Federal Register / Vol. 75, No. 46 / Wednesday, March 10, 2010 / Notices 11105 

DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 

Forest Service 

Shasta County Resource Advisory 

Committee 

AGENCY: Forest Service, USDA. 

ACTION: Notice of meeting. 

SUMMARY: The Shasta County Resource 

Advisory Committee (RAC) will meet at 

the USDA Service Center in Redding, 

California, on March 31, 2010, from 8:30 

a.m. to 12 noon. The purpose of this 

meeting is to discuss project updates 

and proposals, information on 

monitoring efforts, and a timeline for 

the upcoming year. 

DATES: Wednesday, March 31 at 8:30 

a.m. 

ADDRESSES: The meeting will be held at 

the USDA Service Center, 3644 Avtech 

Parkway, Redding, California 96002. 

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: 

Resource Advisory Committee 

Coordinator Ray Mooney at (530) 226– 

2494 or jmooney@fs.fed.us. 

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The 

meeting is open to the public. Public 

input sessions will be provided and 

individuals will have the opportunity to 

address the Shasta County Resource 

Advisory Committee. 

Dated: March 10, 2010. 

J. Sharon Heywood, 

Forest Supervisor, Shasta-Trinity National 

Forest. 

[FR Doc. 2010–4957 Filed 3–8–10; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE M 

DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 

Forest Service 

Notice of Central Idaho Resource 

Advisory Committee Meeting 

AGENCY: Forest Service, USDA. 

ACTION: Notice of meeting. 

SUMMARY: Pursuant to the authorities in 

the Federal Advisory Committee Act 

(Pub. L. 92–463) and under the Secure 

Rural Schools and Community Self 

Determination Act of 2000 (Pub. L. 110– 

343), the Salmon-Challis National 

Forest’s Central Idaho Resource 

Advisory Committee will conduct a 

business meeting which is open to the 

public. 

DATES: Tuesday, March 23, 2010, 

beginning at 4 p.m. 

ADDRESSES: Salmon-Challis N.F. South 

Zone Office, Highway 93, Challis, Idaho. 

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Agenda 

topics will include review of RAC 2010 

projects, approval of RAC project 

proposals, and other RAC business. The 

meeting is an open public forum. Some 

RAC members may attend the meeting 

by conference call, telephone, or 

electronically. 

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Lyle 

E. Powers, Acting Forest Supervisor and 

Designated Federal Officer, at 208–756– 

5557. 

Dated: March 2, 2010. 

Frank V. Guzman, 

Forest Supervisor, Salmon-Challis National 

Forest. 

[FR Doc. 2010–4955 Filed 3–8–10; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 3410–11–M 

DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 

Forest Service 

Kootenai (KNF) and Idaho Panhandle 

National Forests (IPNF); Montana, 

Idaho and Washington; Revised Land 

and Resource Management Plans 

AGENCY: Forest Service, USDA. 

ACTION: Notice of intent to prepare an 

environmental impact statement (EIS) 

and revised land management plans 

using the provisions of the National 

Forest System land and resource 

management planning rule in effect 

prior to November 9, 2000, for the 

Kootenai and Idaho Panhandle National 

Forests located in Lincoln, Sanders, and 

Flathead counties in Montana; Bonner, 

Boundary, Kootenai, Shoshone, 

Benewah, Latah, and Clearwater 

counties in Idaho; and Pend Oreille 

county in Washington. 

SUMMARY: As directed by the National 

Forest Management Act, the US Forest 

Service is preparing the revised land 

management plans for the Kootenai and 

Idaho Panhandle National Forests and 

will also prepare one Environmental 

Impact Statement (EIS) for the revised 

plans unless, during the revision 

process, the need for two separate EISs 

is found to be warranted. The Kootenai 

and Idaho Panhandle National Forests 

comprise the Kootenai and Idaho 

Panhandle Planning Zone (KIPZ). This 

notice briefly describes where the 

Forests are in this revision process and 

information concerning public 

participation. It also provides estimated 

dates for filing the EIS and provides the 

names and addresses of the responsible 

agency official and the individual who 

can provide additional information. 

This notice also briefly describes the 

applicable planning rule and how work 

done on the plan revision under the 

2008 planning rule will be used or 

modified for completing the plan 

revision. 

The revised land management plans 

will supersede the current land 

management plans previously approved 

by the Regional Forester in 1987 and as 

amended. The amended plans will 

remain in effect until the revision takes 

effect. 

DATES: Comments providing additional 

information for the plans will be used 

to develop the draft revised forest plan 

and EIS. This information would be 

most useful if received by May 15, 2010. 

The agency expects to complete a 

proposed plan and draft EIS by 

December 2010, and a final plan and 

final EIS by December 2011. The dates, 

time, and location of any open houses 

will be posted on the forests’ Web site: 

http://www.fs.fed.us/kipz. 

ADDRESSES: Send written comments to 

KIPZ, Attention: Forest Plan Revision 

Team, Idaho Panhandle National 

Forests, Forest Supervisors Office, 3815 

Schreiber Way, Coeur d’Alene, ID 

83815. Comments may also be sent via 

e-mail: rl_kipz_revision@fs.fed.us. 

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: 

Linda Clark, revision co-team leader 

Idaho Panhandle National Forests, 3815 

Schreiber Way, Coeur d’Alene, ID 

83815, 208 765–7417, laclark@fs.fed.us 

or Kathy Rodriguez, revision co-team 

leader, Kootenai National Forest, Forest 

Supervisors Office, 31374 U.S. Highway 

2, Libby, MT 59923–3022, 406–293– 

6211, krodriguez@fs.fed.us. Information 

on this revision is also available at KIPZ 

revision Web site (http://www.fs.fed.us/ 

kipz). Individuals who use 

telecommunication devices for the deaf 

(TDD) may call the Federal Information 

Relay Service (FIRS) at 800–877–8339 

between 8 a.m. and 8 p.m., Eastern Time 

Monday through Friday. 

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: 

Name and Address of the Responsible 

Official 

Leslie A.C. Weldon, Regional 

Forester, 200 E. Broadway, Missoula, 

MT 59807. 

Nature of the Decision To Be Made 

The Kootenai and Idaho Panhandle 

National Forests are preparing an EIS to 

revise the current forest plans. The EIS 

process is meant to inform the Regional 

Forester so that she can decide which 

alternative best meets the need to 

achieve quality land management under 

the sustainable multiple-use 

management concept to meet the 

diverse needs of people while protecting 

the forests’ resources, as required by the 

National Forest Management Act and 

the Multiple Use Sustained Yield Act. 


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11106 Federal Register / Vol. 75, No. 46 / Wednesday, March 10, 2010 / Notices 

The revised forest plans describe the 

strategic intent of managing the 

Kootenai and Idaho Panhandle National 

Forests into the next 10 to 15 years. The 

revised forest plans provide 

management direction in the form of 

goals (desired conditions), objectives, 

suitability determinations, standards, 

guidelines, and a monitoring plan. They 

also make new special area 

recommendations for wilderness, 

research natural areas, and other special 

areas. 

Applicable Planning Rule 

Preparation of the revised plans was 

underway when the 2008 National 

Forest System land management 

planning rule was enjoined on June 30, 

2009, by the United States District Court 

for the Northern District of California 

(Citizens for Better Forestry v. United 

States Department of Agriculture, 632F. 

Supp. 2d 968 (N.D.Cal. June, 2009)). 

On December 18, 2009, the 

Department reinstated the previous 

planning rule, commonly known as the 

2000 planning rule in the Federal 

Register (74 FR 242, pages 67059 

through 67075 [Friday, December 18, 

2009]). The 2000 planning rule was 

amended in 2002 to allow the Forest 

Service to follow the procedures of the 

1982 Forest System Land and Resource 

Management Planning Rule (1982 Rule). 

The Kootenai and Idaho Panhandle 

National Forests have elected to use the 

provisions of the 1982 Planning Rule 

including the requirement to prepare an 

ETS to complete their revised plans. 

In late 2000, the KIPZ began working 

on revision of their Land Management 

Plans (LMPs) under the 1982 Planning 

Rule. In April 2002, a Notice of Intent 

(NOT) was published in the Federal 

Register, announcing the revision of the 

LMPs with a 12 month public comment 

period. Work continued on the LMPs 

under the 1982, 2000, 2005, and 2008 

Planning Rules. Results from public 

involvement work conducted since 

2002, were used as the revision 

continued through June 2009. Proposed 

Plans were released in 2006, under the 

2005 Planning Rule. Since 2008, work 

on the revision of the LMPs was 

conducted in accordance with all Forest 

Service directives applicable to the 2008 

Planning Rule. 

Although the 2008 Planning Rule is 

no longer in effect, information gathered 

prior to the court’s injunction is useful 

for completing the revision of the plans 

using the provisions of the 1982 

Planning Rule. The KIPZ has concluded 

that the following material developed 

during the plan revision process to date 

is appropriate for continued use in the 

revision process: 

• The Content Analysis report 

prepared in 2004, summarized what the 

KIPZ had learned from people that 

responded to the preliminary proposed 

action, revision topics, and need for 

change through the various public and 

workgroup meetings, open houses, field 

trips, invited group presentations, and 

meetings with Tribal partners, agency 

partners, and elected officials up to that 

time. 

• The Analysis of the Management 

Situation (AMS) and AMS Technical 

Report completed in March 2003 forms 

the basis for need to change the current 

forest plans and the proposed action for 

the plan revision. 

• The Comprehensive Evaluation 

Report (CER) provided for public review 

and comment in 2006, built upon the 

AMS and documents the evaluation of 

the 1987 Forest Plans and proposed 

changes. The CER evaluates current 

social, economic, and ecological 

conditions and trends that contribute to 

sustainability. The CER, under the 2005 

and 2008 Planning Rules, served as the 

principle document that supported the 

need to establish, amend, or revise a 

plan. The CER identifies factors that 

affect conditions and trends, and 

includes information of what is causing 

conditions to change, and describes the 

influence plan implementation would 

have on moving toward desired 

conditions. 

• The inventory and evaluation of 

potential wilderness areas presented in 

the Proposed Land Management Plans 

and CER made available for public 

review and comment in May 2006, for 

both forests, is consistent with 

appropriate provisions of the 1982 

planning Rule and will be brought 

forward into this planning process. 

• The Analysis of Public Comment 

report prepared in March 2007 

synthesizes and summarizes the 

comments and concerns heard during 

the comment period for the Proposed 

Land Management Plans released in 

May 2006. 

• Information developed by the 

working groups (which included over 

140 meetings) and discussions regarding 

Geographic Area (GA) desired 

conditions, the revision topics, 

monitoring and other plan components 

(1982 Planning Rule) and over fifty 

meetings and discussions on the starting 

option maps and potential changes to 

suggest to Forest Supervisors (2005 

Planning Rule) that went into the 

Proposed LMPs. 

• There are additional background 

reports, assessments, datasets, and 

public comment that will be used, some 

of which can be found on the KIPZ Web 

site. 

As necessary or appropriate, the 

above listed material will be further 

adjusted as part of the planning process 

using the provisions of the 1982 

Planning Rule (Authority: 16 U.S.C. 

1600–1614; 36 CFR 219.35 (December 

18, 2009) (74 FR 242)). 

Proposed Action 

The proposed action will be 

developed using the information that 

has been developed and summarized 

over the last 10 years including: Public 

comments, public working groups, 

AMS, CER, and proposed plans. Using 

the information from public 

involvement and content analysis on the 

proposed plans, the revision team 

worked on finalizing the plans from 

2007 to 2009. The Forests propose to 

review the work that has been 

completed to date to develop a proposed 

action and range of alternatives. 

Revision Topics Carried Forward 

The Forests propose to carry forward 

the following Forestwide revision topics 

as published in the May 2006 Proposed 

Land Management Plans. These revision 

topics were identified in the 2003 AMS, 

and updated in the CER under the 2005, 

and 2008 Planning Rules: 

• Access and Recreation 

• Vegetation 

• Timber 

• Fire 

• Wildlife 

• Watersheds (Water, Soil, and 

Riparian) and Aquatic Species 

• Recommended Wilderness 

The Forests propose to start with the 

Proposed LMPs and comments received 

(under the 1982 and 2005 Planning 

Rules) to build Plans under the 1982 

Planning Rule and proposed action in 

the accompanying EIS. 

Public Involvement 

Extensive public involvement and 

collaboration has occurred over the past 

eight years. Informal discussions with 

the public regarding needed changes to 

the current forest plans began with a 

series of public meetings in 2002. This 

input, along with science-based 

evaluations, and inventory and 

monitoring was used to determine the 

need for change identified above. 

Additional meetings, correspondence, 

news releases, comment periods, and 

other tools have been utilized to gather 

feedback from the public, forest 

employees, tribal governments, federal 

and state agencies, and local 

governments. 

The KIPZ hosted approximately thirty 

informational and comment meetings 

within communities of Idaho, Montana, 

and Washington during the scoping 


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Federal Register / Vol. 75, No. 46 / Wednesday, March 10, 2010 / Notices 11107 

process, which started in April 2002, 

with the Notice of Intent in the Federal 

Register, and ended in May 2004. In 

addition to the public meetings, 

briefings and meetings were held with 

the Tribes, Congressionals and other 

elected officials, other agencies, and 

interest groups. 

Also during the scoping period, the 

KIPZ hosted approximately 140 

workgroup meetings from August 2003 

to May 2004. These meetings were held 

in communities within the KIPZ zone 

and the workgroups focused on the GAs 

surrounding each of these communities. 

The purpose of these workgroup 

meetings was to: (1) Share information 

about the revision topics, (2) 

collaboratively discuss and develop 

desired conditions for each of the 

revision topics within the workgroup’s 

GAs, and (3) gain an understanding of 

the issues and appreciation of others’ 

viewpoints. Workgroup meeting notes 

and desired condition statements can be 

found on the KIPZ Web site (http:// 

www.fs.fed.us/kipz). 

This information was used in 

developing forestwide and GA desired 

conditions, other management direction 

such as management area direction, and 

the starting option map, which was used 

at further workgroup meetings in the 

summer of 2005. 

In addition to these workgroup 

meetings, briefings and meetings were 

held with the Tribes, Congressionals 

and other elected officials, other 

agencies, and interest groups (upon 

request). Several elected officials, 

Congressional staffers, and other agency 

representatives participated in the 

workgroup meetings. 

From July to September 2005, the 

KIPZ hosted additional workgroup 

meetings in the same communities 

focusing on the same GAs. The purpose 

of these workgroup meetings was to: (1) 

Share the starting option maps and 

discuss how they were developed, (2) 

validate the information on the maps, 

and (3) collaboratively discuss any 

possible changes to the maps. In 

addition to these meetings, meetings 

were held with elected officials, the 

Tribes, and other groups. The comments 

from all of these meetings resulted in 

decisions made by the Forest 

Supervisors to change the starting 

option maps. Workgroup meeting notes 

can be found on the KIPZ Web site 

(http://www.fs.fed.us/kipz). 

In October 2005, Draft Forest Plans 

maps were released with the intent to 

provide information back to the public 

on how the starting option maps had 

changed. It did not initiate a comment 

period. The maps, along with the 

rationale for the changes, are posted on 

the KIPZ Web site. The Draft Forest 

Plans maps were used by the revision 

team to complete the Proposed Land 

Management Plans. 

In May 2006, the Kootenai and Idaho 

Panhandle National Forests prepared 

and released Proposed Land 

Management Plans, with maps, for a 90- 

day comment period (extended to 120 

days). An Analysis of Public Comment 

report was prepared in March 2007, and 

posted on the KIPZ Web site (http:// 

www.fs.fed.us/kipz). The report 

synthesized the comments and concerns 

heard during the comment period for 

the Proposed Land Management Plans. 

The KIPZ will continue regular and 

meaningful consultation and 

collaboration with tribal nations, on a 

government-to-government basis. The 

agency will work with tribal 

governments to address issues 

concerning Indian tribal selfgovernment and sovereignty, natural 

and cultural resources held in trust, 

Indian tribal treaty and Executive order 

rights, and any issues that significantly 

or uniquely affect their communities. 

The KIPZ desires to continue 

collaborative efforts with members of 

the public who are interested in 

management of the Forests, as well as 

federal and state agencies, local 

governments, and private organizations. 

If you feel that we missed any 

substantive issues or concerns from 

those listed above as revision topics or 

additional, different comments from 

those provided on the Proposed LMPs, 

please e-mail, call or write to us. If you 

do wish to comment, it is important that 

you provide comments at such times 

and in such a way (clearly articulate 

your concerns) that they are useful to 

the Agency’s preparation of the revised 

plan and the EIS. The submission of 

timely and specific comments can affect 

a reviewer’s ability to participate in 

subsequent administrative or judicial 

review. At this time, we anticipate using 

the 2000 Planning Rule pre-decisional 

objection process (36 CFR 219.32) for 

administrative review. 

Comments received in response to 

this solicitation, including the names 

and addresses of those who comment 

will be part of the public record. 

Comments submitted anonymously will 

be accepted and considered. 

Dated: March 2, 2010. 

Leslie A.C. Weldon, 

Regional Forester, Forest Service Northern 

Region. 

[FR Doc. 2010–4929 Filed 3–9–10; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 3410–11–M 

DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 

Forest Service 

Revision of Land Management Plan for 

the George Washington National 

Forest, Virginia and West Virginia 

AGENCY: Forest Service, USDA. 

ACTION: Notice of intent to prepare an 

environmental impact statement and 

revised land management plan using the 

provisions of the 1982 National Forest 

System land and resource management 

planning regulations for the George 

Washington National Forest. 

Affected Area: Alleghany, Amherst, 

Augusta, Bath, Botetourt, Frederick, 

Highland, Nelson, Page, Rockbridge, 

Rockingham, Shenandoah and Warren 

counties, Virginia and in Hampshire, 

Hardy, Monroe and Pendleton counties, 

West Virginia. 

SUMMARY: As directed by the National 

Forest Management Act, the USDA 

Forest Service is preparing the George 

Washington National Forest (GWNF) 

revised land and resource management 

plan (Forest Plan) and an environmental 

impact statement (EIS) for this revised 

plan. This notice briefly describes the 

purpose and need for change, some 

proposed actions in response to the 

need for change, preliminary issues, and 

preliminary alternatives for the plan 

revision based on what has been 

identified from internal and external 

discussions since the revision of the 

Forest Plan began in 2007. It also 

provides information concerning public 

participation, estimated dates for filing 

the EIS, the names and addresses of the 

responsible agency official, and the 

individuals who can provide additional 

information. Finally, this notice briefly 

describes the applicable planning rule 

and how work done on the plan revision 

under the 2008 planning rule will be 

used or modified for completing this 

plan revision. 

The revised Forest Plan will 

supersede the land and resource 

management plan previously approved 

by the Regional Forester on January 21, 

1993 and as amended nine times from 

1993 to 2002. Those amendments 

include: The availability of oil and gas 

leasing in Laurel Fork Special 

Management Area; the designation of 

Mount Pleasant National Scenic Area; 

the Biological Opinion for the Indiana 

bat; and the helicopter application of 

liming for the St. Mary’s River within 

the St. Mary’s Wilderness. The amended 

Plan will remain in effect until the 

revision takes effect. 

DATES: Comments concerning the scope 

of this analysis as presented here and on 


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