52740 Federal Register / Vol. 74, No. 197 / Wednesday, October 14, 2009 / Notices 

To file a complaint of discrimination, 

write to USDA, Director, Office of 

Adjudication and Compliance, 1400 

Independence Avenue, SW., 

Washington, DC 20250–9410, or call 

(800) 795–3272 (voice), or (202) 720– 

6382 (TDD). USDA is an equal 

opportunity provider, employer, and 

lender.’’ 

Dated: September 23, 2009. 

Judith A. Canales, 

Administrator, Rural Business-Cooperative 

Service. 

[FR Doc. E9–24612 Filed 10–13–09; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 3410–XY–P 

DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 

Forest Service 

Kings River Experimental Watershed 

Forest Health and Research Project 

AGENCY: Sierra National Forest, Forest 

Service, USDA. 

ACTION: Notice of intent to prepare an 

environmental impact statement. 

SUMMARY: The Forest Service will 

prepare a Kings River Experimental 

Watershed Forest Health and Research 

Project (KREW Project) Environmental 

Impact Statement (EIS). The EIS will 

evaluate the environmental effects of the 

KREW Project which is designed to treat 

portions of the Kings River watershed to 

improve forest health and to examine 

the short- and long-term effects of these 

treatments. The research will lead to 

information that will be instrumental in 

future land management planning for 

the Sierra National Forest (SNF) and 

other Sierra Nevada forests. 

DATES: Comments concerning the scope 

of the analysis must be received by 

November 13, 2009. The draft 

environmental impact statement is 

expected December 2009 and the final 

environmental impact statement is 

expected April 2010. 

ADDRESSES: Send written comments to 

Judi Tapia, SNF, Supervisor’s Office, 

1600 Tollhouse Road, Clovis, CA 93611, 

Attn: KREW Project. 

Comments may also be sent via e-mail 

to jetapia@fs.fed.us, or via facsimile to 

559–294 4809. 

It is important that reviewers provide 

their comments at such times and in 

such a way that they are useful to the 

Agency’s preparation of the EIS. We 

intend to use comments received from 

the public to help formulate our draft 

EIS so please provide any suggestions or 

concerns prior to the close of the 

comment period. 

Comments received in response to 

this solicitation, including names and 

addresses of those who comment, will 

be part of the public record for this 

proposed action. Comments submitted 

anonymously will be accepted and 

considered, however. 

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: For 

research information, contact Carolyn 

Hunsaker, Ecologist, Pacific Southwest 

Research Station (PSW), available by 

phone at 559–323–3211 or via e-mail at 

chunsaker@fs.fed.us. For forest 

management information, contact Judi 

Tapia at 559–297–0706 extension 4938 

or via e-mail at: jetapia@fs.fed.us. 

Information regarding the KREW Project 

EIS can be found on the SNF Web site 

located at: http://www.fs.fed.us/ 

sierralprojects/. 

Individuals who use 

telecommunication devices for the deaf 

(TDD) may call the Federal Information 

Relay Service (FIRS) at 1–800–877–8339 

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

Time, Monday through Friday. 

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The Forest 

Service routinely conducts land 

management activities to help restore 

forests to a healthy, diverse, fireresilient condition by reducing stand 

densities and fuel loads. Such 

management activities involve thinning 

forests to reduce competition among 

trees for water, nutrients, and sunlight; 

to reduce the continuity of fuels; and to 

protect and/or reestablish a resilient, 

diverse forest ecosystem. 

PSW, in collaboration with the SNF, 

propose to complete a land management 

project to achieve forest health goals, 

part of which is the subject of research 

to assess the response of the ecosystem 

to these management practices. The 

forest management practices are 

designed for ecological restoration: for 

example, to reduce the effects of 

uncharacteristic wildfire, drought, 

invasive species and insect attack while 

providing habitat for wildlife species 

including sensitive species such as 

California spotted owl, Pacific fisher, 

and Yosemite toad. 

The proposed KREW Project 

activities, implemented under the SNF 

Land and Resources Management Plan 

(LRMP) as amended by the 2004 SNF 

LRMP Amendment, have two coupled 

components: Component 1, 

management treatments and Component 

2, research to examine ecosystem 

response to those treatments. The 

research has been underway since 2000 

to instrument the subject watersheds 

and measure baseline (pre-treatment) 

ecological response. Upon completion 

of the forest restoration treatments 

planned post-treatment data collection 

will be completed. 

The project area encompasses 3,051 

acres and has two separate parts: the 

KREW Providence Unit (1,899 acres) 

and the KREW Bull Unit (1,152 acres). 

The KREW Providence Unit is off of the 

Dinkey Creek Road, adjacent to the 

Providence Creek Road. The KREW Bull 

Unit is on Patterson Mountain adjacent 

to the Ross Crossing Road and includes 

part of the Teakettle Experimental 

Forest. 

Much is known about vegetative 

responses to thinning in terms of growth 

rates, resistance to insect attack, and 

resulting fire behavior in treated stands. 

Less is known about physical, 

biological, and chemical responses to 

moderate thinning of trees and 

application of prescribed fire at a 

watershed scale. The KREW Project 

research component is a replicated, 

paired-watershed research area for 

headwater streams in the southern 

Sierra Nevada. The KREW Project 

research addresses both basic and 

applied science questions regarding 

sustainable forests for current and future 

conditions. The KREW Project research 

component is a formal research project 

and has a scientist reviewed study plan 

that is periodically updated (http:// 

www.psw.fs.fed.us/snrc/water/ 

kingsriver). The Forest Service already 

collects data at eight instrumented 

watersheds on the following topics to 

meet KREW Project research goals: 

• Hydrology. 

• Meteorology. 

• Air quality. 

• Sediment & turbidity. 

• Soils & geomorphology. 

• Water chemistry. 

• Biology. 

—Stream macroinvertebrates. 

—Algae. 

—Riparian & upland vegetation & fuels. 

—Yosemite toad. 

In June of 2009, the Sierra Nevada 

Alliance highlighted the need to 

monitor, protect and restore Sierra 

Nevada headwater resources. The 

KREW Project is uniquely positioned to 

allow researchers to collect data from an 

area where a particular management 

practice is applied along with 

corresponding data from a similar, but 

untreated area. By conducting various 

types of thinning and prescribed fire 

treatments and comparing data from 

paired areas, the proposed research 

project is intended to evaluate the 

watershed-scale effects of management 

activities designed to create a more 

sustainable forest in a financially viable 

way. 

Purpose and Need for Action 

The KREW Project has two goals: the 

SNF’s goal of forest health treatment for 

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Federal Register / Vol. 74, No. 197 / Wednesday, October 14, 2009 / Notices 52741 

the Providence and Bull Units of the 

Kings River watershed and PSW’s goal 

of information development on 

treatment methods. There is an urgent 

need to treat headwaters in the Kings 

River watershed to improve forest 

health and reduce the risk of 

catastrophic fire, and while doing so, to 

further our understanding of ecological 

responses to forest management 

activities. 

Sierra waters are critical for the health 

and welfare of California and yet there 

has been minimal attention and 

resources dedicated to the protection 

and restoration of this headwater 

resource. The Sierra Nevada Alliance 

reports that 75% of California’s rain and 

snow falls in the Sierra which provides 

55 to 65% of California’s developed 

water. The need for the proposed 

research in the Sierra Nevada is 

emphasized by financial support to the 

KREW Project from the State of 

California, CalFed Watershed Program 

administered by the California Regional 

Water Quality Control Board, and by a 

recent report from the Sierra Nevada 

Alliance, ‘‘Investing in California’s 

Headwaters: The Sierra Nevada.’’ In 

addition, the National Science 

Foundation is funding university 

scientists to perform research to 

cooperate with the KREW Project. The 

research component of the KREW 

Project influenced the siting selection of 

the California portions of the National 

Ecological Observatory Network. The 

KREW Project research component is 

designed to be relevant to Federal, State 

and private forest land. The KREW 

Project will also provide much needed 

data for the Southern Sierra Integrated 

Regional Water Management Plan. 

North and others in 2009 recognized 

that ‘‘management practices that help 

restore the forest headwaters of Sierran 

watersheds will benefit water 

production and quality for downstream 

users.’’ The SNF and PSW have been 

working toward the goal of forest health 

treatment in the Kings River watershed 

for more than a decade. As each year 

goes by, the health of the forest in these 

areas has a greater potential to be 

impacted by various factors including 

drought, uncharacteristic wildfire and 

insect infestation. Treatment to enhance 

ecological health in the Kings River 

watershed has been delayed due to 

setbacks in the completion of key 

environmental documentation. It is 

important that treatments be 

accomplished and research information 

be available to provide factual 

information for the design of future 

forest management activities. 

The KREW Project objectives include: 

• Treat the Providence and the Bull Units 

to improve forest ecological health in a 

financially viable way. 

• Define the variability in and understand 

the processes of headwater streams, their 

riparian areas, and associated watersheds. 

• Evaluate the effects of management 

activities (prescribed fire, mechanical 

thinning, and commercial tree harvesting) 

designed to create a more sustainable forest. 

• Provide an instrumented research site to 

evaluate regional stresses such as air 

pollution and climate change. 

• Develop a multidisciplinary database 

that is dense enough in time and space for 

computer modeling applications. 

Proposed Action 

The proposed action would apply 

treatments on the majority of the acres 

in Providence and Bull Units for 

ecological restoration and study their 

short- and long-term effects at the 

watershed scale. The proposed action 

includes tree thinning with commercial 

tree harvest, underburning, 

reforestation, plantation maintenance, 

fuels treatments, and herbicide 

treatments to plantations and noxious 

weeds. Tree removal and retention 

emphasizes heterogeneity through a 

variable growing space retention based 

on aspect, slope position, site 

productivity, tree species and 

recognition of micro-site conditions. 

Restoration of native species 

composition is proposed through the 

regeneration of pine species; the 

retention of existing brush, pine and 

oaks consistent with the desired 

conditions; enhancement of growing 

conditions of existing young pine; and 

the eradication of noxious weed species. 

The integrated condition of the 

streams and their associated watersheds 

and riparian areas will be evaluated 

with physical, chemical and biological 

measurements taken under a formal 

research study. The research areas 

within the Units, a subset of the entire 

proposed treatment area, have been 

assigned a treatment type for the 

purpose of the experimental design. The 

1,899-acre Providence Unit includes 

research watersheds of 298 acres of 

potential thinning, 327 acres of 

underburn, 245 acres of combined 

underburning and potential thinning, 

and 120 acres of control (untreated). The 

1,152-acre Bull Unit includes research 

areas of 131 acres of thinning, 342 acres 

of underburn, and 412 acres of 

combined thinning and underburning. 

The 562-acre control area for the Bull 

Unit is outside the KREW Project. Only 

a portion of the research areas 

designated for mechanical thinning will 

be thinned. Forest management 

treatments also occur outside the 

research areas and are not constrained 

by the research design. 

Lead and Cooperating Agencies 

The KREW Project is a collaborative 

effort between the SNF and the PSW. 

The PSW and the SNF share 

responsibility as the lead agency. 

Responsible Officials 

Ed Cole, SNF Forest Supervisor, 

Supervisor’s Office, 1600 Tollhouse 

Road, Clovis, CA 93611 

Peter Stine, Program Manager, PSW, 

1731 Research Park Drive, Davis, CA 

95618. 

Nature of Decision To Be Made 

The decision to be made is whether to 

implement the planned forest health 

treatments and proceed with research 

on the effects of those treatments, 

alternative forest health treatments, or 

select no action. 

Scoping Process 

This notice of intent initiates the 

scoping process, which guides the 

development of the environmental 

impact statement. Public scoping 

meetings will be held at the SNF, 

Supervisor’s Office, 1600 Tollhouse 

Road, Clovis on Wednesday October 

14th at 3 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. and from 

6:30 to 8 p.m. on the same date at the 

SNF High Sierra Ranger District, 29688 

Auberry Road, Prather, CA. 

It is important that reviewers provide 

their comments at such times and in 

such manner that they are useful to the 

agency’s preparation of the 

environmental impact statement. 

Therefore, comments should be 

provided prior to the close of the 

comment period and should clearly 

articulate the reviewer’s concerns and 

contentions. 

Dated: October 1, 2009. 

Edward C. Cole, 

Forest Supervisor. 

[FR Doc. E9–24373 Filed 10–13–09; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 3410–11–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 SelfDetermination Act of 2000 (Pub. L. 106– 

mstockstill on DSKH9S0YB1PROD with NOTICES