Department of Agriculture July 27, 2007 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

In accordance with the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA, 42 U.S.C. 4321 et seq.) and the National Forest Management Act (NFMA, 16 U.S.C. 1600-1614 et seq.), the Forest Service announces the decision to amend selected portions of the 1994 Record of Decision for the Northwest Forest Plan. Specifically, the ROD amends 19 Land and Resource Management Plans for National Forests within the range of the northern spotted owl in western Washington and Oregon and northwestern California. The United States Department of the Interior, Bureau of Land Management (BLM), is expected to concurrently announce a similar decision amending their respective Resource Management Plans. The Survey and Manage Mitigation Measure Standards and Guidelines added conservation measures for rare and little known species to BLM and Forest Service (Northwest Forest Plan) requirements for providing for late-successional and old-growth forest related species. These Standards and Guidelines were frustrating the Agencies' ability to meet the other resource management goals set forth in the Northwest Forest Plan (timber harvest, hazardous fuels treatment, ecosystem restoration). Although the Survey and Manage Standards and Guidelines are removed with this decision, conservation of rare and little known species will continue to be accomplished through the other elements of the Northwest Forest Plan and the Agency's Special Status Species Program. This ROD also complies with a Settlement Agreement between the Secretaries of Agriculture and the Interior and Douglas Timber Operators and American Forest Resource Council.

We are adopting as a final rule, without change, an interim rule that amended the gypsy moth regulations by adding Delaware and Franklin Counties in Ohio and Monroe County in West Virginia to the list of generally infested areas based upon the detection of infestations of gypsy moth in those counties. As a result of the interim rule, the interstate movement of regulated articles from those areas is restricted. The interim rule was necessary to prevent the artificial spread of the gypsy moth to noninfested States.