Comprehensive Management and Use Plan, Juan Bautista de Anza National Historic Trail, California and Arizona; Notice of Availability of Final Environmental Impact Statement

DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR

National Park Service

Comprehensive Management and Use Plan, Juan Bautista de Anza

National Historic Trail, California and Arizona; Notice of Availability

of Final Environmental Impact Statement

Summary: Pursuant to Section 102 (2) (C) of the National Environmental

Policy Act of 1969 (Pub. L. 91-190 as amended), the National Park

Service, Department of the Interior, has prepared a final environmental

impact statement (FEIS) assessing the potential impacts of the proposed

Comprehensive Management and Use Plan for the Juan Bautista de Anza

National Historic Trail, a 1200-mile trail in California and Arizona.

The proposal (alternative D), which is the National Park Service's

comprehensive management and use plan for the trail, calls for marking

the historic route, identifies an auto route, and envisions a

continuous multi-use recreational retracement trail. The National Park

Service (NPS) will take an active role in administrative oversight of

the trail by helping protect a trail right-of-way and historic,

cultural, and natural resources associated with the trail. The NPS will

certify eligible sites and segments and provide leadership of state,

regional, and local governments, private landowners, organizations,

corporations, and individuals to create a continuous and unified trail.

The NPS will form partnerships with nonprofit groups supporting the

Anza Trail. Interpretive programs and a system of wayside exhibits will

enhance visitor opportunities along the route. A planned promotional

and tourism program will increase visitor awareness of American Indian

and Spanish colonial cultures and history related to the Anza

expeditions to Alta (Upper) California.

The other alternatives include No Action (alternative AA), Single

Theme (alternative A), Multi-theme (alternative B), and Broad Outreach

(alternative C). Alternative AA represents what would happen if there

were no national trail. Alternative A would limit trail recognition and

resource protection to federal lands and state parks and focus

interpretation on only the 1775-76 Anza trek. Trail uses would be

limited to those of the original expedition. Management would emphasize

volunteers, and the National Park Service would play a minor

administrative role. Alternative B is similar to the proposal but would

not include the promotional aspects. Alternative C is similar to the

proposal, but would broaden the interpretive themes to the overlay of

history along the trail route from prehistory to the present and would

include points of interest associated with the trail corridor.

The environmental consequences of the proposed action and

alternatives were addressed in the draft environmental impact statement

(DEIS) and are presented with modifications in this FEIS. The public

review period for the DEIS ended March 1, 1995.

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Responses to public and agency comment on the DEIS are included in the

FEIS. This programmatic FEIS considers impacts to cultural resources,

natural resources, and the socioeconomic environment. No significant

adverse impacts are anticipated.

Dates: The no-action period for the plan will commence when the

Environmental Protection Agency formally announces the availability of

the FEIS in the Federal Register, and end 30 days thereafter.

Addresses: Inquiries and comments on the FEIS should be directed to:

Superintendent, Pacific Great Basin System Support Office, 600 Harrison

Street, Suite 600, San Francisco, CA 94107, Attention: Meredith Kaplan.

The telephone number for further information is (415) 744-3968.

Copies of the plan and FEIS are available at the Pacific Great

Basin System Support Office at the above address. Copies are also

available for inspection at libraries located in cities along the Anza

Trail route.

Dated: July 22, 1996.

Patricia L. Neubachen,

Acting Field Director, Pacific West Area.

[FR Doc. 96-19599; Filed 7-31-96; 8:45 am]

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