Sandpoint Ranger District Packsaddle Final Environmental Impact StatementIdaho Panhandle National Forests, Bonner County, Idaho

DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE

Forest Service

Sandpoint Ranger District Packsaddle Final Environmental Impact

Statement--Idaho Panhandle National Forests, Bonner County, Idaho

AGENCY: Forest Service, USDA.

ACTION: Notice of intent to supplement an environmental impact

statement.

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SUMMARY: The USDA Forest Service (Sandpoint Ranger District) will

supplement the Packsaddle Final Environmental Impact Statement (FEIS)

to disclose the potential environmental effects of a new alternative

(Alternative 8) based on new information. The Project Area is within

the Pend Oreille Ecosystem, Sandpoint Ranger District, Idaho Panhandle

National Forests, Bonner County, Idaho and includes the Packsaddle

Inventoried Roadless Area.

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The new alternative would treat high severity root disease areas

and begin converting timber stands away from root disease susceptible

tree species (such as Douglas-fir and grand fir) to re-establish

western white pine, western larch, and ponderosa pine. Alternative 8

also proposes to use prescribed burning to reduce fuel loadings and

restore natural processes (such as fire) that are currently lacking in

the Project Area. Alternative 8 would treat 1,703 acres (1,165 acres

group and irregular group shelterwood, 369 acres group and modified

group selection, 96 acres sanitation/salvage, and 73 acres visual

improvement). This alternative also proposes to treat eight units over

40 acres in size (ranging from 45 to 240 acres). A combination of

prescribed underburning, grapple piling, and limbing/lopping would be

used to control fuel levels. This alternative would construct 3.4 miles

of temporary roads which would be built for logging and post-harvest

activities (such as prescribed burning and planting) access. These

roads would be recontoured after these activities are complete.

Additionally, Alternative 8 proposes to decommission 2.1 miles and

totally close 4.0 miles of existing roads.

This supplement will tier to Idaho Panhandle National Forests Land

and Resource Management Plan (Forest Plan), September 1987 and

reference the Integrated Scientific Assessment from the Upper Columbia

River Basin study.

DATES: Written comments and suggestions should be received on or before

June 10, 1997.

ADDRESSES: Submit written comments and suggestions on the proposed

management activities to Tony Erba, Project Leader, Sandpoint Ranger

District, 1500 Hwy 2, Suite 110, Sandpoint, ID 83864.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:

Tony Erba, Team Leader, Sandpoint Ranger District, phone number (208)

263-5111.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The Packsaddle Draft Environmental Impact

Statement was issued for public review and comment in June, 1994. The

Final Environmental Impact Statement was completed in March, 1995. The

Record of Decision was signed on May 3, 1996 under the authority of

section 2001 of Public Law 104-19 (otherwise known as the Salvage

Amendment). On July 2, 1996, Secretary of Agriculture Glickman issued a

directive that salvage timber sale decisions in inventoried roadless

areas were to be withdrawn from consideration until the Salvage Bill

authority had expired. Thus, the Packsaddle Record of Decision was

withdrawn.

Since that time, numerous field visits to the Project Area have

been conducted to verify the root disease conditions discussed in the

FEIS. We have discovered that the proposal of using group and modified

group selection methods to treat the root disease problem (as described

in the FEIS' Alternative 7) is not desirable because of:

(1) The need for continued access for treatment,

(2) The high potential for regeneration damage while removing

future mortality,

(3) The threat to established regeneration with future prescribed

burning opportunities, and

(4) The expected mortality level would predispose the stand to a

catastrophic wildfire since there would be greater amounts of dead and

down material created to carry a fire from the ground into the tree

crowns.

Additionally, these treatments would essentially postpone treatment

on the remaining stands while allowing the root disease situation to

continually worsen.

On National Forest lands, the Forest Service is responsible for

promoting healthy ecosystems and restoring deteriorated ecosystems to

provide for diversity of plant and animal communities, long-term

resource sustainability, and future management options. This must be

done in the context of meeting people's needs. Re-establishing

appropriate tree species composition, and the processes that maintain

it (i.e., fire), are important steps towards the goal of restoring

ecosystems in the Packsaddle Project Area. Focusing the proposed timber

harvest and associated prescribed burning activities in the highest

severity root disease areas are critical to achieve this goal. These

high severity areas represent clear examples where timber stand

dynamics are operating well outside their natural potential (low tree

densities and shortened life cycles for natural regeneration). Our

analysis shows that conditions will continue to worsen, resulting in a

further decline of ecosystem health and increased wildfire hazard if no

action is taken. Given our mission to sustain healthy ecosystems into

the future, it would be irresponsible of me to let these problems

continue.

We have looked at a variety of alternatives that address the root

disease problem at varying levels and consider this project to be the

first of a multi-step process to address ecosystem needs in the

Packsaddle Project Area. We have developed Alternative 8 to effectively

address the root disease problem while protecting other resource values

in the Project Area. Alternative 8 proposes to use more intensive

harvest methods (i.e., irregular group shelterwood) in large-sized

units to begin converting these affected stands to tree species less

susceptible to root disease infection. Several of these units would

exceed 40 acres (combined areas ranging from 45 to 255 acres). By

focusing on using a landscape scale management approach, Alternative 8

best approaches the level of disturbance that typically occurred prior

to when fires were suppressed on a regular basis. It would also

minimize the impacts on other affected resources. I consider

Alternative 8 to be a responsible approach to addressing the root

disease problem in light of the public comments submitted on this

project and our recent field visits.

The Record of Decision is expected to be filed with the

Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and available for public review

in June, 1997. At that time, the EPA will publish a Notice of

Availability of the final environmental impact statement in the Federal

Register.

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

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. v. NRDC, 435 U.S. 519, 553 (1978)). Also,

environmental objections that could be raised at the draft

environmental statement stage but that are not raised until after

completion of the final environmental statement may be waived or

dismissed by the courts (City of Angoon v. Hodel, 803 F.2d 1016, 1022

(9th Cir. 1986) and Wisconsin Heritages, Inc. v. 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 60-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 regarding the new alternative, comments should be as

specific as possible. It is also helpful if comments refer to specific

pages of the

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

the merits of the new alternative formulated and discussed in the

supplement. 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.

I am the responsible official for this environmental impact

statement. My address is Sandpoint Ranger District, 1500 Hwy 2, Suite

110, Sandpoint, ID, 83864.

Dated: March 27, 1997.

David S. Dillard,

District Ranger.

[FR Doc. 97-9357 Filed 4-10-97; 8:45 am]

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