Department of Agriculture January 22, 2009 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

The Commodity Credit Corporation (CCC) announces the availability of an additional $23 million of technical and financial assistance funds in fiscal year (FY) 2009 through the Chesapeake Bay Watershed Initiative to agricultural producers in eligible states. These states are: Delaware, Maryland, New York, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and West Virginia. The Chesapeake Bay Watershed Initiative funds are available to help producers implement natural resources conservation practices on agricultural lands in the Chesapeake Bay watershed.

The project area for this analysis is the approximately 32,890 acre portion of the Piute Fire on National Forest System lands; approximately 1,700 acres of the fire restoration project area fall within the former Clear CreekProject area. The USDA Forest Service, Sequoia National Forest will prepare an environmental impact statement (EIS) for a proposal to treat approximately 2,260 acres of fire killed and damaged trees, both through removal and treating on site, in the Piute Fire burned area; some of these treatment areas are within the former Clear Creek Project area. The land allocations within the fire area, as identified in the Sierra Nevada Forest Plan SupplementalEIS, are old forest emphasis, general forest, threat zone, defense zone, protected activity centers for spotted owls, spotted owl home range core areas, and riparian conservation areas adjacent to perennial, seasonal, and ephemeral streams. There is a need in the Piute Fire area for: (1) the recovery of the economic value of timber killed or severely injured by the fire, in a expeditious manner, for the purposes of reducing the cost of reforestation activities and supplying wood fiber to local sawmills; (2) the prevention of a future high intensity, stand-replacing wildfire by reducing long term fuel loading for the purpose of facilitating future fire management techniques (prescribed fire and wildland fire use); (3) the recruitment and retention of both short and long term large down logs and snag habitat, for the purpose of providing sufficient burned forest habitat for dependent species; (4) the re- vegetation of conifer stands and other plant and animal habitats that were burned; (5) the improvement of long term soil productivity, by repairing roads and establishing effective ground cover in severely burned areas, for the purpose of minimizing soil erosion and begin to replace soil organic material; and (6) the reduction of safety hazards to the public and forest workers from falling trees.