Department of Agriculture February 21, 2007 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

The USDA, Forest Service will prepare a supplemental environmental impact statement (SEIS) to address the order of Judge Paul Papak, United States District Court, District of Oregon (Hells Canyon Preservation Council, and Northwest Environmental Defense Center v. Richard J. Haines, Steve Ellis, and United States Forest Service, August 4, 2006). Specifically the court found that the April 2004 North Fork Burnt River Final Environmental Impact Statement was deficient because the Agency: (1) Did not require a certificate of compliance under 33 U.S.C. 1341(a)(1), also referred to as 401 under the Clean Water Act, prior to approvals of the Plans of Operations, (2) failed to ensure that authorized mining activities will comply with 313 of the Clean Water Act, 33 U.S.C. 1323(a), on the 303(d) listed waters for water-quality limited for sedimentation, (3) failed to adequately analyze the selection of buffer widths for the riparian habitat conservation areas (RHCAs) and as such is inconsistent with INFISH standard MM-1, (4) failed to adequately analyze the necessity of new roads and whether alternatives exist and to provide specific assurances that the new road construction will comply with INFISH standard MM-2, (5) incorrectly determined that settling ponds are not structures subject to INFISH standard MM-2 and therefore failed to perform the required analysis under MM-2 as to alternative locations; and (6) failed to adequately analyze whether mining and private property access needs, administrative use and needs of other forest users are warranted exceptions to the open-road density guidelines of the Wallowa-Whitman National Forest Land Management Plan. The SEIS will provide additional information and analysis to address the deficiencies noted by the court in the 2004 FEIS, and record the analysis of a proposed non-significant project-specific amendment to the Wallowa-Whitman National Forest's Land and Resource Management Plan (LRMP) to change Standard 12 and Standard 13 for Management Area 1(LRMP pg. 4-58), and Standard 9 for Management Area 3, 3a (LRMP pg. 4-62) to reflect a more realistic and achievable open road density for these management areas in subwatersheds 83B, 83C, 83D, 83E, 83F and 83G within the North Fork Burnt River Mining planning area in light of the current and projected land uses and management activities for the foreseeable future.