Department of the Interior October 30, 2006 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

Pursuant to the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969, 42 U.S.C. 4332(2)(C), the National Park Service announces the availability of a Draft Environmental Impact Statement for the Avalanche Hazard Reduction by Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railroad in Glacier National Park and Flathead National Forest Montana Draft Environmental Impact Statement, Glacier National Park, Montana.

As required by the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995, we are renewing the information collection found in the general grazing regulations. The purpose of this data collection is to ensure that grazing regulations are administered for the benefit of Indian tribes and individual Indians. We invite your comments on this renewal of OMB Control No. 1076-0157.

This document provides notice that the BLM intends to amend the motorized vehicle route network designations in the CDCA Plan area. The affected area is located in Mono County, California. This designation encompasses approximately 3.7 miles of the existing Furnace Creek Canyon Road, leading up to the Inyo National Forest boundary. The proposed land use plan amendment and associated Environmental Assessment (EA) will consider whether or not to designate this 3.7 mile section of road as an approved route of travel for vehicular access for casual public use. The Land Use Plan amendment and EA will fulfill the requirements set forth in the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), the Federal Land Policy and Management Act (FLPMA), BLM planning regulations, and other BLM management policies.

We (Fish and Wildlife Service) have sent an Information Collection Request (ICR) to OMB for review and approval. This ICR is scheduled to expire on October 31, 2006. We may not conduct or sponsor and a person is not required to respond to a collection of information unless it displays a currently valid OMB control number. However, under OMB regulations, we may continue to conduct or sponsor this information collection while it is pending at OMB.

This notice announces that the Information Collection Request for Documented Petitions for Federal Acknowledgment as an Indian Tribe will expire December 31, 2006. As required by the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995, we are seeking comments on this information collection before we request extension from the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, Office of Management and Budget.

The Fish and Wildlife Service announces that a Final Comprehensive Conservation Plan and Finding of No Significant Impact for Pelican Island National Wildlife Refuge are available for distribution. The plan was prepared pursuant to the National Wildlife Refuge System Improvement Act of 1997 and in accordance with the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969. It describes how the refuge will be managed for the next 15 years. The compatibility determinations for fishing, environmental education and interpretation, wildlife observation, wildlife photography, research, mosquito control, interim citrus grove management, and commercial ecotour operations are also available within the plan.

Pursuant to Section 102(2)(C) of the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969 (Pub. L. 91-190, as amended) and the implementing regulation promulgated by the Council on Environmental Quality (40 CFR 1505.2), the Department of the Interior, National Park Service has prepared, and the Regional Director, Pacific West Region has approved, the Record of Decision for the General Management Plan for Minidoka Internment National Monument. The formal no-action period was officially initiated July 28, 2006, with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's Federal Register notification of the filing of the Final Environmental Impact Statement (EIS). Decision: As soon as practicable the monument will begin to implement as its new General Management Plan the Preferred Alternative (Alternative C) contained in the Draft and Final EIS. The selected plan features a deliberate, long-term strategy emphasizing on-site education and interpretation and the extensive treatment and use of cultural resources in telling the Minidoka story. A range or preservation techniques to protect and enhance historic resources will be employed, including delineation; stabilization, restoration, or rehabilitation; and limited reconstruction. A complete barracks block exhibit in its original location will be established. A visitor contact facility area will be developed by adaptively reusing existing historic buildings; there will be minimal new development. As document in the EIS, this course of action was also deemed to be the ``environmentally preferred'' alternative. The proposed plan and three alternatives were identified and analyzed in the Final EIS, and previously in the Draft EIS (the latter was distributed in June 2005). The full spectrum of foreseeable environmental consequences was assessed, and appropriation mitigation measures identified, for each alternative. Beginning with early scoping, through the preparation of the Draft and Final EIS, scores of public meetings were conducted and over 2000 interested individuals participated overall. Approximately 375 written comments were received during the scoping phase or in response to the Draft EIS (given the minor nature of comments received on the Draft EIS, an abbreviated format was used for the Final EIS). Key consultations or other contacts that aided in preparing the EIS involved (but were not limited to) the Jerome County Office of Planning and Zoning, Jerome County Historical Society, State Historic Preservation Offices in Idaho, Oregon, and Washington, the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, native American Tribes, Japanese American Citizens League, South Central Idaho Tourism Association, and adjoining land managing agencies. Local communities, county and city officials, and interested organizations were contacted extensively during initial scoping and throughout the GMP planning process. Copies: Interested parties desiring to review the Record of Decision may obtain a complete copy by contacting the Superintendent, Minidoka Internment National Monument, P.O. Box 570, Hagerman, Idaho 83332-0570; or via telephone request at (208) 837-4793.

In accord with Sec. 102(2)(c) of the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969 (42 U.S.C. 4321, et seq.), the National Park Service is undertaking a conservation planning and environmental impact analysis process for updating the General Management Plan (General Management Plan) for the Ross Lake National Recreation Area, in northwestern Washington. Ross Lake National Recreation Area is administratively managed as part of the North Cascades National Park Service Complex; however, this GMP will specifically address the Ross Lake unit of the part complex. An Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) will be prepared concurrently with the GMP. The GMP is intended to set forth the basic management philosophy for this unit of the National Park System and provide the strategies for addressing issues and achieving identified management objectives for that unit. Thus, the GMP will serve as a blueprint to guide management of natural and cultural resources and visitor use during the next 15-20 years. One or more Development Concept Plans, which guide more detailed, site-specific preservation and development actions, may be included with the GMP. Consistent with NPS Planning Program Standards, the update GMP will: (1) Describe the Ross Lake National Recreation Area's (Ross Lake NRA) purpose, significance, and primary interpretive themes; (2) identify the fundamental resources and values of Ross Lake NRA, its other important resources and values, and describe the condition of these resources; (3) describe desired conditions for cultural and natural resources and visitor experiences throughout the Ross Lake NRA; (4) develop management zoning to support these desired conditions; (5) develop alternative applications of these management zones to the Ross Lake NRA's landscape (i.e., zoning alternatives); (6) address user capacity; (7) analyze potential boundary modifications; (8) ensure that management recommendations are developed in conclusion with interested stakeholders and the public and adopted by NPS after a thorough analysis of the benefits, potential environmental consequences, and economic costs of alternative courses of action; (9) develop cost estimates implementing each of the alternatives; and (10) identify and prioritize subsequent detailed studies, plans and actions that may be needed to implement the updated GMP. Scoping Process: A comprehensive scoping outreach effort is planned so as to elicit early public comment regarding issues and concerns, the nature and extent of potential environmental impacts (and as appropriate, mitigation measures), and possible alternatives that should be addressed in the preparing of the Draft EIS and proposed update to the GMP. Through the various scoping outreach activities planned, the NPS welcomes information and suggestions from the public regarding resource protection, visitor use, and land management. This notice formally initiates the public scoping comment phase for the EIS process. All written scoping comments must be postmarked not later than December 30, 2006. All comments should be addressed to: General Management Plan, Ross Lake National Recreation Area, Attn: Bill Paleck, Superintendent, North Cascades National Park Service Complex, 810 State Route 20, Sedro-Woolley, WA 92884-1289. At this time, it is expected that public workshops will be hosted in towns near Ross Lake NRA, and the metropolitan area of Seattle, Washington the week of October 16, 2006, and the week of October 23, 2006. Detailed information regarding these meetings will be posted on the GMP Web site (https:// parkplanning.nps.gov/rola). All participants will be given the opportunity to ask questions and provide comments to the planning team. The GMP Web site will provide the most up-to-date information regarding the project, including project description, planning process updates, meeting notices, reports and documents, and useful links associated with the project; direct mailings will also be made periodically. Please note that our practice is to make comments, including names, home addresses, home phone numbers, and e-mail addresses of respondents, available for public review. Individual respondents may request that we withhold their names and/or home addresses, etc., but if you wish us to consider withholding this information you must state this prominently at the beginning of your comments. In addition, you must present a rationale for withholding this information. This rationale must demonstrate that disclosure would constitute a clearly unwarranted invasion of privacy. Unsupported assertions will not meet this burden. In the absence of exceptional, documentable circumstances, this information will be released. We will always make submissions from organizations or businesses, and from individuals identifying themselves as representatives of or officials of organizations or businesses, available for public inspection in their entirety. Supplementary Information: As noted above, Ross Lake NRA is managed as one unit of the North Cascades National Park Complex (North Cascades), which also includes North Cascades National Park (north and south units), and Lake Chelan National Recreation Area (which adjoins the park on the south). North Cascades is located deep in the northernmost reaches of the Cascades Range in Washington State and borders British Columbia, Canada. Management guidance for Ross Lake NRA was included in the North Cascades GMP (now 18 years old) and has become inadequate to address the policy and operational issues now facing park management for Ross Lake NRA. Since the completion of the North Cascades GMP, many changes have occurred that affect NRA management. Seattle City Light's three dam facilities have been re-licensed by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC). The mitigation package approved as part of the relicensing agreement included several large-scale changes and improvements for Ross Lake NRA that were not included or fully envisioned in the 1988 North Cascades GMP. It is timely to update the GMP to address these large scale changes that are occurring in Ross Lake NRA and to address resource protection, visitor use, and management issues surrounding these enhancements. Additionally, Ross Lake NRA also faces other broad natural and cultural resource protection issuesthese include bioregional management strategies for grizzly bear recovery, control of invasive species, local climate change effects, changing lake levels, air quality, archeology, and American Indian traditional uses. Complementary management strategies will be pursued for these resource challenges. Visitor use within Ross Lake NRA has diversified and significantly increased since the 1988 North Cascades GMP, due in part to the enhanced recreational facilities. Boating on Diablo and Ross Lakes has intensified. Use of Washington State's North Cascades Highway 20 (which bisects approximately 25 miles of Ross Lake NRA) has increased dramatically and is the most popular motorcycle touring route in the region. The GMP update is needed to adequately provide management guidance for visitor use, boats, and motor vehicles within the Ross Lake NRA and address carrying capacity for visitor experience and resource protection. Following the completion of the 1988 North Cascades GMP, the Stephen Mather Wilderness within the North Cascades National Park Complex was designated by Congress in November 1988. This act brought 93% of the park complex under the provisions of the 1964 Wilderness Act, and 69% of Ross Lake NRA is designated wilderness (4% is designated potential wilderness). The new GMP is needed to adequately update zoning for the management of wilderness lands within Ross Lake NRA, and will ratify the current management contained in the Wilderness Management Plan. Trans-boundary ecosystem and recreation management is also a significant issue for Ross Lake NRA, which borders British Columbia provincial parks for five miles along its northern border. Hozomeen, at the US-Canada border, is the most developed access point onto Ross Lake. Ross Lake NRA is within a large extended watershed that begins in Canada, continues through the North Cascades and lower river valley, and then drains into the Pacific Ocean. An effort by Skagit Environmental Endowment Commission (SEE), an endowed organization established by international treaty, is underway to manage the upper Skagit watershed more holistically between Canada and the United States. The new GMP will address trans-boundary resource management issues as well as partnership opportunities with U.S. and Canadian entities. In addition, SEE has provided funding to the province of British Columbia to complete a managment plan for its provincial park units adjacent to Ross Lake NRA and within the upper Skagit watershed. Decision Process: Following the scoping phase and consideration of public concerns and other agency comments, a Draft EIS and proposed GMP will be prepared and released for public review. Availability of the forthcoming Draft EIS for public review and written comment will be formally announced with publication of a Notice of Availability in the Federal Register, as well as through local and regional news media, direct mailings, and via Web site postings. Following due consideration of all agency and public comment, a Final EIS will be prepared; it is anticipated that the final GMP proposal will be available in September 2009. As a delegated EIS, the official responsible for the decision on the proposed GMP is the Regional Director, Pacific West Region, National Park Service. Subsequently, the official responsible for implementation of the approved GMP would be the Superintendent, North Cascades National Park Service Complex.