Crescent Ranger District; Deschutes National Forest; Klamath County, Oregon; Marsh Project Environmental Impact Statement, 24717-24718 [2013-09747]

Agencies

• DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE
• Forest Service

[Federal Register Volume 78, Number 81 (Friday, April 26, 2013)]
[Notices]
[Pages 24717-24718]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2013-09747]


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DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE

Forest Service


Crescent Ranger District; Deschutes National Forest; Klamath 
County, Oregon; Marsh Project Environmental Impact Statement

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) for a project called Marsh, in the southwestern portion 
of the Crescent Ranger District just south of Crescent Lake. The Forest 
Service is approaching this project by looking at the environmental 
benefits that the project area provides, from recreation experiences to 
wildlife habitat, and from water quality to scenic views. The goal of 
the project is to increase the net benefits that people receive from 
the project area currently, and allow the area to continue to provide 
this diverse range of benefits into the future. We are using the term 
``ecosystem services'' to represent all these benefits that areas such 
as the Marsh project area provide to people.
    The focal point of the planning area is Big Marsh, one of the 
largest high elevation wetland/marsh complexes in the continental 
United States. In the upland portions of the planning area, the 
vegetation is primarily comprised of lodgepole pine with some ponderosa 
pine to the north and mixed conifer on the valley flanks. The area is 
also of high value for its biological resources (including the largest 
Oregon Spotted Frog population in the state), dispersed recreation 
opportunities, matsutake mushroom habitat (a commercially harvested and 
culturally significant species), big game and fish habitat, and 
cultural resources, as well as provision of water quality and quantity 
flowing into the Little Deschutes River and beyond.
    The project area is an approximately 30,000 acre watershed, located 
in T. 24, 25, 25.5, & 26 S, R. 5.5, 6, 6.5, & 7 E., Willamette 
Meridian. The alternatives will include the proposed action, no action, 
and additional alternatives that respond to issues generated through 
the scoping process. The agency will give notice of the full 
environmental analysis and decision making process so interested and 
affected people may participate and contribute to the final decision.

DATES: Comments concerning the scope of the analysis must be received 
by 30 days following the date that this notice appears in the Federal 
Register.

ADDRESSES: Send written comments to Tim Foley, Team Leader, Crescent 
Ranger District, P.O. Box 208, Crescent, Oregon 97733, or submit to 
comments-pacificnorthwest-deschutes-crescent@fs.fed.us. Please put 
``Marsh Scoping'' in the subject line of your email. You will have 
another opportunity for comment when alternatives have been developed 
and the Environmental Impact Statement is made available.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Tim Foley, Team Leader, Crescent 
Ranger

[[Page 24718]]

District, P.O. Box 208, Crescent, Oregon 97733, phone (541) 433-3200.
    Responsible Official: The responsible official will be Holly 
Jewkes, Crescent District Ranger, P.O. Box 208, Crescent, Oregon 97733.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: 
    Purpose and Need: As directed by the Multiple Use Sustained Yield 
Act, there is a need to maintain and enhance the variety of resources, 
or environmental benefits, in combination provided by National Forest 
System lands. The purpose of this project is to manage for the 
provision of a suite of ecological and cultural benefits expressed by 
the public which are distinctive to the Marsh planning area and can be 
effectively managed by the Forest Service and its partners: high 
quality dispersed recreation opportunities; matsutake mushroom habitat; 
a clean, functioning water source to the hydrologic system; high 
quality habitat for a variety of plant and animal species, including 
some species classified as threatened or endangered; scenic views; and 
a sense of remoteness. There is a need to both address natural and 
human threats to this current range of benefits being provided, and 
also enhance the ecosystem's capacity to provide a similar amount and 
diverse set of benefits in the future.
    Proposed Action: The goal of the project is to balance impacts to 
values, in such a way that the values most at risk get addressed 
without substantially reducing the ability of the landscape to provide 
any of the other benefits into the future. It is in this vein that the 
Forest Service proposes the following actions: Remove approximately 225 
acres of lodgepole pine encroachment in meadows and riparian areas; 
Plant approximately 100 acres of hardwoods and other natural vegetation 
in riparian areas; Restore of natural water flow by recontouring 
approximately 5 miles of historical ditches and creating a small number 
of beaver dams in the upper reaches of the watershed; Redefine the 
boundaries of approximately 25 dispersed campsites; Restore 
approximately 2 miles of closed roads and user-created ATV trails; Open 
approximately \1/2\ mile of Forest Service road 5825-540 to the public; 
Remove approximately 65 acres of Invasive Reed Canary Grass; Thin 
approximately 725 acres of trees for fuels and density management; 
Approximately 1,000 acres of prescribed fire in areas dominated by 
ponderosa pine; Enhance a small number of scenic view opportunities 
through vegetation management.
    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 object to the subsequent decision under 36 CFR part 
218. 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 be filed with the Environmental 
Protection Agency (EPA) and available for public review by Spring 2014. 
The EPA will publish a Notice of Availability (NOA) of the draft EIS in 
the Federal Register. The final EIS is scheduled to be available early 
fall 2014. The comment period on 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, 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 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 EIS, 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 Crescent District Ranger, Deschutes National Forest. The 
responsible official will decide where, and whether or not to manage 
for recreation, hydrology, access, vegetation and other resources, 
values and ecosystem services within the project area. The responsible 
official will also decide how to mitigate impacts of these actions and 
will determine when and how monitoring of effects will take place.
    The Marsh Project decision and rationale will be documented in the 
Record of Decision. Per 36 CFR 218.7(a)(2), this is a project 
implementing a land management plan and not authorized under the HFRA, 
section 101(2), and is thus subject to subparts A and C of 36 CFR part 
218--Project-level Predecisional Administrative Review Process.

    Dated: April 16, 2013.
Holly Jewkes,
Crescent District Ranger.
[FR Doc. 2013-09747 Filed 4-25-13; 8:45 am]
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