Notice of Availability; Final Environmental Impact Statement for the Marsh-Billings-Rockefeller National Historical Park Final General Management Plan

DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR

National Park Service

Notice of Availability; Final Environmental Impact Statement for

the Marsh-Billings-Rockefeller National Historical Park Final General

Management Plan

AGENCY: National Park Service.

ACTION: Availability for 30 days of Final Environmental Impact

Statement (FEIS) for Marsh-Billings-Rockefeller National Historical

Park Final General Management Plan.

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SUMMARY: Pursuant to section 102(2)(c) of the National Environmental

Policy Act of 1969, the National Park Service announces the

availability of the Final Environmental Impact Statement for Marsh-

Billings-Rockefeller National Historical Park Final General Management

Plan.

The Final Environmental Impact Statement is presented in an

abbreviated format. It must be integrated with the Marsh-Billings

National Historical Park Draft General Management Plan/Draft

Environmental Impact Statement issued in April 1998, to be considered a

complete document reflecting the full proposal and alternative, and all

significant environmental impacts. The two documents together compose

the complete Final Environmental Impact Statement.

Marsh-Billings-Rockefeller National Historical Park is the only

national park to focus on conservation history and the evolving nature

of land stewardship in America. Opened in June of 1998, Vermont's first

national park preserves and interprets the historic Marsh-Billings-

Rockefeller property in Woodstock. The park is named for George Perkins

Marsh, Frederick Billings, and Laurance S. Rockefeller. George Perkins

Marsh was one of the nation's first global environmental thinkers (who

grew up on the property). Frederick Billings was an early

conservationist who established a progressive dairy farm and

professionally managed forest on the former Marsh farm. Frederick

Billing's granddaughter, Mary French Rockefeller, and her husband,

conservationist Laurance S. Rockefeller came to own the property in the

1950s. They sustained Billings's mindful practices in forestry and

farming on the property over the latter half of the twentieth century.

In 1983, they established the Billings Farm & Museum to continue the

farm's working dairy and to interpret rural Vermont life and

agricultural history. The Billings Farm & Museum is operated by the

Woodstock Foundation, Inc. as a private nonprofit educational

institution.

Marsh-Billing-Rockefeller National Historical Park was created in

1992 when the Rockefellers' gave the estate's residential and forest

lands to the people of the United States. Today, the park interprets

the history of conservation with tours of the Marsh-Billings-

Rockefeller mansion and the surrounding 550-acre forest--one of the

oldest planned and continuously managed woodlands in America. Working

in partnership, the park and the museum present historic and

contemporary examples of conservation stewardship and interpret the

lives and contributions of George Perkins Marsh, Frederick Billings and

his descendants, and Mary and Laurance S. Rockefeller.

The National Park began to plan for the management of Marsh-

Billings-Rockefeller National Historical Park in 1993. Park planners

conducted a conservation stewardship workshop, a community study,

visitor and community surveys, a transportation analysis, neighborhood

meetings, and other resource inventories and assessments. In a Draft-

General Management Plan/Draft Environmental Impact Statement that

underwent 60 days of public review, the National Park Service presented

and evaluated two management scenarios (the Proposal and the

Alternative) and described five management options that were

considered, but rejected by the planning team. After considering public

and agency comment, the National Park Service adopted the draft plan's

Proposal as the final plan.

Availability

The FEIS is available for a period for thirty days, beginning on

the date of the Environmental Protection Agency publication in the

Federal Register. The National Park Service will take no action for the

thirty-day period of availability, after which time a Record of

Decision will be prepared and made available.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Public reading copies of the FEIS will be

available for review at Marsh-Billings-Rockefeller National Historical

Park, 54 Elm Street, Woodstock, Vermont. For further information,

please contact the Superintendent, Marsh-Billings-Rockefeller National

Historical Park, P.O. Box 178, Woodstock, Vermont 05091; voice at (802)

457-3368; fax at (802) 457-3405.

Dated: May 25, 1999.

Terry W. Savage,

Superintendent, Boston Support Office.

[FR Doc. 99-15912 Filed 6-22-99; 8:45 am]

BILLING CODE 4310-70-M