Department of Agriculture November 20, 2007 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

The U.S. Department of AgricultureForest Service proposes to conduct vegetation management activities on approximately 17,500 acres of upland forest sites in the Farley Analysis Area to restore sustainable forest conditions in the Desolation Creek watershed. The proposed action will use a range of mechanical harvest and non-harvest thinning and prescribed fire activities to alter species composition, stand structure, and fire regime condition class to re-create conditions that are consistent with the historic range of variability for forests of the Blue Mountains of northeastern Oregon, and to capture the commercial value of forest raw materials for the benefit of local economies. The Farley Analysis Area encompasses the Desolation Creek watershed which covers 69,672 acres of diverse mountainous, mostly forested landscapes ranging in elevation from 7,765 ft at its headwaters to 2810 ft at its confluence with the North Fork John Day River near Dale, Oregon. It includes both National Forest and privately-owned lands; private lands comprise about 18 percent of the total area, mostly at lower elevations at the western end of the watershed. Development and implementation of these actions will be conducted in accordance with the National Forest Management Act, National Environmental Policy Act, Council on Environmental Quality regulations, Clean Water Act, Clean Air Act, Endangered Species Act, and with the Umatilla National Forest Land and Resource Management Plan and scientific recommendations of the Interior Columbia Basin Ecosystem Management Project.