Notice of Intent To Prepare an Environmental Impact Statement for a Wilderness Stewardship Plan, Mount Rainier National Park, Pierce and Lewis Counties, Washington, 79929 [2015-32281]

Agencies

• DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR
• National Park Service

[Federal Register Volume 80, Number 246 (Wednesday, December 23, 2015)]
[Notices]
[Page 79929]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2015-32281]


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DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR

National Park Service

[NPS-PWR-PWRO-19532; PPWONRADE2/PMP00EI05.YP0000]


Notice of Intent To Prepare an Environmental Impact Statement for 
a Wilderness Stewardship Plan, Mount Rainier National Park, Pierce and 
Lewis Counties, Washington

AGENCY: National Park Service, Interior.

ACTION: Notice of intent.

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SUMMARY: Mount Rainier National Park is initiating process to prepare a 
Wilderness Stewardship Plan (WSP) for the Mount Rainier Wilderness, a 
228,480-acre area surrounding and including Mount Rainier, as 
designated by the Washington Parks Wilderness Act of 1988. Through this 
process, an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) will be prepared to 
analyze a range of alternatives for achieving wilderness stewardship 
objectives, which include providing appropriate types and levels of 
access for visitors and authorized users, protecting cultural and 
natural resources, and adhering to legally-mandated management and 
preservation requirements. Ninety-seven percent of Mount Rainier 
National Park is designated as wilderness. The Wilderness Act of 1964 
(Wilderness Act) directs federal land management agencies to protect 
and manage wilderness so that it ``generally appears to have been 
affected primarily by the forces of nature, with the imprint of man's 
work substantially unnoticeable,'' and so that it ``has outstanding 
opportunities for solitude, or a primitive and unconfined type of 
recreation.''

DATES: All written comments must be postmarked or transmitted not later 
than February 22, 2016.

ADDRESSES: Requests to be added to the project mailing list may be sent 
to: Randy King, Superintendent, Attn: Wilderness Stewardship Plan, 
Mount Rainier National Park, 55210 238th Ave., East Ashford, WA 98304-
9751.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Information will be available for 
public review and comment at the above address, as well as online at 
https://parkplanning.nps.gov/morawild.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: In January 2002, the National Park Service 
(NPS) issued a Record of Decision for the Mount Rainier National Park 
General Management Plan (GMP) which provided broad, programmatic 
direction for wilderness management, including the assignment of 
management zones that attempt to identify levels of visitor use and 
management guidance for areas that are heavily impacted. The GMP also 
stated that indicators and standards in the wilderness management plan 
may be revised, and day use limits may be proposed. The new WSP is 
intended to not only update to the park's 1992 Wilderness Management 
Plan, it will reflect changes that have occurred in the uses and 
management of the Mount Rainier Wilderness since 2002.
    As an implementation level plan, the WSP/EIS will provide detailed 
guidance on a variety of issues including, but not limited to: day and 
overnight use; trail maintenance standards; wildlife and proper food 
storage; party size; camping and campsites; human waste management; 
meadow management; research activities; permitted uses; historic 
structures and cultural resources in wilderness; infrastructure and 
administrative activities within or adjacent to wilderness; and the 
``minimum requirement'' for administration of the area as Wilderness. 
An ``extent necessary'' determination prepared in response to the Mount 
Rainier National Park's Commercial Services Plan (2005) will also be 
reviewed. This determination will identify the extent to which 
commercial services are necessary to fulfill the various wilderness 
purposes of the designated wilderness within Mount Rainier National 
Park, pursuant to Section 4(d)(5) of the Wilderness Act.
    The WSP/EIS will reevaluate existing wilderness-related plans and 
guidance, such as the 1992 Wilderness Management Plan, the 2005 Fire 
Management Plan, and the 2010 Hazard Tree Management Plan. The WSP/EIS 
will also provide for more detailed management direction on provisions 
of the Washington Parks Wilderness Act of 1989, the NPS Management 
Policies (2006), and current interagency policies regarding the 
preservation of wilderness character as they relate to wilderness 
within Mount Rainier National Park.
    To learn more about the issues and concerns to be addressed in the 
WSP/EIS, Mount Rainier National Park staff will also host four public 
scoping meetings at the following Washington locations: Seattle, 
Tacoma, Enumclaw/Buckley, and Ashford. In addition, park staff will 
prepare a scoping newsletter to provide additional information about 
Mount Rainier wilderness, the wilderness planning process, and the 
goals of public scoping. This newsletter will be sent to the park's 
general mailing list, and posted on the park planning Web site (https://www.nps.gov/mora/parkmgmt/planning.htm) and the Planning, Environment 
and Public Comment Web site (https://parkplanning.nps.gov/mora).
    In order to ensure that your comments are considered, please submit 
your comments online by visiting https://parkplanning.nps.gov/morawild. 
Although NPS encourages commenting electronically, if you wish to 
submit written comments via letter, you may mail your comments or hand 
deliver them to the address provided above. Written comments will also 
be accepted during public scoping meetings. Comments in any format 
submitted by an individual or organization on behalf of another 
individual or organization will not be accepted. Before including your 
address, phone number, email address, or other personal identifying 
information in your comment, please be advised that your entire comment 
including your personal identifying information may be made publicly 
available at any time. While you can ask us in your comment to withhold 
your personal identifying information from public review, we cannot 
guarantee that we will be able to do so.
    The responsible official approval of the Wilderness Stewardship 
Plan is the Regional Director, Pacific West Region. Subsequently the 
official responsible of implementation of the approved plan is the 
Superintendent, Mount Rainier National Park.

    Dated: December 7, 2015.
Martha J. Lee,
Acting Regional Director, Pacific West Region, National Park Service.
[FR Doc. 2015-32281 Filed 12-22-15; 8:45 am]
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