Natural Resources Conservation Service April 4, 2005 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

Pursuant to the Watershed Protection and Flood Prevention Act, Pub. L. 83-566, and the Natural Resources Conservation Service Guidelines (7 CFR 622), the Natural Resources Conservation Service gives notice of the deauthorization of Federal funding for the White Tank Mountains Watershed, Maricopa County, Arizona effective on March 9, 2005.

It has been determined by the NRCS State Conservationist for Tennessee that changes must be made in the NRCS Field Office Technical Guide, specifically in practice standard Critical Area Planting (342) to account for improved technology. This practice standard can be used in conservation systems designed to treat highly erodible cropland.

This notice presents the Record of Decision (ROD) regarding the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) implementation of revisions to the Emergency Watershed Protection (EWP) Program to allow NRCS to more effectively and efficiently meet EWP statutory requirements and improve the effectiveness of agency responses to sudden watershed impairments caused by natural disasters. NRCS prepared a Final Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement (FPEIS) for EWP Program changes and published the FPEIS on the NRCS Web site. A Notice of Availability (NOA) of the EWP FPEIS was published in the Federal Register on December 30, 2004 and all agencies and persons on the FPEIS distribution list were notified individually as well. Printed and CD- ROM versions of the FPEIS were made available and delivered to all those who requested. This Decision Notice summarizes the environmental, social, and economic impacts of the EWP Program alternatives identified in the FPEIS that were considered in making this decision, and explains why NRCS selected the Preferred AlternativeEWP Program Improvement and Expansion (Alternative 4) for improving the EWP Program. The public may access the NRCS responses to substantive comments on the FPEIS at https://www.nrcs.usda.gov/programs/ewp/.