepare environmental impact statement.

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

SUMMARY: The Forest Service will prepare an environmental impact

statement on a proposal to harvest trees and build roads in the Augusta

drainage of the Blue River Ranger District. Approximately 200 acres of

trees will be harvested and approximately 0.5 miles of road will be

constructed. The proposal results from an extensive landscape design

and watershed analysis conducted in the Augusta area. The dominant

theme for that design was to base landscape and watershed objectives,

designs, and prescriptions on an interpreted range of ``natural''

variability of disturbance processes.

DATES: Comments concerning the scope of the analysis should be received

in writing by September 10, 1995.

ADDRESSES: Send written comments to Lynn Burditt, District Ranger, Blue

River Range Station, P.O. Box 199, Blue River, Oregon, 97413.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:

Karen Geary, Resource Planning Assistant, (503) 822-3317.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The Augusta Creek timber sale proposal is

one result of the Augusta Creek Project, a natural disturbance-based

landscape ``design'' for a managed forest. The landscape design was

projected for 200 years into the future using 20 year time steps. This

specific timber sale proposal includes writing prescriptions for the

nine blocks that would be in early seral conditions at the end of the

first 20-year time step. This will result in harvesting approximately

200 acres of trees in the first timber sale entry and building

approximately 0.5 miles of roads to access the trees. The nine blocks

are located in T19S, R5E, Section 1; T19S, R51/2E, Sections 9 and 16;

T18S, R5E, Sections 35 and 36; T18S, R51/2E, Sections 31, 32, and 33

(Lat 43 deg.56'00'', Long 122 deg.7'30'').

Detailed ground review and alternative development will be

concentrated on these nine landscape blocks. Decisions will include

identification of the timing and location of timber harvests,

silvicultural prescriptions, levels of green and dead tree retention,

and the spatial patterns of retention trees.

The Augusta Creek Landscape Design Project was initiated to

establish and integrate landscape and watershed objectives into a

landscape design to guide management activities within a 19,000 acre

planning area in western Oregon. The objectives were to maintain native

species, ecosystem processes and structures, and long-term ecosystem

productivity in a Federally owned and managed landscape with

substantial acreage allocated to timber harvest. A dominant theme has

been to base landscape and watershed objectives, designs, and

prescriptions on an interpreted range of ``natural'' variability of

disturbance processes. A fire history study characterized fire patterns

and regimes over the last 500 years. Changes in the existing and

surrounding landscape due to past intensive human uses were also

factored into the landscape design. Landscape prescriptions include a

small-watershed based aquatic reserve system and major valley bottom

corridor reserves. Where timber harvest is allocated, four landscape

management areas prescribe varying rotation ages (100-300 years), green

tree retention levels (15-50%), and spatial patterns as derived from

interpretations of fire regimes. These prescriptions were linked to

specific blocks of land, which provides an efficient transition to

site-level planning and project implementation.

The EIS will tier to the Willamette National Forest Land and

Resource Management Plan (1990) as amended by the Record of Decision

and Standards and Guidelines for Management of Habitat For Late

Successional and Old-Growth Forest Related Species within the Range of

the Northern Spotted Owl (1994).

Scoping will include public meetings and potentially visits to the

site. The first public meeting is scheduled for August 3, 1995 and will

be held at the Lane Transit District office in Eugene, Oregon.

Additional public meetings will be held in August and September.

Preliminary scoping identified a few issues. One of the issues is

the location of some of the units and possible road construction in the

Chucksney inventoried roadless area. This is the reason the Forest

Service is preparing an EIS. Other issues identified at this point

include water quality in Augusta Creek

[[Page 40155]]

and in the South Fork of the McKenzie River and the Wild and Scenic

Study River values of the South Fork McKenzie river.

The lead agency for this proposal is the Forest Service. The

responsible official is Lynn Burditt, District Ranger. The Forest

Service invites your comments or ideas on this proposal and asks that

they please be sent in writing to the above address.

The draft EIS is expected to be filed with the Environmental

Protection Agency (EPA) and to be available for public review by

October 1995. The comment period on the draft environmental impact

statement will be 45 days from the date the Environmental Protection

Agency publishes the notice of availability in the Federal Register.

The Forest Service believes it is important to give reviewers

notice at this early stage of several court rulings related to public

participation in the environmental review process. First, reviewers of

draft environmental impact statements must structure their

participation in the environmental review of the proposal so that it is

meaningful and alerts an agency to the reviewer's position and

contentions. Vermont Yankee Nuclear Power Corp. versus NRDC, 435 U.S.

519, 553 (1978). Also, environmental objections that could be raised at

the draft environmental impact statement stage but that are not raised

until after completion of the final environmental impact statement may

be waived or dismissed by the courts. City of Angoon versus Hodel, 803

f. 2d 1016, 1022 (9th Cir. 1986) and Wisconsin Heritages, Inc. versus

Harris, 490 F. Supp. 1334, 1338 (E.D. Wis. 1980). Because of these

court rulings, it is very important that those interested in this

proposed action participate by the close of the 45-day comment period

so that substantive comments and objections are made available to the

Forest Service at a time when it can meaningfully consider them and

respond to them in the final environmental impact statement.

To assist the Forest Service in identifying and considering issues

and concerns on the proposed action, comments on the draft

environmental impact statement should be as specific as possible. It is

also helpful if comments refer to specific pages or chapters of the

draft statement. Comments may also address the adequacy of the draft

environmental impact statement or the merits of the alternatives

formulated and discussed in the statement. (Reviewers may wish to refer

to the Council on Environmental Quality Regulations for implementing

the procedural provisions of the National Environmental Policy Act at

40 CFR 1503.3 in addressing these points.)

The final EIS is scheduled to be completed by December 1995. In the

final EIS, the Forest Service is required to respond to comments and

responses received during the comment period that pertain to the

environmental consequences discussed in the draft EIS and applicable

laws, regulations, and policies considered in making the decision and

rationale for the decisions in the Record of Decision. That decision

will be subject to Forest Service Appeal Regulations (36 CFR 217).

Dated: July 27, 1995.

Marsha Scutvick,

Acting Forest Supervisor.

[FR Doc. 95-19378 Filed 8-4-95; 8:45 am]

BILLING CODE 3410-11-M