Department of Agriculture 2013 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

This is a corrected notice. This notice updates information about proposed actions in the Clear Creek Integrated Restoration Draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS). The DEIS will include two site- specific, nonsignificant amendments of the Nez Perce Forest Plan (1987). The proposed amendments would clarify the Forest's interpretation of old growth standards found in the Nez Perce Forest Plan, and would adopt the Regional soils standard for the Clear Creek Integrated Restoration project area. The original notice was published in the Federal Register on January 6, 2012, pages 775 and 776. The Forest Service gives notice of its intent to prepare an Environmental Impact Statement for the Clear Creek Integrated Restoration Project. The Proposed action would use a combination of timber harvest, pre- commercial thinning, prescribed fire and reforestation to achieve the desired range of age classes, size classes, vegetative species distributions, habitat complexity (diversity) and landscape patterns across the forested portions of the project area. Road decommissioning, culvert replacements and road improvements are also proposed to improve watershed health. The EIS will analyze the effects of the proposed action and alternatives. The Nez Perce-Clearwater Forest invites comments and suggestions on the issues to be addressed. The agency gives notice of the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) analysis and decision making process on the proposal so interested and affected members of the public may participate and contribute to the final decision.

The Bighorn National Forest is proposing to charge new fees at two recreation rental sites under the Federal Lands Recreation Enhancement Act, (Title VIII, Pub. L. 108-447). Fees are assessed based on the level of amenities and services provided, costs of operation and maintenance, market assessment, and public comment. Funds from the fees will be retained locally and used for the operation and maintenance of these recreation sites. The Sheep Mountain Fire Lookout on the Powder River Ranger District will be available for overnight rental. The facility is located approximately 25 miles southwest of Buffalo, Wyoming, at the end of Forest Road 28. The lookout offers an extraordinary experience in a historical structure. Renting a historical lookout is widely popular on national forests. The fee proposed for this facility is $50 per night. The lookout can accommodate two to four people. A single vault toilet will be available nearby; water and electricity are not available. This facility will be available from approximately Memorial Day to the end of October, weather permitting. The Powder River Ranger District is also proposing rental of the Pole Creek cabin, located off Forest Road 456. The cabin is located along both a winter snowmobile trail and a trail within the Pole Creek Cross Country Ski Area. The cabin can accommodate up to four people; water and electricity are not available. A single vault toilet is located nearby. The proposed fee for this site is $35 per night. The Pole Creek Cabin will be available all year. An analysis of nearby private cabins and recreation rental facilities with similar amenities indicates that the proposed fees are comparable with similar sites in the area.

The Office of the Acting Under Secretary for Food Safety, U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, is sponsoring a public meeting on February 11, 2013, from 9:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. The objective of the public meeting is to provide information and receive public comments on agenda items and draft United States (U.S.) positions that will be discussed at the 45th Session of the Codex Committee on Food Additives (CCFA) of the Codex Alimentarius Commission (Codex), which will be held in Beijing, China March 18-22, 2013. USDA and FDA recognize the importance of providing interested parties the opportunity to obtain background information on the 45th Session of the CCFA and to address items on the agenda.

This rule would increase the assessment rate established for the South Texas Onion Committee (Committee) for the 2012-13 and subsequent fiscal periods from $0.025 to $0.03 per 50-pound equivalent of onions handled. The Committee locally administers the marketing order which regulates the handling of onions grown in South Texas. Assessments upon onion handlers are used by the Committee to fund reasonable and necessary expenses of the program. The fiscal period begins August 1 and ends July 31. The assessment rate would remain in effect indefinitely unless modified, suspended, or terminated.

In accordance with the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995, this notice announces the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service's intention to request a revision to and extension of approval of an information collection associated with the regulations for a certification program for imported articles of Pelargonium spp. and Solanum spp. to prevent the introduction of potato brown rot into the United States.

This notice announces the surplus and purchased foods that the Department expects to make available for donation to States for use in providing nutrition assistance to the needy under the Emergency Food Assistance Program (TEFAP) in Fiscal Year (FY) 2013. The foods made available under this notice must, at the discretion of the State, be distributed to eligible recipient agencies (ERAs) for use in preparing meals and/or for distribution to households for home consumption.

This notice informs the public of the annual adjustments to the reimbursement rates for meals served in the Summer Food Service Program for Children. These adjustments address changes in the Consumer Price Index, as required under the Richard B. Russell National School Lunch Act. The 2013 reimbursement rates are presented as a combined set of rates to highlight simplified cost accounting procedures. The 2013 rates are also presented individually, as separate operating and administrative rates of reimbursement, to show the effect of the Consumer Price Index adjustment on each rate.

The American Taxpayer Relief Act of 2012 (ATRA) extended the authorization of the Food, Conservation, and Energy Act of 2008 (the 2008 Farm Bill) through the 2013 crop year, fiscal year (FY), or calendar year, as applicable, for certain Commodity Credit Corporation (CCC) commodity and conservation programs administered by the Farm Service Agency (FSA). This notice provides information about which programs have been extended for an additional year, which programs producers will need to enroll in through applications and contracts, and the dates for the submission of the required applications. The extended programs will be administered through their current terms and procedures for the applicable period of extension, except as provided in this notice.

Notice is hereby given that the Secretary of Agriculture has renewed the Advisory Committee on Biotechnology and 21st Century Agriculture (AC21). The Secretary of Agriculture has determined that the Committee is necessary and in the public interest.

In accordance with the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 and Office of Management and Budget (OMB) regulations, the Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) is announcing its intention to request a new information collection regarding the importation of undenatured inedible meat and egg products into the United States.

The Forest Resource Committee Meeting will meet in Arlington, Va. The committee is authorized under the Food, Conservation, and Energy Act of 2008 (Pub. L. 110-246). The purpose of the committee is to provide direction and coordination of actions within the U.S. Department of Agriculture, and coordination with State agencies and the private sector, to effectively address the national priorities for non- industrial private forest land. The purpose of the meeting is discuss operational procedures for the committee and develop a workplan of projects for the committee to complete within the year.

We are proposing to amend the fruits and vegetables regulations to allow the importation into the United States of fresh apricots from continental Spain. As a condition of entry, fresh apricots from continental Spain would have to be produced in accordance with a systems approach that would include registration of production locations and packinghouses, pest monitoring, sanitary practices, chemical and biological controls, and phytosanitary treatment. The fruit would also have to be imported in commercial consignments, with each consignment identified throughout its movement from place of production to port of entry in the United States. Consignments would have to be accompanied by a phytosanitary certificate issued by the national plant protection organization of Spain certifying that the fruit is free from all quarantine pests and has been produced in accordance with the systems approach. This proposed rule would allow for the importation of fresh apricots from continental Spain into the United States while continuing to provide protection against the introduction of quarantine pests.

The USDA Forest Service will prepare a Supplement to the Wallowa-Whitman National Forest Invasive Plants Treatment Final Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) to address deficiencies identified by Judge Simon, United States District Court, District of Oregon, in League of Wilderness Defenders/Blue Mountains Biodiversity Project v. United States Forest Service & Connaughton (Case 3:10-cv-01397-SI). Specifically, the court found the March 2010 Final EIS to be deficient regarding analysis of cumulative impacts of the proposed action.

The Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) is describing the new methodology it is employing to conduct ongoing equivalence verifications of the regulatory systems of countries that export meat, poultry, or processed egg products to the United States. FSIS uses a three-part approach that includes: (1) Document reviews, (2) on-site system audits, and (3) port-of-entry (POE) reinspections. FSIS conducts document reviews at least yearly. FSIS conducts on-site system audits at least once every three years. FSIS determines the scope and frequency of on-site systems audits and POE reinspections through analysis of the results of its document reviews and an assessment of a country's performance. This performance-based approach allows FSIS to direct its resources to foreign food regulatory systems that pose greater risk to public health compared to others; make its international program more consistent with its domestic inspection system; and improve the linkage between POE reinspections and on-site audits. As a result, FSIS is able to effectively prevent unsafe imports from entering this country.

The Ashley Resource Advisory Committee will meet in Vernal, Utah. The committee is meeting as authorized under the Secure Rural Schools and Community Self- Determination Act (Pub. L. 110-343) and in compliance with the Federal Advisory Committee Act. The purpose of the meeting is conduct introductions, approve meeting minutes, review available completed and approved project status, set the next meeting date, time and location and receive public comment on the meeting subjects and proceedings.

In accordance with the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995, this notice announces the Rural Business-Cooperative Service's intention to request an extension for a currently approved information collection in support of the program for 7 CFR part 4284, subpart F. More specifically, 310B (e) of the Consolidated Farm and Rural Development Act (7 U.S.C. 1932).

In accordance with the Federal Advisory Committee Act, this notice is announcing the reestablishment of the National Advisory Committee on Microbiological Criteria for Foods (NACMCF). The Committee is being reestablished in cooperation with the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS). The establishment of the Committee was recommended by a 1985 report of the National Academy of Sciences Committee on Food Protection, Subcommittee on Microbiological Criteria, ``An Evaluation of the Role of Microbiological Criteria for Foods.'' The current charter for the NACMCF is available for viewing on the NACMCF homepage at https://www.fsis.usda.gov/About_FSIS/NACMCF/ index.asp.

In accordance with the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 (44 U.S.C. Chapter 35, as amended), the Rural Utilities Service (RUS) invites comments on this information collection for which RUS intends to request approval from the Office of Management and Budget (OMB).

The Forest Service will prepare an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) on a proposal to accomplish vegetation management in the Beaver Creek Resource Area, which is located on National Forest System lands administered by the Idaho Panhandle National Forests in Shoshone County, Idaho. The proposed action would include timber harvest (commercial thin, shelterwood, improvement cut, and seed tree treatments); hazardous fuels treatment (underburning, jackpot burning, mastication, grapple piling and yarding tops associated with the timber harvest); prescribed burning not associated with timber harvest; and watershed restoration (decommissioning roads currently not open to motorized use, upgrading aquatic organism passage barriers; and road construction (both permanent and temporary). Other activities included in the proposed action are road storage, road reconstruction and maintenance, site preparation, reforestation, and fuel break development. This project is designed to achieve the goals of enhanced forest stand resilience and resistance, hazardous fuel reduction, and restoration of water quality and aquatic habitats.

This notice lists the newspapers that Ranger Districts, Forests, and the Regional Office of the Alaska Region will use to publish legal notices of the opportunity to object to proposed hazardous fuel reduction projects authorized under the Healthy Forests Restoration Act of 2003. The intended effect of this action is to inform interested members of the public which newspapers will be used to publish legal notice of actions subject to the pre-decisional administrative review process at 36 CFR 218, thereby allowing them to receive constructive notice of the proposed actions, to provide clear evidence of timely notice, and to achieve consistency in administering the pre-decisional review process.

In accordance with the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995, this notice announces the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service's intention to request an extension of approval of an information collection associated with the regulations for tuberculosis testing of imported cattle from Mexico.

The Secretary of Agriculture intends to re-establish the charter for five Forest Service Recreation Resource Advisory Committees (Recreation RACs) pursuant to Section 4 of the Federal Lands Recreation Enhancement Act, which passed into law as part of the 2005 Consolidated Appropriations Act (Pub. L. 108-447) on December 8, 2004. The Recreation RACs operate in the Pacific Northwest, Pacific Southwest, Eastern, Southern Regions of the Forest Service and the State of Colorado. The purpose is to provide advice and recommendations on recreation fees to both the Forest Service and the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) as appropriate.

The Ravalli County Resource Advisory Committee will meet in Hamilton, Montana. The purpose of the meeting is project discussion and presentations.