Stanislaus National Forest; California; Social and Ecological Resilience Across the Landscape EIS, 43205-43206 [2020-15077]

Agencies

• DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE
• Forest Service

[Federal Register Volume 85, Number 137 (Thursday, July 16, 2020)]
[Notices]
[Pages 43205-43206]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2020-15077]


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Notices
                                                Federal Register
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Federal Register / Vol. 85, No. 137 / Thursday, July 16, 2020 / 
Notices

[[Page 43205]]



DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE

Forest Service


Stanislaus National Forest; California; Social and Ecological 
Resilience Across the Landscape EIS

AGENCY: Forest Service, Agriculture (USDA).

ACTION: Notice of intent to prepare an environmental impact statement.

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SUMMARY: The USDA Forest Service is preparing an Environmental Impact 
Statement (EIS) for the Social and Ecological Resilience Across the 
Landscape (SERAL) project. The overall purpose of the project is to 
increase the landscape's resilience to natural disturbances such as 
fire, drought, insects, and disease by restoring the forest structure 
and composition to its natural range of variation (NRV).

DATES: Comments concerning the scope of the analysis must be received 
by August 17, 2020. The draft environmental impact statement is 
expected February 2021 and the final environmental impact statement is 
expected February 2022.

ADDRESSES: Scoping comments may also be submitted electronically 
through https://cara.ecosystem-management.org/Public/commentInput?Project=56500. Written comments may be submitted via mail 
or by hand delivery to Stanislaus National Forest, Attn: SERAL, 19777 
Greenley Road, Sonora, CA 95370.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Katie Wilkinson (Environmental 
Coordinator), 209-288-6321, or by email at [email protected].
    Individuals who use telecommunication devices for the deaf (TDD) 
may call the Federal Information Relay Service (FIRS) at 1-800-877-8339 
between 8 a.m. and 8 p.m., Eastern Time, Monday through Friday.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Proposed forest restoration treatments 
consist of prescribed fire, hand thinning, mastication, variable 
density thinning, hand the limited salvage of insect-, disease-, 
drought-, and fire-killed trees. Treatments will be strategically 
located where the forest structure is departed from the natural range 
of variation within a 116,000-acre project area. The proposed forest 
restoration treatments have been designed to implement management 
approaches provided in the Conservation Strategy for the California 
Spotted Owl in the Sierra Nevada (USDA Forest Service 2019), which 
require multiple forest plan amendments. Approximately 10,800 acres of 
strategic fire management features (linear fuelbreaks, prepared 
roadsides, and defensible space) are proposed within the project area 
to break up large expanses of continuous fuels, provide for firefighter 
access and safety, increase suppression opportunities, and provide 
control points for the implementation of prescribed fire. A combination 
of control and restoration treatments are also proposed to address 
invasive plant infestations occurring on the Stanislaus National Forest 
involving the use of herbicides with mechanical, manual, and cultural 
control methods over several years.

Purpose and Need for Action

    The purpose of the SERAL EIS is to prepare the landscape for the 
safe reintroduction of fire as a key ecological process, increase the 
landscape's resilience and adaptive capacity to natural disturbances 
such as fire, drought, insects and disease, reduce the risk of fire 
spreading into communities or damaging critical infrastructure, and to 
manage the forest in a cost-effective manner, including making wood 
products available to local industries and businesses. The actions 
proposed in the SERAL project are needed to minimize the potential for 
large-, high-severity fire and habitat loss; shift the landscape 
vegetation structure and composition towards conditions that are more 
in alignment with its historic NRV, abate hazard trees; control 
occurrences of invasive, non-native plants; and assist wildfire 
management operations., conserve and/or restore terrestrial and aquatic 
ecosystems and protect these systems.

Proposed Action

    The Stanislaus National Forest is proposing multiple actions to 
meet the purpose and need of the project, as described below.
    A combination of mechanical thinning and prescribed fire is 
proposed for approximately 38,000 acres. The majority of the treatments 
(approximately 28,000 acres) will be focused within mid-closed forested 
areas and designed to create conditions favorable to allow forest 
succession towards a late-open seral open forest. The other approximate 
10,000 acres of treatments will be located across late-closed and mid-
closed seral forest areas designed to create a late-open and mid-open 
seral forest structure.
    Treatment objectives to create both late-open and mid-open forest 
structure will be achieved through variable density thinning with 
strategically placed openings (gaps) and retained groups of trees 
(clumps) scattered throughout the treated landscape. Gaps and clumps 
will generally range in size between 0.1 and 0.5 acres each averaging 
approximately 0.25 acres in size and a gap frequency of approximately 
one every two acres. Thinning would primarily consist of timber 
harvesting but also includes non-commercial methods such as prescribed 
fire and biomass removal. Multiple logging systems, road maintenance, 
temporary road construction, and landing development would be required 
for commercial harvest. A proportion of the proposed restoration 
treatments will occur within California spotted owl protected activity 
centers and territories adhering to specifications based on guidance 
provided in the Conservation Strategy for the California Spotted Owl in 
the Sierra Nevada (USDA Forest Service 2019) and located strategically 
to ensure high quality habitat is maintained.
    The conditional salvage of trees to respond to future insect and 
disease, drought (I&D, D) or fire mortality is included as part of the 
proposed action. When I&D, D mortality affects more than 30% of the 
overstory canopy, salvage is limited to areas within 0.25 miles of an 
existing road prism and not needing greater than 500 feet of temporary 
road to access the salvage unit. When less than 30% of the overstory 
canopy is affected by I&D, D mortality salvage may occur within 
restoration treatment areas

[[Page 43206]]

but will be incorporated into the variable density thinning treatments 
to establish the desired gaps. Salvage of fire-killed trees would be 
authorized for abating hazard trees along high use roads (level 3,4, 5 
and some level 2), and up to 500 acres per two HUC-6 watersheds, and a 
maximum of 1,000 acres per single fire event.
    Additional treatments are proposed for approximately 10,800 acres 
within the project area to create a network of strategic fire 
management features (linear fuelbreaks, prepared roadsides, and 
defensible space). These features are proposed to break up large 
expanses of continuous fuels, provide for firefighter access and 
safety, increase suppression opportunities, and provide control points 
for the implementation of prescribed fire. To create these features, 
trees may be thinned to shaded fuelbreak standards and continuous 
vegetation under 8'' DBH or 12 feet tall will be broken up into 
naturally appearing clumps or islands of varied size and shape.
    Non-native invasive weed control and eradication treatments are 
proposed for mapped known invasive weed locations; additional acres to 
account for a 20% rate of spread from those known locations; and a 
limited number of acres where future infestations are discovered 
subsequent to the analysis.

Forest Plan Amendment

    For more than a quarter of a century, the Forest Service has been 
engaging in proactive California spotted owl (CSO) conservation 
focusing on retaining suitable habitat and minimizing disturbance to 
breeding owls. However, new science indicates threats to spotted owls 
are shifting and evolving, environmental conditions are changing, and 
owl populations are declining in some areas of the species' range. The 
proposed forest plan amendments would allow the SERAL proposed 
landscape restoration treatments to best meet the purpose and need of 
the project and implement the guiding principles of the Conservation 
Strategy for the California Spotted Owl in the Sierra Nevada (USDA 
forest Service 2019), hereafter referred to as the ``Conservation 
Strategy''. The Conservation Strategy provides conservation measures 
that provide some immediate stability for individual owls that allow 
landscape treatments to occur to better align the landscape with its 
NRV. The Conservation Strategy concludes that restoring landscape 
structure and function to be within the NRV can help develop resilient 
habitat conditions that provide CSO conservation in the long term.
    The amendments are specific to the 116,000-acre project area and 
proposed NRV restoration treatments and are consistent with the 2012 
Planning Rule. The substantive provisions of 36 CFR 219.8 through 
219.11 that directly apply to the proposed amendments are 36 CFR 219.9 
Diversity of Plant and Animal Communities, (a) Ecosystem plan 
components, (1) Ecosystem integrity (36 CFR 219.9(a)(1)); 36 CFR 219.9 
Diversity of Plant and Animal Communities, (a) Ecosystem plan 
components, (2) Ecosystem diversity, (i) key characteristics associated 
with the terrestrial and aquatic ecosystem types (36 CFR 
219.9(a)(2)(i)); 36 CFR 219.9 Diversity of Plant and Animal 
Communities, (a) Ecosystem plan components, (2) Ecosystem diversity, 
(ii) rare aquatic and terrestrial plant and animal communities (36 CFR 
219.9(a)(2)(ii)); and 36 CFR 219.8 Sustainability, (b) Social and 
Economic Sustainability, (1) Social, cultural, and economic conditions 
relevant to the area influenced by the plan (36 CFR 219.8(b)(1)).

Responsible Official

    The responsible official will be Jason Kuiken, Forest Supervisor, 
Stanislaus National Forest.

Nature of Decision To Be Made

    Given the purpose and need, the responsible official will determine 
whether the proposed actions comply with all applicable laws governing 
Forest Service actions and with the applicable standards and guidelines 
found in the Stanislaus National Forest Forest Plan; whether the EIS 
has sufficient environmental analysis to make an informed decision; and 
whether the proposed action meets the purpose and need for action. With 
this information, the responsible official must decide whether to 
select the proposed action or one of any other potential alternatives 
that may be developed, and what, if any, additional actions should be 
required.

Scoping Process

    This notice of intent initiates the scoping process, which guides 
the development of the EIS. Public comments regarding this proposal are 
requested in order to assist in identifying issues and opportunities 
associated with the proposal, how to best manage resources, and to 
focus the analysis. The SERAL project is subject to pre-decisional 
administrative review consistent with the Consolidated Appropriations 
Act of 2012 (Pub. L. 112-74) as implemented by subparts A and B of 36 
CFR part 218. In addition, the proposed forest plan amendments are 
subject to pre-decisional administrative review, pursuant to subpart B 
of the Planning Rule (36 CFR part 219).
    It is important that reviewers provide their comments at such times 
and in such manner that they are useful to the agency's preparation of 
the environmental impact statement. Therefore, comments should be 
provided prior to the close of the comment period and should clearly 
articulate the reviewer's concerns and contentions.
    Comments received in response to this solicitation, including names 
and addresses of those who comment, will be part of the public record 
for this proposed action. Comments submitted anonymously will be 
accepted and considered; however, anonymous comments will not provide 
the respondent eligibility to participate in subsequent administrative 
review.

Allen Rowley,
Associate Deputy Chief, National Forest System.
[FR Doc. 2020-15077 Filed 7-15-20; 8:45 am]
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