National Park Service August 7, 2006 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

The National Park Service (NPS) is expanding the scope of the General Management Plan (GMP)/Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) being prepared for Everglades National Park. As part of this planning effort, the NPS will include a wilderness study to determine if any portions of the East Everglades Expansion Area should be recommended for inclusion in the National Wilderness Preservation System as defined in the Wilderness Act of 1964. The study will be included as part of the GMP/EIS currently in preparation. The wilderness study will only address East Everglades, the 109,000 acres which were added to the park by the Everglades National Park Protection and Expansion Act of 1989. A Notice of Intent to prepare an EIS for the GMP was originally published in the Federal Register of October 25, 2002 (Volume 67, Number 207). That EIS now will be expanded to include an evaluation of the impacts associated with possible designation of wilderness in East Everglades. This notice is being furnished under the National Environmental Policy Act regulations, 40 CFR 1501.7 and 1506.6. To facilitate sound planning and analysis of environmental impact, the NPS is gathering information necessary for the preparation of the GMP, the wilderness study, and the associated EIS and is obtaining suggestions and information from other agencies and the public on the scope of issues to be addressed. Comments and participation in this scoping process are invited.