Department of Agriculture August 17, 2009 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

This is a notice to inform the public of four upcoming meetings to discuss mitigation measures that could be applied to wood packaging material (e.g., crates, dunnage, wooden spools, pallets, packing blocks) used in domestic commerce to decrease the risk of the artificial spread of plant pests such as the emerald ash borer and the Asian longhorned beetle. These and other plant pests that could be transported interstate by wood packaging material pose a serious threat to U.S. agriculture and to natural, cultivated, and urban forests. We will also be holding a meeting in order to solicit public comments and ideas concerning potential strategies for mitigating the risk of artificial spread of plant pests via the movement of firewood.

The USDA, Forest Service, Plumas National Forest will prepare a draft EIS on a proposal to establish, develop and maintain an irregularly shaped network up to \1/2\ mile wide Defensible Fuels Profile Zones (DFPZs) on approximately 1,500 acres of National Forest System Land within the Wildland Urban Interface. The DFPZs would be located both within and west of the 2008 Butte Lightning Complex Fire perimeter, and are designed to improve the capacity of effective, traditional approaches to fire suppression and fire-fighting readiness, consistent with community and private land fuel break efforts. The Concow Project would establish Defensible Fuels Profile Zones to connect existing and proposed federal and private land fuel breaks, and parallel important residential evacuation routes and primary fire suppression access routes for greater community safety.