South Pyramid Timber Sales, Willamette National Forest, Linn County, Oregon

DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE

Forest Service

South Pyramid Timber Sales, Willamette National Forest, Linn

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 to harvest timber, regenerate harvested

lands, construct or reconstruct forest roads, and associated mitigation

projects in the South Pyramid subwatershed. The legal description for

the planning area is T12S, R5E, sections 19, 28-34. The planning area

is approximately 4,637 acres in the Middle Santiam Watershed.

The planning area is primarily designated Matrix-General Forest by

the Northwest Forest Plan, with Riparian Reserves, Late Successional

Reserve, and Matrix-Special Habitat Areas composing the rest of the

landbase. The planning area includes many acres of overstocked 90-150

year forest, where growth rates have slowed. Information and analyses

created during the Middle Santiam Watershed Analysis will also be

considered when designing this project. This proposal is tentatively

scheduled for implementation in fiscal year 2000-2003. The Willamette

National Forest invites written comments and suggestions on the scope

of this analysis, in addition to those comments 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 informed 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 August 16, 1999.

ADDRESSES: Please send written comments and suggestions concerning the

South Pyramid Timber Sales to Mike Rassbach, District Ranger, Sweet

Home Ranger District, Willamette National Forest, 3225 Hwy 20, Sweet

Home, Oregon 97386.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Questions about the Proposed Action

and scope of analysis should be directed to Brian McGinley, Resource

Planner, Sweet Home Ranger District, Willamette National Forest, 3225

Highway 22, Sweet Home, Oregon 97386, phone 541-367-5168.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The Northwest Forest Plan has designed most

of the forest's timber production capability to come from Matrix-

General Forest lands. The purpose and need for this proposal is to

improve tree growth rates and/or quality of overstocked matrix forests,

and harvest timber in a landbase that is Matrix Land-General Forest,

where timber management is a dominant resource objective. The Forest

Service proposal will comply with the 1990 Willamette National Forest

Land and Resource Management Plan, as amended by the 1994 Northwest

Forest Plan.

This Proposed Action will consider regeneration harvest and/or

commercial thinnings to meet project goals, and will compare

conventional logging systems with helicopter logging. This project is

expected to yield a volume of 4.0 to 4.4 million board feet, part of

which will be achieved by thinning at least 40 acres of forest stands

to improve growth rates reduced by overstocking. Other activities being

considered are likely to involve: reforestation, managed standard

improvements, road closures and obliteration, wildlife habitat

enhancement, and noxious weed control.

Preliminary resources issues identified that will influence

alternatives developed for this project are: old growth habitat

retention; maintenance of large, unroaded landscape blocks; economic

and biologic effects of logging systems; and northern spotted owl

dispersal habitat. Other issues that will be addressed through project

design are: edge effects of management on a neighboring Late

Successional Reserve, big game habitat conditions, and habitat

connectivity with adjacent watersheds.

Alternative have been developed around the Proposed Action

addressing the dominant issues and will be compared to the ``No

Action'' Alternative. One action alternative focuses on harvesting the

least number of acres and staying out of the unroaded landscape blocks.

To achieve project goals, this alternative proposes to regeneration

harvest 77 acres (47 acres of which are old growth habitat) and thin 48

acres. Conventional skyline and tractor logging systems will be used.

This alternative will require 1.1 miles of new road construction and

the obliteration of 0.6 miles of road.

A second action alternative focuses on preserving old growth

habitat and avoiding regeneration harvesting or road construction

within large unroaded landscape blocks. Because only thinning is

proposed, this alternative requires 287 acres (209 acres of which lies

within the Pyramids unroaded landscape block) to meet project

objectives. Helicopter logging will be used for most units, with only

0.8 miles of new road needed and the obliteration of 0.8 miles of road.

A third action alternative tries to balance the desires of

preserving old growth and maintaining large, unroaded landscape blocks

by regeneration harvesting 39 acres (23 acres of which is old growth

habitat) and thinning 161 acres outside or around the edge of the

Pyramids landscape block. This alternative proposes to construct 1.2

miles of new road and the obliteration of 0.6 miles of road.

The decisions to be made from the information and analysis include:

number and location of harvest units; silvicultural prescriptions for

each harvest unit; logging and transportation systems to access units;

priorities of mitigation projects; selection of monitoring needs around

this project.

Initial scoping began in November 1997. The forest Service will be

seeking additional input and comments from other agencies,

organizations and individuals who may be interested or affected by the

proposed project. Additional input will be helpful in identifying

resource issues not currently identified, and in developing

alternatives for a draft EIS.

Comments received in response to this notice, including names and

addresses of those who comment, will be considered part of the public

record on this Proposed Action and will be available for public

inspection. Comments submitted anonymously will be accepted and

considered; however, those who submit anonymous comments will not have

standing to appeal the subsequent decision under 36 CFR Parts 215 or

217. Additionally, pursuant to 7 CFR 1.27(d) any person may request the

agency to withhold a

[[Page 41913]]

submission from the public record by showing how the Freedom of

Information Act (FOIA) permits such confidentiality. Persons requesting

such confidentiality should be aware that, under the FOIA,

confidentiality may be granted in only very limited circumstances, such

as to protect trade secrets. The Forest Service will inform the

requester of the agency's decision regarding the request for

confidentiality, and where the request is denied, the agency will

return the submission and notify the requester that the comments may be

resubmitted with or without name and address within a specified number

of days.

The scoping process included; identification of potential issues;

identification of key issues to be analyzed in depth; exploration of

additional alternatives based on identified issues from the scoping

process; and identification of potential environmental effects from

analyzed alternatives.

The draft EIS is expected to be filed with the Environmental

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

September 1999. The comment period for 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 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 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 in 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 by January 2000. In the

final EIS, the Forest Service is required to respond to substantive

comments and responses received during the comment period that pertains

to the environmental consequences discussed in the draft EIS and

applicable laws, regulations, and policies considered in making the

decision regarding this proposal. The Forest Service is the lead agency

for this EIS. The responsible official is Mike Rassbach, District

Ranger. As a responsible official, he will document the South Pyramid

Timber Sales decision and rationale in the Record of Decision. That

decision will be subject to Forest Service Appeal Regulations (36 CFR

Part 215).

Dated: July 22, 1999.

Mike Rassbach,

Sweet Home District Ranger.

[FR Doc. 99-19676 Filed 7-30-99; 8:45 am]

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