Christy Basin Timber Sales, Willamette National Forest, Lane County, Oregon

DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE

Forest Service

Christy Basin Timber Sales, Willamette National Forest, Lane

County, Oregon

AGENCY: Forest Service, USDA.

ACTION: Notice of intent to prepare an environmental impact statement.

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SUMMARY: The USDA, Forest Service, will prepare an environmental impact

statement (EIS) on a Proposal Action to harvest and regenerate timber,

thin young stands created by past regeneration harvest. The proposal

also calls for the construction, reconstruction, and decommissioning of

roads, restoration of degraded stream channels, and improvement of big

game forage within the Christy Creek drainage of the North Fork of the

Middle Fork of the Willamette River watershed. The planning area is

bounded by the North Fork of the Middle Fork of the Willamette River on

the south, Hiyu Ridge (the watershed boundary between the North Fork

and the McKenzie River) on the east, Sinker Mountain and Sardine Butte

on the northwest and north (the watershed boundary between the North

Fork and Fall Creek) and Alpine Ridge on the west. The area is

approximately 40 air miles east of the City of Eugene and 16 air miles

northeast of the City of Oakridge. The Forest Service proposal will be

in compliance with the 1990 Willamette National Forest Land and

Resource Management Plan as amended by the 1994 Northwest Forest Plan,

which provides the overall guidance for management of this area. These

proposals are tentatively planned for implementation in fiscal years

1999-2003.

The Willamette National Forest invites written comments and

suggestions on the scope of the analysis in addition to those comments

already received as a result of local public participation activities.

The agency will also give notice of the full environmental analysis and

decision-making process so that interested and affected people are made

aware as to how they may participate and contribute to the final

decision.

DATES: Comments concerning the scope and implementation of the analysis

should be received in writing by February 28, 1998.

ADDRESSES: Send written comments and suggestions concerning the

management of this area to Rick Scott, District Ranger, Rigdon Ranger

District, Willamette National Forest, P.O. Box 1410, Oakridge, Oregon

97463.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:

Direct questions about the proposed action and the scope of analysis to

Kristy Miller, Planning Resource Management Assistant or Tim Bailey,

Project Coordinator, Oakridge Ranger District, phone 541-782-2283.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The Christy Basin Planning area is entirely

within the North Fork of the Middle Fork of the Willamette River

watershed, which is designed as a Tier 2 Key watershed by the Northwest

Forest Plan (ROD, C-7). Tier 2 Key watersheds contain important sources

of high quality water. A Watershed Analysis was completed for the North

Fork of the Middle Fork of the Willamette River in September, 1995.

The purpose of this project is to harvest timber in a manner that

implements the management objectives, and to implement various resource

restoration activities to meet Key Watershed objectives.

The proposal includes harvesting timber by thinning in nine

separate timber sales over the next five years, and regeneration

harvest methods in four separate timber sales over the next four years.

Both thinning and regeneration timber sale proposals would involve road

construction, reconstruction, and decommissioning. This analysis will

evaluate a range of alternatives addressing the Forest Service

proposals to harvest approximately 70.0 million board feet;

approximately 43.4 million board feet would be generated from thinning

some 3900 acres of young stands created by past clearout harvest, and

approximately 26.4 million board feet would be generated by

regeneration harvest on approximately 550 acres. All the above proposed

harvest would require a total of 8 miles of temporary road construction

and 21 miles of road reconstruction.

The Christy Basin planning area comprises about 34,000 acres, all

of which is federal land. Of the 34,000 acres about 18,500 acres (54%)

have been previously harvested and regenerated. Of the remaining acres,

approximately 5300 (15%) acres is in a mature stand condition, ranging

in ages from 90 to 170 years, and 10,000 acres is in an old-growth

stand condition, stand ages exceeding 200 years. The planning area

contains about 600 acres (1.7%) of non-forested vegetation types and

rock outcrops. Management areas that provide for programmed timber

harvest are Scenic (11c) and General Forest (14a). Other land

allocations in this planning area are Late-Successional Reserves,

Riparian Reserves, Wild and Scenic River Corridor, and Dispersed

Recreation--Semi-primitive Nonmotorized Use.

The project area includes a small portion (about 700 acres) of the

Chucksney Mountain inventoried roadless area, which was considered but

not selected for wilderness designation. Most of this inventoried

roadless area is included within the above Dispersed Recreation--Semi-

Primitive Nonmotorized Recreation Management Area.

Issues identified for this analysis are water and stream quality,

habitat fragmentation, economic benefit, old-growth habitat reduction,

big game habitat quality, biodiversity effects, road management, and

soil compaction.

Initial scoping for this analysis began in 1990 but the project was

put on hold due to a Federal Court injunction. Scoping was initiated

again in March of 1996. Alternatives were developed and

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preliminary analysis was completed during the summer and fall of 1997.

The developed alternative consisted of: (A) low management intensity;

retention of more than the prescribed amount of standing green trees

and down logs (20-30% retention), (B) conventional management

intensity; retention of prescribed amounts of standing green trees and

down logs (15% retention), (C) No old-growth harvest, and (D) No

Action. All action alternatives were developed to avoid forest

fragmentation and system road construction. Results of the above

analysis indicated a potential for significant effects to the human

environment, hence the need for documentation with the Environmental

Impact Statement.

The Forest Service will be seeking additional information, comment

and assistance from Federal, State, local agencies, tribes, and other

individuals or organizations who may be interested or affected by the

proposed project. Additional input will be used to help verify the

existing analysis and determine if additional issues and alternatives

should be developed. This input will be used in preparation of the

draft EIS.

The scoping process will include the following:

Identification of potential additional issues;

Identification of issues to be analyzed in depth;

Elimination of insignificant issues or those which have

been covered by a relevant previous environmental process;

Exploration of potential additional alternatives based on

the issues identified during the scoping process; and

Verification of and potential addition to environmental

effects of the proposed action and alternatives (i.e. direct, indirect,

and cumulative effects and connected actions).

The draft EIS is expected to be filed with the Environmental

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

February 28, 1998. The comment period on the draft EIS will be 45 days

from the date the EPA 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, a reviewer of

a draft EIS 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 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 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 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 EIS.

To assist the Forest Service in identifying and considering issues

and concerns on the proposed action, comments on the draft EIS 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 EIS 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 in June, 1998. 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

regarding this proposal. Rick Scott, District Ranger, is the

responsible official and as responsible official, he will document the

Christy Basin Timber Sales and restoration project decision and

rationale in a Record of Decision. That decision will be subject to

Forest Service Appeal Regulations (36 CFR Part 215).

Dated: January 5, 1998.

Rick Scott,

District Ranger.

[FR Doc. 98-1198 Filed 1-16-98; 8:45 am]

BILLING CODE 3410-11-M