Department of Agriculture January 17, 2008 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

The purpose of this notice is to notify all interested parties that the Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS) will hold a Fruit and Vegetable Industry Advisory Committee (Committee) meeting that is open to the public. The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) established the Committee to examine the full spectrum of issues faced by the fruit and vegetable industry and to provide suggestions and ideas to the Secretary of Agriculture on how USDA can tailor its programs to meet the fruit and vegetable industry's needs. This notice sets forth the schedule and location for the meeting.

In accordance with the National Environmental Policy Act, notice is hereby given that the Forest Service, Medicine Bow-Routt National Forests, will prepare a Draft Environmental Impact Statement to disclose the environmental consequences of the proposed Spruce Gulch Bark Beetle and Fuels Reduction project (Spruce Gulch). The Spruce Gulch analysis area encompasses approximately 32,000 acres of National Forest System (NFS) land, 390 acres of interspersed private land, and 150 acres of State of Wyoming land. The majority of the analysis area is situated within the Ecological RestorationForest Products Management Area (MA 5.15). MA 5.15 is managed to maintain or restore healthy ecological conditions through a variety of management activities, including timber harvest, while providing a mix of ecological and human needs. The remaining area is situated within a WildlandResidential Interface Management Area (MA 7.1). National Forest System (NFS) lands adjacent to the residential interface areas are managed to minimize risks of catastrophic fires and insect and disease epidemics. Mountain pine beetles (Dendroctonus ponderosae) are at epidemic levels in northern Colorado and southern Wyoming and are causing significant mortality of lodgepole pine trees. In response to this situation, a Mountain Pine Beetle Epidemic Declaration was issued by the Rocky Mountain Regional Office on June 25, 2007. The declaration was based on analysis of aerial survey data and ground survey data sets of forests containing lodgepole pine at risk for mountain pine beetle infestation. The mountain pine beetle epidemic declaration encompasses the Spruce Gulch analysis area in southern Wyoming. Proposed treatments associated with the Spruce Gulch project will focus on salvaging dead and dying timber to promote regeneration of future lodgepole pine stands and reducing hazardous fuel concentrations adjacent to private lands and egress routes. The Forest Supervisor of the Medicine Bow-Routt National Forests has determined that the Spruce Gulch project is authorized under sections 102(a)(1) (Federal land in wildland-urban interface areas) and 102(a)(4) (insect and disease epidemics) of the Healthy Forests Restoration Act (HFRA) of 2003. HFRA provides for expedited environmental analysis and treatments of lands that are at risk of wildland fire, have experienced windthrow or blowdown or are at risk of insect and disease epidemics. Accordingly, the environmental analysis associated with the Spruce Gulch project will proceed according to section 104 of the HFRA. To move toward the desired future condition, as described in the Medicine Bow Revised Land and Resource Management Plan (Revised Forest Plan 2003), and meet the purpose and need of the project proposal, proposed silvicultural treatments include: (1) Clearcutting; (2) commercial thinning; (3) shelterwood removal; (4) shelterwood preparatory cut; (5) shelterwood seed cut; (6) group selection; (7) individual tree selection; (8) sanitation/salvage; and (9) salvage treatments. Transportation activities associated with the project proposal consist of road construction and road reconstruction.