Department of Agriculture August 4, 2005 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

The Dixie and Fishlake National Forests will exercise their option to adjust the land management plan revision process from compliance with the 1982 planning regulations, to conform with new planning regulations adopted in January 2005. This adjustment will have the following effects: 1. The new rule redefines forest plans to be more strategic and flexible to better facilitate adaptive management and public collaboration. 2. The new rule focuses more on the goals of ecological, social, and economic sustainability and less on prescriptive means of producing goods and services. 3. The Responsible Official who will approve the final plan will now be the Forest Supervisor instead of the Regional Forester. 4. The forests will establish an environmental management system (per ISO 14001:2004(E)) prior to completion of the revised forest plan. 5. The emphasis of public involvement will be a collaborative effort between the public and the Forest Service to incorporate the most desirable management options into a single broadly supported management direction package that will become the Forest Plan. 6. Administrative review will change from a post-decision appeals process to a predecision objection process. Public Involvement: There has been a great deal of public participation and collaborative work on this planning process over the past few years, including more than 75 public meetings. Results of this work and a preliminary proposed action are available for review and comment. Current information and details of public participation opportunities are posted on our Web site: https://www.fs.fed.us/r4/dixie/ projects/ FParea/HomePage.htm. Contact Ellen Row at (435) 896-9233, or email at, ellenrow@fs.fed.us to be placed on our mailing list.

The Jacob Ryan Vegetation Management project would perform vegetation treatments on approximately 30,000 acres around Jacob Lake in Northern Arizona. The proposal would conduct ponderosa pine individual tree selection and group selection, commercial thinning, with ponderosa pine precommercial thinning of saplings, meadow restoration, fuels reduction, fuel break maintenance, hazard tree removal, and old growth and wildlife habitat management. This proposal would enhance habitat for the northern goshawk and its prey species by providing a mix of cover and more open foraging areas in accordance with the Kaibab National Forest Land and Resource Management Plan; reduce the fuel loading across the planning area; maintain fuelbreaks designed to slow the spread of wildfire; reduce the likelihood of ice on highway U.S. Highways 89A and 67 by removing trees that shade the highway; decrease the sources of dwarf mistletoe infection where they threaten the maintenance or attainment of desired forest structure; and remove young trees from selected areas that were formerly meadows.