Department of Agriculture April 11, 2013 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

The Department of Agriculture is adopting, as a final rule, without change, an interim rule that decreased the assessment rate established for the Processed Pear Committee (Committee) for the 2012- 2013 and subsequent fiscal periods from $7.73 to $7.00 per ton of summer/fall processed pears. The Committee locally administers the marketing order that regulates the handling of processed pears grown in Oregon and Washington. The Committee recommended the assessment rate decrease because the summer/fall processed pear promotion budget for the 2012-2013 fiscal period was reduced.

The Forest Service is preparing an environmental impact statement (EIS) to document the potential effects of the Flagstaff Watershed Protection Project (FWPP). The analysis will evaluate and disclose the effects of implementing treatments on the National Forest to reduce the threat of high severity wildfire and subsequent flooding in two watersheds around Flagstaff. Specifically, two key areas have been identified for analysis and treatment under this project: The Dry Lake Hills portion of the Rio de Flag Watershed north of Flagstaff, and the Mormon Mountain portion of the Upper Lake Mary Watershed south of Flagstaff. The project area includes approximately 10,543 acres (roughly 7,569 acres in the Dry Lake Hills portion and 2,974 on Mormon Mountain), and proposed treatments would include thinning and prescribed fire on roughly 8,810 of those acres. The EIS will analyze a variety of harvesting methods, including the use of traditional ground- based equipment, hand thinning, and also methods atypical for the region, including cable and helicopter logging, in order to treat steep, inaccessible terrain.