[Federal Register Volume 67, Number 132 (Wednesday, July 10, 2002)]
[Notices]
[Pages 45699-45700]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 02-17302]


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DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE

Forest Service


Payette National Forest, Idaho; Lick Timber Sale

AGENCY: Forest Service, USDA.

ACTION: Notice of intent to prepare an environmental impact statement.

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SUMMARY: The USDA Forest Service will prepare the Lick Timber Sale 
environmental impact statement (EIS). The proposed action in the EIS is 
to reduce fuels, manage forest vegetation, enhance northern Idaho 
ground squirrel (NIDGS) habitat, and manage roads. The EIS will analyze 
the effects of the proposed action and alternatives. The agency gives 
notice of the full 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 Payette National Forest invites written comments and 
suggestions on the scope of the analysis and the issues to address.

DATES: Comments must be received in writing by August 12, 2002.

ADDRESSES: Send written comments to Faye L. Krueger, Council District 
Ranger at P.O. Box 567, Council, Idaho, 83612. Faxes should be sent to 
208-253-0109 and e-mails to [email protected].

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Questions about the proposed project 
and scope of analysis should be directed to Sam Feider, Team Leader, at 
the above address, or phone at (208) 253-0100.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The analysis area is about 25 air miles 
north-northwest of Council, Idaho, in Adams County. The area can be 
reached by taking Forest Road 002 (Council-Cuprum Road) to 
Forest Road 143 (Lick Creek Road). The project area consists 
of National Forest System lands located in Township 20N, Range 2W, in 
all or portions of sections 9, 10, 15-17, 20-23, and 26-35, Boise 
Meridian and in Township 19N, Range 2W, in all or portions of sections 
2-10, and 15-18, Boise Meridian. It is located entirely within the 
6,922-acre Middle Lick subwatershed, and a small portion (4,237 acres) 
of the Upper Lick subwatershed. The proposed action will be in 
compliance with the Payette National Forest Land and Resource 
Management Plan (Forest Plan of 1988), as amended), which provides 
overall guidance for management of this area.

Purpose and Need for Action

    The purpose and need for the proposed action is to: (1) Improve 
timber stand growth and yield, (2) Reduce the incidence and hazard of 
insect and disease in timbered stands through harvest and salvage, (3) 
Reduce the risk of wildland fire to forestland, investments, adjacent 
private lands, and facilities, (4) Reduce the potential of sediment 
delivery to Lick Creek and its tributaries from roads, and eliminate 
roads unneeded for future management, and (5) Enhance suitable habitat 
for northern Idaho ground squirrels to meet habitat management and 
recovery plan goals. The proposal has four main objectives it would 
achieve. It would: (1) Reduce the risk of extreme fire behavior (crown 
fire) in the Upper Lick Creek and Middle Lick drainages. This in turn 
would: (a) Reduce the risk that wildfire would damage and/or destroy 
tree plantations in the project area, thereby maintaining past 
investments; (b) protect private land investments; (c) provide an area 
that would allow firefighters to safely suppress an escaped wildfire; 
and (d) provide a foundation to expand future fuels reduction 
activities into other portions of the Bear Watershed. (2) Reduce 
overstocked timber stands and plantations through timber harvest and 
thinning. This in turn would: (a) improve seral tree species health and 
decrease opportunities for insect and disease outbreaks, (b) improve 
tree growth by reducing the competition between trees for sunlight, 
moisture, and nutrients, (c) reforest with seral tree species, and (d) 
contribute to the Council District's portion of the Payette National 
Forest allowable sale quantity. (3) Enhance northern Idaho ground 
squirrel habitat to facilitate population recovery, and (4) Design a 
transportation system that responds to human access needs while 
reducing impacts and improving watershed conditions for

[[Page 45700]]

hydrologic function, soil productivity, and fisheries and wildlife 
habitat. This in turn would: (a) improve the hydrologic function and 
productivity on soils committed to roads that may no longer be needed 
for future management, (b) reduce current and potential sediment 
delivery to streams from roads, especially within Riparian Conservation 
Areas (RCAs), (c) reduce overall road densities, especially in 
landslide prone areas and riparian habitat conservation areas to 
improve geomorphic integrity and water quality integrity, (d) reduce or 
improve stream crossings to decrease the ``hydrologic connectivity'' 
between roads and streams, (e) improve fish passage at road crossings, 
(f) avoid management activities that have the potential to increase 
stream temperatures in Wildhorse River; a downstream 303(d) listed 
Waterbody, (g) avoid additional cumulative impacts to the Snake River; 
a downstream 303(d) listed Waterbody, and (h) manage open road 
densities to maintain the Forest Plan Elk Habitat Effectiveness (EHE) 
rating in Issue Reporting Area (IRA) 117 to Forest Plan Standards. 
Within IRA 118, manage open road densities to Forest Plan Standards 
that occur within the Lick Project Area (approximately \1/3\ of IRA 118 
overlaps the project area).

Proposed Action

    The Proposed Action would reduce fuels, manage forest vegetation, 
enhance NIDGS habitat, and manage roads. (1) Reduce Fuels--Use 
mechanical thinning and harvesting, and prescribed fire treatments on 
approximately 1,200 acres. (2) Manage Forest Vegetation--(a) Use 
ground-based, skyline, and helicopter yarding systems to harvest timber 
on approximately 1,438 acres. The harvest prescriptions would encompass 
163 acres of reserve tree (retain 3-10 healthy seral trees per acre), 
51 acres of shelterwood seed-cut (retain 10-15 healthy seral trees per 
acre), 999 acres of commercial thin/sanitation salvage, and an 
additional 233 acres of precommercial thin. Reforestation treatments 
would include 260 acres, of which approximately 171 acres would require 
plantation fencing. (b) Reduce generated fuels and/or prepare sites for 
planting by underburning or piling and burning of logging slash. (3) 
Enhance Northern Idaho Ground Squirrel Habitat--(a) Use mechanical 
thinning and prescribed fire on about 225 acres to restore suitable 
NIDGS habitat to historical conditions. Within the Lick Creek corridor, 
shade-tolerant conifer tree species (grand fir and to some extent 
Douglas-fir) would be thinned, while retaining the large, old ponderosa 
pine or Douglas-fir. (b) Reintroduce fire following thinning to 
rejuvenate the herbaceous vegetation. (c) Install temporary fencing 
around the area to exclude cattle and hasten recovery. (4) Manage 
Roads--(a) Construct 4.0 miles of new roads (close following project 
implementation), and decommission 26.6 miles of existing roads (8.9 
miles of classified roads and 17.7 miles of non-classified roads). (b) 
Close year-round approximately 12.9 miles of road that are currently 
open year-round and/or seasonally.

Responsible Official

    The responsible official is the Forest Supervisor of the Payette 
National Forest.

Scoping Process

    Public notices have been placed in local and regional newspapers. A 
public meeting is anticipated to occur following issuance of the draft 
EIS. The meeting will be announced in the Payette National Forest's 
newspaper of record, the Idaho Statesman, Boise, Idaho.

Preliminary Issues

    The proposed action may generate six preliminary issues. [We pay 
for Federal Register notices, and long ones get expensive. We rarely 
get comments about issue background statements appearing in Federal 
Register notices. I would abbreviate and save govt. money as follows.] 
(1) Effects on Water Quality. (2) Effects on Fisheries (3) Effects on 
Wildlife Habitat. (4) Effects on Noxious Weeds. (5) Effects on 
Recreation. (6) Effects of Road Construction and Decommissioning.
    Design features for the Proposed Action will help reduce or 
eliminate other possible impacts (visual resource, heritage resources, 
water quality, soils, fisheries, wildlife, etc.).

Early Notice of Importance of Public Participation in Environmental 
Review

    A draft environmental impact statement will be prepared for 
comment. The comment period on the draft environmental impact statement 
will be 45 days from the date the Environmental Protection Agency 
publishes the notice of availability in the Federal Register.
    The Forest Service believes at this early stage, it is important to 
give reviewers notice of several court rulings related to public 
participation in the environmental review process. First, reviewers of 
draft environmental impact statements must structure their 
participation in the environmental review of the proposal so that it is 
meaningful and alerts an agency to the reviewer's position and 
contentions. Vermont Yankee Nuclear Power Corp. v. NRDC, 435 U.S. 519, 
533 (1978). Also, environmental objections that could be raised at the 
draft environmental impact statement stage but that are not raised 
until after completion of the final environmental impact statement may 
be waived or dismissed by the courts. City of Angoon v. Hodel, 803 F.2d 
1016, 1022 (9th Cir. 1986) and Wisconsin Heritages, Inc. v. Harris, 490 
F. Supp. 1334, 1338 (E.D. Wis. 1980). Because of these court rulings, 
it is very important that those interested in this proposed action 
participate by the close of the 45-day comment period so that 
substantive comments and objections are made available to the Forest 
Service at a time when it can meaningfully consider them and respond to 
them in the final environmental impact statement.
    To assist the Forest Service in identifying and considering issues 
raised by the proposed action, comments on the draft environmental 
impact statement should be as specific as possible. It is also helpful 
if comments refer to specific pages or chapters of the draft statement. 
Comments may also address the adequacy of the draft environmental 
impact statement or the merits of the alternatives formulated and 
discussed in the statement. Reviewers may wish to refer to the Council 
on Environmental Quality Regulations for implementing the procedural 
provisions of the National Environmental Policy Act at 40 CFR 1503.3 in 
addressing these points.

    Dated: July 3, 2002.
Mark J. Madrid,
Forest Supervisor.
[FR Doc. 02-17302 Filed 7-9-02; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 3410-11-M