Upper North Fork 25 Fire Restoration, Wenatchee National Forest, Chelan County, WA

DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE

Forest Service

Upper North Fork 25 Fire Restoration, Wenatchee National Forest,

Chelan County, WA

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

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statement (EIS) to analyze and disclose the environmental impacts of a

site specific proposal for the Upper North 25 Fire Restoration. The

proposed action is approximately 20 miles northwest of the town of

Chelan, Washington on approximately 800 acres of National Forest System

Land in the North Fork 25 Mile Creek drainage on the Chelan Ranger

District of the Wenatchee National Forest. It includes part of an area

identified in Appendix C of the 1990 Wenatchee National Forest Land and

Resource Management Plan as the Stormy Mountain Inventoried Roadless

Area. It excludes the portion of that area allocated by the plan to

roadless recreation. The purpose of the EIS will be to develop and

evaluate a range of alternatives for ecosystem restoration activities

within the area of upper North Fork 25 Mile Creek that was burned by

the 1998 North 25 Fire. The objectives include: (1) Protecting/

restoring existing late-successional habitat; (2) creating

heterogeneity in the distribution of woody fuel and snags; (3)

salvaging fire killed/injured trees; (4) maintaining site productivity;

and (5) promoting recovery of riparian areas. To achieve these

objectives, the alternatives may include the following actions: Snag/

tree removal, snag falling, and prescribed fire.

The alternatives will include a no action alternative and at least

one alternative that proposes no action within the Stormy Mountain

Inventoried Roadless Area. The proposed project will be consistent with

direction given in the Wenatchee National Forest Land and Resource

Management Plan, as amended by the April 1994 Record of Decision for

Amendments to the Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management Planning

Documents Within the Range of the Northern Spotted Owl. This Forest

Service proposal is scheduled for implementation between the years 2000

and 2005. The agency invites written comments on the scope of this

project. In addition, the agency gives notice of this analysis so that

interested and affected people are aware of how they may participate

and contribute to the final decision.

DATES: Comments concerning the scope and analysis of this proposal must

be post-marked by October 22, 1999.

ADDRESSES: Submit written comments and suggestions concerning the scope

of the analysis to Al Murphy, District Ranger, Chelan Ranger District,

428 West Woodin Avenue, Chelan, Washington 98816.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Questions and comments about this EIS

should be directed to Matt Dahlgreen, Interdisciplinary Team Leader,

Entiat Ranger District, PO Box 476, Entiat, Washington 98822; phone

509-784-1511, extension 524.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: This analysis was prompted by the North 25

Fire Restoration Environmental Analysis which was conducted in response

to the North 25 Fire of 1998. During that analysis, vegetation

treatments within the Stormy Mountain Inventoried Roadless Area and

adjacent unroaded areas were dropped in response to public concern

about roadless area issues. The Upper North 25 Fire EIS analysis will

re-evaluate the effects of alternative treatments, designed to meet the

objectives summarized above, within these unroaded areas.

The proposed action is to treat approximately 855 acres within the

upper watershed of the North Fork 25 Mile Creek. The area proposed for

treatment within the Inventoried Roadless Area was allocated to Late

Successional Reserves by the amended Wenatchee National Forest Land and

Resource Management Plan. The objective of this allocation is to

maintain and enhance late-successional forest ecosystems and protect

them from loss due to large-scale fire, insect and disease epidemics,

and major human impacts. Treatments would include replanting of a

portion of the burned area and commercial or noncommercial salvage of

trees killed directly by the fire or indirectly by Douglas-fir bark

beetles using both helicopter and skyline logging methods. No new roads

would be constructed.

To date, the following key issues have been identified: ecosystem

sustainability and biodiversity; roadless character; and scenic

quality.

The decision to be made through this analysis is whether

restoration treatments should be implemented within the Upper 25 Mile

Fire Analysis Area, and if so, where, how, and to what extent.

A range of alternatives will be considered, including a no action

alternative, and at least one alternative that proposes no action

within the Stormy Mountain Inventoried Roadless Area. Other

alternatives will be developed in response to relevant issues received

during scoping. All alternatives will need to respond to specific

conditions in the Upper North Fork 25 Mile Creek Analysis Area.

Public participation will be especially important at several points

during the analysis. The Forest Service will be seeking information,

comments, and assistance from Federal, State, tribes, and local

agencies, as well as individuals or organizations who may be interested

in or affected by the proposed actions. This information will be used

in preparation of the draft EIS. The scoping process includes:

1. Identifying potential issues.

2. Identifying issues to be analyzed in depth.

3. Eliminating non-significant issues or those which have been

covered by a relevant previous environmental process.

4. Exploring additional alternatives.

5. Identifying potential environmental effects of the proposed

action and alternatives (i.e., direct, indirect, and cumulative effects

and connected actions).

6. Determining potential cooperating agencies and task assignments.

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 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 draft EIS is expected to be filed with the Environmental

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

December 1999. The comment period on the draft EIS will be 45 days from

the date the EPA's Notice of Availability appears in the Federal

Register. Copies of the draft EIS will be distributed to interested and

affected agencies, organizations, tribes and members of the public for

their review and comment. It is very important that those interested in

the management of the Wenatchee National Forest participate at that

time.

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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 EIS. 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.)

At this early stage, 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, reviewers 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. 24d 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 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.

The final EIS is scheduled to be completed in March 2000. 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. The Forest Service is the lead agency for this

environmental analysis. The responsible official is the Chelan District

Ranger. The responsible official will document the Upper North Fork 25

Fire Restoration decision and reasons for the decision in a Record of

Decision. That decision will be subject to Forest Service Appeal

Regulations (36 CFR part 215).

Dated: September 14, 1999.

Al Murphy,

Chelan District Ranger.

[FR Doc. 99-24890 Filed 9-23-99; 8:45 am]

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