Katka Peak Environmental Impact Statement Supplement, Idaho Panhandle National Forests, Boundary County, ID

SUMMARY: The USDA, Forest Service, will prepare a supplement to Katka

Peak Final Environmental Impact Statement (EIS). The notice of intent

for the EIS was published in volume 57, number 137 of the Federal

Register, pages 31491 through 31493 on July 16, 1992. This supplement

will disclose environmental effects of a timber salvage and ecosystem

rehabilitation project in the Katka Peak analysis area. A portion of

the proposed activities are within the Katka Peak Roadless Area number

1-157.

The project area is approximately 7 air miles southeast of the

community of Bonners Ferry. It is in the northwest portion of the

Cabinet Mountains, Idaho Panhandle National Forests, Bonners Ferry

Ranger District, Boundary County, Idaho. There are approximately 28,827

acres of National Forest lands within the analysis area. It includes

portions of Township 61 North, Ranges 1, 2 and 3 East, and Township 60

North, Range 2 East, Boise Meridian, Boundary County, Idaho.

The decision to be made is to the extent, if anything, of

activities to be accomplished for salvage, thinning, prescribed

burning, watershed and fisheries habitat improvement and road

reconditioning within the project area. Decisions concerning road

closures for grizzly bear security habitat would affect only roads

within the Boulder Bear Management Unit.

The purpose of the project is four-fold. It is to: salvage dead and

dying timber; to trend productive and stagnating poletimber, sawtimber

and plantation stands towards historical stocking levels and species

composition; reduce the stocking of small diameter Douglas-fir, larch

and other species that are invading historical dry site ponderosa pine

habitat types; and, remove seed trees in previous harvest units which

are now certified as regenerated.

The items covered by the 1994 Katka Peak record of decision to

implement Alternative 7c are outside the scope of this analysis. This

supplement will not result in any changes to the existing timber sales

and related activities as analyzed and disclosed in the Katka Peak

Final EIS and ROD.

This supplement to the EIS is necessary under 40 CFR 1502.9(c) due

to significant new circumstances and information obtained since the

Katka Peak Final EIS was completed. One significant new circumstance is

the expanding market for commercial utilization of trees ranging in

size from 4 to 7 inches in diameter at breast height. These small trees

are increasingly in demand for pulp, posts and poles. Also, dead timber

is being utilized in larger quantities for houselogs. These growing

markets now make it feasible to use commercial forest product sales to

treat timber stands that were designated for ``deferred treatment'' in

the Katka Peak Final EIS and Record of Decision.

The scientific assessment for the Interior Columbia Basin Ecosystem

Management Project (ICBEMP) has provided significant new information

relevant to the project area. This area lies within the Northern

Glaciated Mountains Region described in the ICBEMP assessment area.

Specific recommendations for this region indicate a need to

rehabilitate overstocked stands and to enhance dry site ponderosa pine

habitat types by such techniques as mechanical stocking control

(thinning) and prescribed fire.

DATES: Written comments and suggestions on the proposed management

activities or requests to be placed on the public involvement list

should be submitted on or before February 14, 1997.

ADDRESSES: Send written comments, suggestions or requests to District

Ranger, ATTN: Katka Peak Supplemental EIS (Kit Katkee Salvage Project),

Bonners Ferry Ranger District, Route 4 Box 4860, Bonners Ferry, Idaho

83805-9764.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:

Barry Wynsma, Project Leader, phone (208) 267-5561.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The Katka Peak Supplemental EIS (Kit Katkee

Salvage Project) was initiated in October of 1995 pursuant to

procedures in Section 2001 of Public Law 104-19 (Pub.L. 104-19). New

direction issued by Forest Service Chief Jack Ward Thomas and

Department of Agriculture Secretary Dan Glickman on July 2, 1996

resulted in this project being subject to standard NEPA procedures for

supplements to environmental impact statements. This project is no

longer subject to Pub.L. 104-19 procedures because the estimated total

volume of live timber proposed for removal in stocking reduction

treatments is expected to exceed 25 percent, which is the upper limit

for a salvage sale under Pub.L. 104-19.

This project-level EIS supplement incorporates the Katka Peak Final

EIS and Record of Decision (July 12, 1994) and tiers to the Idaho

Panhandle National Forests Land and Resource Management Plan (Forest

Plan) and Final EIS (September, 1987). The Forest Plan provides overall

guidance of all land management activities on the Idaho Panhandle

National Forests.

Use of prescribed fire, timber harvest, road closures, road

reconstruction and obliteration, water quality improvement and instream

fish habitat structures, and access management are all being considered

to achieve or trend toward the desired condition.

Proposed salvage and ecosystem rehabilitation management activities

would take place in timber stands with the highest treatment needs and

with low potential for producing and delivering sediment to streams.

Thinning treatments would remove trees between 4 and 9 inches in

diameter at breast height (dbh). Activities would include:

Approximately 1,800 acres of roundwood thinning (trees less than 7

inches dbh), approximately 3,800 acres of understory removal

treatments, including salvage of dead/down timber; approximately 135

acres of final removal of seed trees in certified

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regenerated harvest units (keeping reserve trees for wildlife);

approximately 730 acres of plantations scheduled for precommercial

thinning; approximately 340 acres of dry site ponderosa pine habitat

enhancement treatments, using both mechanical methods and prescribed

fire; approximately 11 water quality/fisheries improvement projects,

mostly road stabilization on existing roads; and, access management to

meet security habitat for threatened and endangered wildlife species.

The proposal includes precommercial thinning and prescribed fire

treatments in the Katka Peak Roadless Area (1-157). Approximately 329

acres of dry-site ponderosa pine habitat would be underburned and 217

acres of overstocked pole-sized timber stands would be precommercially

thinned. There would not be any use of heavy equipment, no road

construction, and no removal of forest products within the roadless

area.

These proposed actions are being considered together because they

represent either connected, similar, or cumulative actions as defined

by the Council on Environmental Quality (40 CFR 1508.25).

The Idaho Panhandle National Forests Forest Plan provides the

guidance for management of activities through goals, objectives,

standards and guidelines, and management area directions. The proposed

salvage and ecosystem rehabilitation management activities are within

Forest Plan designated management Areas 2 and 19. These areas can be

described briefly as follows:

Management Area 2--Manage identified grizzly bear habitat to

support a recovered grizzly bear population while providing for long-

term growth and production of commercially valuable wood products.

Management Area 19--Manage for a semi-primitive recreation setting

while providing low levels of timber harvest with minimum standard

roads.

The Forest Service will consider two alternatives to the proposed

action. One alternative will be ``No Action'' in which none of the

proposed activities would be implemented. Another alternative will

consider the effects of treating all stands that have a component of

dead timber, that are overstocked, that are in ponderosa pine habitat

that currently do not exhibit the historical species and stocking

levels of this habitat type, or have final removal needs.

The supplement to the Katka Peak Final EIS will analyze the direct,

indirect, and cumulative environmental effects of the proposed action

and alternatives. Past, present, and reasonably foreseeable activities

on both private and National Forest lands will be considered. Analysis

of site-specific mitigation measures and their effectiveness will be

disclosed.

Public participation is an important part of the analysis and

decisionmaking process. Scoping began with publication of the proposed

project in the October 1995 IPNF NEPA Quarterly Schedule of Proposed

Actions and through newspaper articles and letters to interested

persons. The public is encouraged to visit with Forest Service

officials at any time during the analysis and prior to the decision.

The following preliminary issues have been identified at this time:

1. How will access management and project timing affect habitat and

security needs for Threatened, Endangered, Sensitive and Management

Indicator species?

2. How will the fisheries and water quality in the project area be

protected, maintained, or improved?

3. What timber stands have stocking levels and species compositions

that are above and outside of their historic range of variability?

Also, what stands are experiencing or at risk of unacceptably high

levels of insect and disease activity? In relation to stands

experiencing high levels of tree mortality, what are the fuel loading

concerns and are the stands in need of fuels reduction?

4. How will the project contribute to maintaining the customary

flow of goods and services to communities?

5. How will the project affect the Katka Peak Roadless Area?

6. How will the visual resource be affected by the project?

7. How will the project protect sensitive plant species?

8. How will the project protect cultural resources?

This list may be expanded, verified or modified based on continuing

public participation in this project.

The Draft Supplement to the Katka Peak Final EIS is expected to be

filed with the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and available for

public review in February of 1997. At that time, EPA will publish a

Notice of Availability (NOA) of the Draft Supplemental EIS in the

Federal Register. The comment period on the Draft Supplemental EIS will

end 45 days from the date the NOA appears in the Federal Register. It

is very important that those interested in the management of the Katka

Peak area participate at that time. To be most helpful, comments on the

Draft Supplemental EIS should be as site- and project-specific as

possible and relate only to proposals made in the EIS supplement. The

Final Supplemental EIS is anticipated to be completed by April, 1997.

The Forest Service believes, at this early stage, it is important

to give reviewers notice 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 and 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 EIS stage but that are not raised until after completion of

the final EIS 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 supplement to the Katka

Peak Final EIS.

To assist the Forest Service in identifying and considering issues

and concerns on the proposed action, comments on the draft supplement

to the Final EIS should be as specific as possible. 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.

It is also helpful if comments refer to specific pages or chapters

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

draft supplement or the merits of the alternatives formulated and

discussed in the supplement.

I am the responsible official for this supplement to the

environmental impact statement.

Dated: December 26, 1996.

Elaine J. Zieroth,

District Ranger, Bonners Ferry Ranger District.

[FR Doc. 97-887 Filed 1-14-97; 8:45 am]

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