Ochoco National Forest, Lookout Mountain Ranger District; Oregon; Ochoco Summit; OHV Trail EIS, 60235-60236 [E9-27801]

Agencies

• DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE
• Forest Service

[Federal Register Volume 74, Number 223 (Friday, November 20, 2009)]
[Notices]
[Pages 60235-60236]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: E9-27801]


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Notices
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Federal Register / Vol. 74, No. 223 / Friday, November 20, 2009 / 
Notices

[[Page 60235]]



DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE

Forest Service


Ochoco National Forest, Lookout Mountain Ranger District; Oregon; 
Ochoco Summit; OHV Trail EIS

AGENCY: Forest Service, USDA.

ACTION: Notice of Intent to prepare an Environmental Impact Statement.

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SUMMARY: The Ochoco National Forest is preparing an Environmental 
Impact Statement (EIS) to analyze the effects of changing the existing 
motorized trail system to create and designate a sustainable system of 
roads, trails and areas open to motor vehicles that will provide legal 
public access, enhance regulation of unmanaged wheeled motor vehicle 
travel, protect resources, and decrease conflicts between motorized and 
non-motorized use on the Ochoco National Forest. Consistent with the 
Ochoco National Forest Land and Resource Management Plan, as amended, 
this action is needed to provide to the public a diversity of road and 
trail opportunities for experiencing a variety of environments and 
modes of travel.

DATES: Comments concerning the scope of the analysis must be received 
by December 21, 2009. The draft environmental impact statement is 
expected to be completed and available for public comment in May 2010. 
The final environmental impact statement is expected to be completed in 
August 2010.

ADDRESSES: Send written comments to Ochoco Summit OHV Trail Planning 
Team, Ochoco National Forest, 3160 NE Third Street, Prineville, Oregon 
97754. Alternately, electronic comments may be sent to comments-pacificnorthwest-ochoco@fs.fed.us. Electronic comments must be 
submitted as part of the actual e-mail message, or as an attachment in 
plain text (.txt), Microsoft Word (.doc), rich text format (.rtf), or 
portable document format (.pdf).

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Dede Steele, Project Leader, at 3160 
NE. Third Street, Prineville, Oregon 97754, or at (541) 416-6500, or by 
e-mail at dsteele@fs.fed.us.
    Responsible Official: The responsible official will be Jeff Walter, 
Forest Supervisor, Ochoco National Forest, 3160 NE. Third Street, 
Prineville, Oregon 97754.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
    Purpose and Need. The Deschutes and Ochoco National Forests are 
working to complete a Travel Management EIS. If implemented, the two-
forest Travel Management EIS would identify specific roads as open for 
motorized mixed use, and would prohibit off-road travel except where 
specifically allowed. Opportunities for recreation with off-road 
vehicles would be reduced. There currently is only one motorized trail 
in a forested setting on the Ochoco National Forest: The Green Mountain 
Trail. At just over eight miles, it is not of sufficient length to 
provide a day of riding to an experienced rider, let alone a weekend of 
opportunity. As a result, riders are currently venturing off the trail 
and have created a network of loops. This represents an unauthorized 
expansion of an undersized trail system. To provide a successful OHV 
trail system, the system must contain adequate length, diversity, 
difficulty, loops, alternative routes and other features to provide a 
quality experience and to keep the use on the designated system.
    OHV riders have indicated a desire for additional motorized 
opportunities other than on mixed use roads. NFS roads are designed 
primarily for highway-legal vehicles such as passenger cars or log 
trucks, and are often too wide and too smooth to provide a course with 
sufficient technical difficulty to keep OHV riders interested and 
challenged. The intent of providing trails for OHVs is to provide 
routes with sufficient technical difficulty, diversity of experience 
and interesting features to keep the riders interested, challenged and 
engaged with staying on the designated route. The intent of providing 
mixed use roads is to provide riders with access to a variety of 
locations on the forest and to provide easy routes for riders who are 
not looking for a technically difficult experience.
    Proposed Action. The Proposed Action focuses on designating 
motorized trails and supporting areas, in conjunction with 
opportunities that would remain on mixed use roads identified in the 
forest-level Travel Management EIS. The Proposed Action would:
     Designate a system of trails and areas (including staging 
areas, play areas, riding areas where young riders may be supervised by 
adults, learner/warm-up loops, picnic and camping areas) by class of 
vehicle and season of use.
     Utilize designated open motorized mixed use roads as 
connecters between trail segments.
     Designate areas for developed and dispersed camping 
activities with legal trail access.
     Implement rehabilitation or restoration activities in 
previously damaged areas and interconnecting unauthorized or user-
created routes to promote recovery, and to prevent confusion about 
which routes are open and which are not.
     Establish directional, informational and interpretive 
signing to: Facilitate proper trail use, safety and enforcement; to 
provide public information and education; to define trail, riding area, 
staging area and camp sites locations; to promote recovery of 
rehabilitation and restoration sites; and to encourage reporting of 
violations, restoration or maintenance needs.
     Trails would be designed with width and difficulty 
appropriate for each intended vehicle type, while roads designated as 
open in the forest-level Travel Management EIS would not be narrowed to 
trail standards (i.e. designated open roads would remain designated 
open roads).
    Issues. Preliminary issues identified include:
     Resource concerns including effects to wildlife, fish, 
streams, sensitive habitats, forage and weeds.
     Inadequate quality of experience for off-highway vehicle 
use on open roads.
     Retention of non-motorized use experience, potential noise 
levels.
     Retention of traditional motorized recreational 
experience, noise/traffic levels.
     Concern for increasing off-highway vehicle use on the 
Forest.

[[Page 60236]]

     User conflicts associated with motorized/non-motorized 
recreation.
     Economic sustainability of road and trail system.
     Monitoring, maintenance and enforcement of appropriate 
use.
     Potential economic benefits to communities that rely on 
recreation-tourism.
     Potential impacts to adjacent land owners.
     Potential impacts to livestock and range improvements on 
permitted allotments.
    Comment. Public comments about this proposal are requested in order 
to assist in identifying issues, determine how to best manage the 
resources, and to focus the analysis. Comments received 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 
and 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 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.
    A draft EIS will he filed with the Environmental Protection Agency 
(EPA) and available for public review by May, 2010. The EPA will 
publish a Notice of Availability (NOA) of the draft EIS in the Federal 
Register. The final ElS is scheduled to be available August, 2010.
    The comment period on the draft ElS will be 45 days from the date 
the EPA publishes the notice of availability in the Federal Register.
    The Forest Service believes, at this early stage, 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. 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 of 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.
    In the final ETS, the Forest Service is required to respond to 
substantive comments received during the comment period for the draft 
EIS. The Forest Service is the lead agency and the responsible official 
is the Forest Supervisor, Ochoco National Forest. The responsible 
official will decide whether and how to change the existing motorized 
trail system on the Ochoco National Forest. The responsible official 
will also decide how to mitigate impacts of this action and will 
determine when and how monitoring of effects will take place.
    The Ochoco Summit OHV Trail decision and the reasons for the 
decision will be documented in the record of decision. That decision 
will be subject to Forest Service Appeal Regulations (35 CFR Part 215).

    Dated: November 12, 2009.
William R. Queen,
District Ranger.
[FR Doc. E9-27801 Filed 11-19-09; 8:45 am]
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