National Park Service December 21, 2007 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

The National Park Service (NPS) is preparing an EIS on the recreational use of off-road vehicles (ORV) along nine trails in the Nabesna area of Wrangell-St. Elias National Park and Preserve. The purpose of the EIS is to evaluate a range of alternatives for managing recreational off-road vehicle use on the following trails: Caribou Creek, Lost Creek, Trail Creek, Reeve Field, Boomerang Lake, Soda Lake, Suslota Lake, Copper Lake and Tanada Lake. The EIS will be used to guide the management of recreational ORV use on these trails in the Nabesna area of Wrangell-St. Elias National Park and Preserve. It may also form the basis for either a special regulation to designate ORV routes and areas or a compatibility finding to issue permits for ORV use in accordance with current regulations. The EIS will assess potential environmental impacts associated with a range of reasonable alternatives for managing recreational ORV impacts on park resources and values such as soils, vegetation, wetlands, wildlife, visitor experience, scenic quality, cultural resources and subsistence opportunities. In addition to the No Action alternative, this EIS will evaluate a proposed action that would authorize recreational ORV use on trails that can be maintained to a standard that reduces or eliminates adverse impacts. Other alternatives include: authorizing recreational ORV use on some or all nine trails after making improvements to address degraded conditions along trail alignments, and not authorizing recreational ORV use on any trails. Public input is sought on this range of alternatives. This EIS is being prepared in accordance with the requirements of the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969, as amended (42 U.S.C. 4331 et seq.), and its implementing regulations at 40 CFR part 1500. Scoping: The NPS requests input from federal and state agencies, local governments, private organizations, recreational users, and the public on the scope of issues to be addressed in this EIS. Scoping comments are being solicited. NPS representatives will be available to discuss issues, resource concerns and the planning process at public scoping meetings. Scoping meetings will be held in Anchorage, Fairbanks, Tok, Glennallen, and Slana, Alaska in early 2008. When public meetings have been scheduled, their dates, times, and locations will be announced in local newspapers and posted on the NPS Planning, Environment, and Public Comment (PEPC) Web site at https:// parkplanning.nps.gov/WRST. Before including your address, phone number, e-mail address, or other personal identifying information in your comment, you should be aware that your entire commentincluding your personal identifying informationmay be made publicly available at any time. While you can ask us to withhold your personal identifying information from public review, we cannot guarantee that we will be able to do so. 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.

Notice is hereby given that a meeting of the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal National Historical Park Advisory Commission will be held at 9:30 a.m., on Friday, January 18, 2008, at the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal National Historical Park Headquarters, 1850 Dual Highway, Hagerstown, Maryland 21740.