Federal Register / Vol. 85, No. 243 / Thursday, December 17, 2020 / Notices 81871 

the reading room). You may request 

paper copies of these documents by 

calling or writing to the person listed 

under FOR FURTHER INFORMATION

CONTACT. Please refer to the subject of 

the analysis you wish to review when 

requesting copies. 

After reviewing any comments we 

receive, we will announce our decision 

regarding whether to revise the 

requirements for the importation of 

citrus fruit from Australia in a 

subsequent notice. If the overall 

conclusions of our analysis and the 

Administrator’s determination of risk 

remain unchanged following our 

consideration of the comments, then we 

will revise the requirements for the 

importation of citrus fruit from 

Australia in accordance with this notice. 

Authority: 7 U.S.C. 1633, 7701–7772, and 

7781–7786; 21 U.S.C. 136 and 136a; 7 CFR 

2.22, 2.80, and 371.3. 

Done in Washington, DC, this 14th day of 

December 2020. 

Michael Watson, 

Administrator, Animal and Plant Health 

Inspection Service. 

[FR Doc. 2020–27803 Filed 12–16–20; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 3410–34–P 

DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 

Natural Resources Conservation 

Service 

[Docket No. NRCS–2020–0009] 

Guidance for Identification of 

Nonindustrial Private Forest Land 

(NIPF) 

AGENCY: Natural Resources 

Conservation Service (NRCS), U.S. 

Department of Agriculture (USDA). 

ACTION: Notice and request for 

comments. 

SUMMARY: NRCS is requesting input 

about guidance it intends to provide its 

agency staff concerning the 

identification of NIPF for NRCS 

conservation programs. NRCS welcomes 

input from the public prior to NRCS 

incorporating the guidance into the 

NRCS conservation program manual. 

This guidance will be used by staff to 

identify NIPF and relates to eligibility 

for certain NRCS programs. 

DATES: Comment Date: We will consider 

comments received by January 19, 2021. 

ADDRESSES: We invite you to submit 

comments on this notice. You may 

submit comments through the: 

• Federal eRulemaking Portal: Go to 

http://www.regulations.gov and search 

for Docket ID NRCS–2020–0009. Follow 

the online instructions for submitting 

comments. 

All comments will be available on 

http://www.regulations.gov. 

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: 

Martha Joseph; (814) 203–5562; 

martha.joseph@usda.gov. 

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: 

Background 

NRCS is one of the USDA agencies 

that identifies nonindustrial private 

forest land (NIPF) for program 

enrollment. In particular, NRCS 

identifies NIPF for enrollment in the 

Agricultural Conservation Easement 

Program (ACEP), the Conservation 

Stewardship Program (CSP), the 

Environmental Quality Incentives 

Program (EQIP), and the Regional 

Conservation Partnership Program 

(RCPP). 

Identification for NIPF enrollment 

under these NRCS programs is based 

upon section 1201(18) of the Food 

Security Act of 1985 (the 1985 Farm 

Bill), which defines NIPF as rural land, 

as determined by the Secretary, that: 

• Has existing tree cover or is suitable 

for growing trees; and 

• Is owned by any nonindustrial 

private individual, group, association, 

corporation, Indian Tribe, or other 

private legal entity that has definitive 

decision-making authority over the 

land. 

NRCS recently attempted to clarify 

how it identifies NIPF for program 

enrollment in the fiscal years 2020 and 

2021 RCPP Announcement for Program 

Funding (https://www.grants.gov/web/ 

grants/viewopportunity.html?oppId=328578), by 

summarizing language from the USDA 

Forest Service’s Forest Inventory & 

Analysis (FIA) glossary. NRCS used text 

that specified NIPF does not encompass 

industrial lands but the attempted 

clarification resulted in further 

confusion. After becoming aware of the 

confusion, the NRCS Acting Chief 

identified during a House Agriculture 

Committee hearing, on October 1, 2020, 

that NRCS would welcome input from 

stakeholders about how NRCS identifies 

NIPF, which is the purpose of this 

notice. 

Identification of Land as NIPF 

NRCS identifies NIPF as defined by 

the 1985 Farm Bill and program 

regulations. To make the identification, 

NRCS examines the components of the 

definition to determine if the land can 

be identified as NIPF, as explained 

below. In its identification, NRCS must 

also ensure that such identification is 

consistent with how other USDA 

agencies identify NIPF under identical 

or similar program definitions. 

In order to determine whether land 

offered for enrollment meets land 

eligibility criteria, NRCS must identify 

whether the land is ‘‘rural land’’ that 

‘‘has existing tree cover or is suitable for 

growing trees’’ and whether the land is 

owned by ‘‘a nonindustrial private 

landowner.’’ NRCS has long identified 

land use in accordance with its National 

Resources Inventory (NRI). The NRI 

provides updated information about the 

status, condition, and trends of land, 

soil, water, and related resources on 

U.S. non-Federal lands, and identifies 

the four primary land types (forest, 

rangeland, cropland, and pasture) of 

non-Federal rural land. In particular, the 

NRI defines forest land as follows: 

Forest land. A land cover/use category 

that is at least 10 percent stocked by 

single-stemmed woody species of any 

size that will be at least 4 meters (13 

feet) tall at maturity. Also included is 

land bearing evidence of natural 

regeneration of tree cover (cut over 

forest or abandoned farmland) and not 

currently developed for non-forest use. 

Ten percent stocked, when viewed from 

a vertical direction, equates to an areal 

canopy cover of leaves and branches of 

25 percent or greater. The minimum 

area for classification as forest land is 1 

acre, and the area must be at least 100 

feet wide. See Glossary, 2017 National 

Resources Inventory, p. 8–3. 

The NRI identification of forest land 

is consistent with how both the USDA 

Farm Service Agency (FSA) and Forest 

Service identify forest land for NIPF 

purposes, with some slight differences 

such as the Forest Service requires a 

canopy cover or crown cover of only 10 

percent and a minimum area that is at 

least 120 feet wide. 

The landowner component of NIPF 

identification is more complex as it 

relates to identification of whether the 

forest land is owned by a ‘‘nonindustrial 

private individual, group, association, 

corporation, Indian [T]ribe, or other 

private legal entity that has definitive 

decision-making authority over the 

land.’’ FSA specifies in its Emergency 

Forest Restoration Program that owners 

or lessees principally engaged in the 

primary processing of raw wood 

products are excluded from the 

definition of an owner of nonindustrial 

private forest. NRCS refers to this 

criterion as the ‘‘mill status’’ criterion 

(that is, whether or not the applicant 

owns a wood-processing facility on their 

land). 

The Forest Service identifies 

industrial versus nonindustrial private 

forest landowners for its FIA with 

reference to several factors that reflect 

current trends in the forestry industry. 

In particular, the Forest Service 

81872 Federal Register / Vol. 85, No. 243 / Thursday, December 17, 2020 / Notices 

1Caputo, Jesse; Butler, Brett; Hartsell, Andy. 

2017. How large is large? Identifying large corporate 

ownerships in FIA datasets. Res. Pap. NRS–29. 

Newtown Square, PA: U.S. Department of 

Agriculture, Forest Service, Northern Research 

Station. P. 1. 

similarly identifies NIPF landowners 

with respect to their mill status but are 

also collecting information about 

whether corporate owners are 

‘‘industrial’’ irrespective of mill status 

based on size of the landowner’s forest 

holdings. Based on a series of analyses 

the Forest Service conducted, they 

looked at owner behavior as a function 

of size of holdings. The Forest Service 

identified that holdings greater than 

45,000 acres are associated with large 

corporate forest owners and that this 

acreage threshold provides a 

quantitative measure that assists with 

identification of industrial landowners 

in the FIA database. Specifically, the 

Forest Service analysis observed: 

Many of the largest industrial forest 

owners, including many established timber 

companies, can be easily identified based on 

expert knowledge. However, many cannot be 

so readily identified, particularly many 

holding companies and some TIMOs/REITs 

[timberland investment management 

organizations and real estate investment 

trusts]. Therefore, the most practical way to 

define large corporate forest owners using 

consistent methodology is to determine an 

acreage threshold above which a corporate 

forest owner will be considered to be a large 

corporate owner.1

NIPF Guidance 

Therefore, from a practical manner in 

which to identify NIPF landowners 

consistently with both FSA and the 

Forest Service, NRCS intends to clarify 

in its conservation program manual the 

following guidance: 

Nonindustrial private landowner 

means a private individual, group, 

association, corporation, Indian Tribe, 

or other private entity. NRCS will 

identify someone as a nonindustrial 

private landowner if they: 

(1)(i) Own fewer than 45,000 acres of 

forest land in the United States; and 

(ii) Do not own or operate an 

industrial mill for the primary 

processing of raw wood products as 

determined by NRCS in consultation 

with the State Technical Committees; or 

(2) Meet criteria established for a 

nonindustrial private landowner by 

NRCS in a State in consultation the 

State Technical Committee. 

NRCS believes that item (1)(i) will 

ensure consistency with the Forest 

Service identification of owners of 

industrial private forest lands under its 

FIA. NRCS believes that item (1)(ii) will 

ensure continued consistency with both 

the Forest Service and FSA with respect 

to the role that the primary processing 

of raw wood products serves for 

identification of industrial landowners. 

However, NRCS is aware that with the 

advent of portable mills common among 

family forestry operations, a strict mill 

criterion may inadvertently exclude 

assistance to the very operations that 

conservation assistance for NIPF lands 

is intended to reach. Therefore, NRCS 

intends to incorporate in its guidance 

that such determinations about whether 

a mill is of industrial scale should be 

made in light of more localized criteria 

identified by the State Conservationist, 

in consultation with the State Technical 

Committee. 

NRCS believes that incorporation of 

item (2) will ensure that NRCS national 

guidance does not supersede more 

localized expert knowledge that may 

exist for identification of NIPF 

landowners. In particular, NRCS 

believes that it should coordinate at the 

State level with FSA, Forest Service, the 

State Forester, and other members of the 

State Technical Committee in 

circumstances where the national 

criteria do not encompass adequately 

the nature of NIPF operations within the 

State. 

Public Comments Requested 

NRCS requests public comment on 

these technical criteria for the 

identification of NIPF eligibility for its 

conservation programs. In particular, 

NRCS seeks input about how these 

criteria may either exclude lands that 

should be considered NIPF or include 

lands that should not be considered 

NIPF. NRCS also welcomes input about 

what alternative criteria should be 

considered in its technical guidance. 

The guidance for identification of 

NIPF will be adopted after the close of 

the 30-day period, and after 

consideration of all comments. 

Kevin Norton 

Acting Chief, Natural Resources Conservation 

Service. 

[FR Doc. 2020–27703 Filed 12–15–20; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 3410–16–P 

DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 

Rural Housing Service 

[RHS–20–CF–0028] 

Notice of Request for Revision of a 

Currently Approved Information 

Collection 

AGENCY: Rural Housing Service, USDA. 

ACTION: Proposed collection; Comments 

requested. 

SUMMARY: In accordance with the 

Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995, this 

notice announces the Rural Housing 

Service’s (RHS) intention to request a 

revision of a currently approved 

information collection in support of the 

Rural Community Development 

Initiative (RCDI) grant program. 

DATES: Comments on this notice must be 

received by February 16, 2021 to be 

assured of consideration. 

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: 

Pamela Bennett, Rural Development 

Innovation Center, Regulations 

Management Division, U.S. Department 

of Agriculture, 1400 Independence 

Avenue SW, STOP 0793, Room 4015 

South Building, Washington, DC 20250– 

0793. Telephone: (202) 720–9639. 

Email: pamela.bennett@usda.gov. 

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The Office 

of Management and Budget’s (OMB) 

regulation (5 CFR part 1320) 

implementing provisions of the 

Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 (Pub. 

L. 104–13) requires that interested 

members of the public and affected 

agencies have an opportunity to 

comment on information collection and 

recordkeeping activities (see 5 CFR 

1320.8(d)). This notice identifies an 

information collection that RHS is 

submitting to OMB for approval. 

Comments are invited on: (a) Whether 

the proposed collection of information 

is necessary for the proper performance 

of the functions of the agency, including 

whether the information will have 

practical utility; (b) The accuracy of the 

agency’s estimate of the burden of the 

proposed collection of information 

including the validity of the 

methodology and assumptions used; (c) 

Ways to enhance the quality, utility and 

clarity of the information to be 

collected; and (d) Ways to minimize the 

burden of the collection of information 

on those who are to respond, including 

through the use of appropriate 

automated, electronic, mechanical, or 

other technological collection 

techniques or other forms of information 

technology. 

Comments may be sent by the Federal 

eRulemaking Portal: Go to http://

www.regulations.gov and, in the lower 

‘‘Search Regulations and Federal 

Actions’’ box, select ‘‘Rural Housing 

Service’’ from the agency drop-down 

menu, then click on ‘‘Submit.’’ In the 

Docket ID column, select RHS–20–CF– 

0028 to submit or view public 

comments and to view supporting and 

related materials available 

electronically. Information on using 

Regulations.gov, including instructions 

for accessing documents, submitting 

comments, and viewing the docket after