Survey and Manage Strategy for National Forests and Bureau of Land Management Districts Within the Range of the Northern Spotted Owl

DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE

Forest Service

Department of the Interior

Bureau of Land Management

Survey and Manage Strategy for National Forests and Bureau of

Land Management Districts Within the Range of the Northern Spotted Owl

AGENCIES: Forest Service, USDA; Bureau of Land Management, USDI.

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

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SUMMARY: The Forest Service and the Bureau of Land Management (BLM)

will prepare an environmental impact statement (EIS) to be used in

considering a proposal to make changes in two of the mitigation

measures first adopted in the Standards and Guidelines for Management

of Habitat for Late-Successional and Old-Growth Forest Related Species

Within the Range of the Northern Spotted Owl (Northwest Forest Plan),

and then incorporated into subsequent planning documents of the Forest

Service and BLM. These changes affect the Survey and Manage and

Protection Buffer species provisions of the Standards and Guidelines

and are based on new information that has been collected in the past

four years of implementation. The purpose of these proposed changes is

to update the conservation strategies in the Northwest Forest Plan and

to continue to meet all of the objectives articulated in the Northwest

Forest Plan. The selected alternative may result in amendment to agency

land and resource management plans for National Forests and BLM

Districts within the range of the northern spotted owl.

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

in writing by December 24, 1998.

ADDRESSES: Send written comments concerning this proposal to Bill

Torgersen, Project Manager, P.O. Box 3623, Portland, Oregon 97203.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:

Cynthia Henchell, EIS Team Leader, P.O. Box 3623, Portland, Oregon

97203, phone (503) 808-2490.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: This EIS will evaluate the Survey and Manage

and Protection Buffer species Standards and Guidelines as they are

applied to National Forest System Lands (NFS) and public lands

administered by the BLM within the range of the northern spotted owl.

The selected alternative may result in an amendment to Land Management

Plans (LMPs) for the Gifford Pinchot, Mount Baker-Snoqualmie, Mount

Hood, Olympic, Rogue River, Siuslaw, Siskiyou, Six Rivers, Umpqua, and

Willamette National Forests and portions of the Deschutes, Okanogan,

Wenatchee, Winema, Klamath, Lassen, Mendocino, Modoc, and Shasta-

Trinity National Forests implementing the Northwest Forest Plan.

The Record of Decision for this EIS would amend the BLM Resource

Management Plans (RMPs) for the Salem, Eugene, Coos Bay, Roseburg, and

Medford Districts, and the Klamath Falls Field Office of the Lakeview

District in Oregon. In addition, the Record of Decision for this EIS

would amend the plans for the Redding Field Office, Arcata Field

Office, King Range National Conservation Area, and Ukiah Field Office

within the grouping of independent Northern California Field Offices

known as NORCAL.

New information, such as the range and abundance of species listed

in Table C-3 of the Survey and Manage and Protection Buffer species

Standards and Guidelines of the Northwest Forest Plan, continues to be

compiled from surveys and analyzed following four years of

implementation of these provisions. This new information indicates that

adhering to some of the present Standards and Guidelines for Survey and

Manage and Protection Buffer species may not fully meet both the need

to protect old growth-related species and the need for forest products,

which are the dual goals of the Northwest Forest Plan. The present

Standards and Guidelines for Survey and Manage and Protection Buffer

species require substantial reductions in the availability of resources

from Federal lands; including recreation, timber, prescribed fire,

mining, grazing and restoration activities, while providing little

corresponding benefit to the species the provisions were designed to

protect. Moreover, there is a need to clarify the Survey and Manage and

Protection Buffer species (Standards and Guidelines to design an

orderly and credible adaptive management process to change or revise

the status of species and management of Survey and Manage and

Protection Buffer species as we gain new insights to their needs.

The proposed action would alter certain procedures under the Survey

and Manage provisions so that the agencies can more rapidly respond to

new information concerning the population status and habitat

requirements of species associated with late-successional and old-

growth forest habitat of the Pacific Northwest. The proposed action

would merge Protection Buffer species into the protective measures

provided under the Survey and Manage provisions established under the

Northwest Forest Plan. The proposed action may include the initial

changes to species' categorization which would be made under the new

adaptive management procedures to be adopted for the Survey and Manage

mitigation measure, such as moving a species from one Component to

another. These changes would be based on the information which has been

developed since adoption of the Northwest Forest Plan.

Alternatives other than the proposal and the ``no action''

alternative have not been developed. The public is invited to propose

alternatives for consideration during the scoping process.

The scoping process as defined in the Council of Environmental

Quality's National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) implementing

regulations will be used to identify issues for developing a range of

alternatives that consider the underlying need for this action. A

scoping notice will be prepared and circulated to mailing lists of

individuals and organizations previously expressing an interest in

National Forest LMPs and BLM RMPs within the range of the northern

spotted owl. The scoping notice along with background information will

also be posted on the Internet: http://or.blm.gov/information.htm. A

scoping meeting will not be held. For comments to be

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most useful in this analysis, they should be submitted in writing

before December 24, 1998.

The Forest Service and BLM will be joint lead agencies for this

analysis. The two agencies will consult with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife

Service and National Marine Fisheries Service pursuant to the

Endangered Species Act. Other Federal agencies, such as the Pacific

Northwest and Pacific Southwest Research Station, Bureau of Indian

Affairs, National Park Service, Environmental Protection Agency (EPA),

U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Natural Resources Conservation Service,

the U.S. Geological Survey Biological Resources Division, EPA Research

Laboratory, and Tribal, local, and state governments will also be

involved.

The responsible officials for NFS lands will be the Regional

Forester, Pacific Northwest Region, P.O. Box 3623, Portland, Oregon

97208 and the Regional Forester, Pacific Southwest Region, 630 Sansome

Street, San Francisco, CA 94111. The responsible official for public

lands administered by the BLM will be the State Director for Oregon and

Washington, P.O. Box 2965, Portland, Oregon 97208 and the State

Director for California, 2135 Butano Drive, Sacramento, CA 95825.

The draft EIS is expected to be filed with the EPA approximately

February 1999 and will be available for public review at that time. The

comment period on the draft EIS will be 90 days from the date the EPA

publishes the notice of availability in the Federal Register.

The Forest Service and BLM believe it is important to give

reviewers notice of several court rulings related to public

participation in the environmental review process. First, reviewers of

draft EISs 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, 533 (1978). Also, environmental objections

that could be raised at the draft EIS stage may be waived or dismissed

by the courts. City of Angoon v. Hodel, 803 F.2nd 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 important that

those interested in this proposed action participate by the close of

the 90-day comment period on the draft EIS so that substantive comments

and objections are made available to the Forest Service and BLM at a

time when the agencies can meaningfully consider substantive comments

and objectives and respond to them in the final EIS.

To assist the Forest Service and BLM 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 NEPA at 40 CFR 1503.3 in addressing these

points.

It is expected that the final EIS will be filed with the EPA

approximately October 1999. There will be two Records of Decisions

issued; one for NFS lands and one for BLM public lands in Oregon,

Washington and California. The decision for National Forest System

Lands will be subject to Forest Service appeal regulations (36 CFR

217). The decision in regard to lands managed by the BLM would be

subject to the protest procedures in BLM's planning regulations (43 CFR

1610.5-2).

Dated: November 16, 1998.

Robert W. Williams,

Regional Forester, R-6, Forest Service.

Dated: November 16, 1998.

William L. Bradley,

Deputy State Director, Resource Planning, Use & Protection, Bureau of

Land Management.

[FR Doc. 98-31199 Filed 11-24-98; 8:45 am]

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