Federal Register / Vol. 71, No. 209 / Monday, October 30, 2006 / Notices 63351 

If you wish to comment, you may 

submit your comments by any one of 

several methods. You may mail 

comments to Superintendent, Kings 

Mountain National Military Park, 2625 

Park Road, Blacksburg, South Carolina 

20702, telephone: 864–936–7921. You 

may also comment via the Internet to 

http://parkplanning.nps.gov/ 

parkHome.cfm?parkId=390. Please 

submit internet comments as a plain 

text file, avoiding the use of special 

characters and any form of encryption. 

If you do not receive a confirmation 

from the system that we have received 

your internet message, contact us 

directly at 404–562–3124, extension 

685. Finally, you may hand-deliver 

comments to Kings Mountain National 

Military Park, 2625 Park Road, 

Blacksburg, South Carolina 20702. 

Our practice is to make comments, 

including names, home addresses, home 

phone numbers, and e-mail addresses of 

respondents, available for public 

review. Individual respondents may 

request that we withhold their names 

and/or home addresses, etc., but if you 

wish us to consider withholding this 

information you must state this 

prominently at the beginning of your 

comments. In addition, you must 

present a rationale for withholding this 

information. This rationale must 

demonstrate that disclosure would 

constitute a clearly unwarranted 

invasion of privacy. Unsupported 

assertions will not meet this burden. In 

the absence of exceptional, 

documentable circumstances, this 

information will be released. We will 

always make submissions from 

organizations or businesses, and from 

individuals identifying themselves as 

representatives of or officials of 

organizations or businesses, available 

for public inspection in their entirety. 

DATES: Locations, dates, and times of 

public meetings will be published in 

local newspapers and may also be 

obtained by contacting the NPS 

Southeast Regional Office, Division of 

Planning and Compliance. This 

information will also be published on 

the GMP Web site for KIMO. 

ADDRESSES: Scoping suggestions should 

be submitted to the following addresses 

to ensure adequate consideration by the 

NPS: Superintendent, Kings Mountain 

National Military Park, 2625 Park Road, 

Blacksburg, South Carolina, Telephone: 

864–936–7921. 

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: 

Superintendent, Kings Mountain 

National Military Park, 2625 Park Road, 

Blacksburg, South Carolina, telephone: 

864–936–7921. 

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The Draft 

and Final GMP/EIS will be made 

available to all known interested parties 

and appropriate agencies. Full public 

participation by Federal, State, and local 

agencies as well as other concerned 

organizations and private citizens is 

invited throughout the preparation 

process of this document. 

The responsible official for this 

Environmental Impact Statement is the 

Regional Director for the Southeast 

Region, Patricia A. Hooks. 

Dated: September 11, 2006. 

Patricia A. Hooks, 

Regional Director, Southeast Region. 

[FR Doc. 06–8951 Filed 10–27–06; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 4310–A3–M 

DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR 

National Park Service 

Environmental Impact Statement/ 

General Management Plan; Ross Lake 

National Recreation Area, North 

Cascades National Park Complex, 

Skagit and Whatcom Counties, WA; 

Notice of Intent To Prepare an 

Environmental Impact Statement 

Summary: In accord with § 102(2)(c) 

of the National Environmental Policy 

Act of 1969 (42 U.S.C. 4321, et seq.), the 

National Park Service is undertaking a 

conservation planning and 

environmental impact analysis process 

for updating the General Management 

Plan (General Management Plan) for the 

Ross Lake National Recreation Area, in 

northwestern Washington. Ross Lake 

National Recreation Area is 

administratively managed as part of the 

North Cascades National Park Service 

Complex; however, this GMP will 

specifically address the Ross Lake unit 

of the part complex. An Environmental 

Impact Statement (EIS) will be prepared 

concurrently with the GMP. The GMP is 

intended to set forth the basic 

management philosophy for this unit of 

the National Park System and provide 

the strategies for addressing issues and 

achieving identified management 

objectives for that unit. Thus, the GMP 

will serve as a blueprint to guide 

management of natural and cultural 

resources and visitor use during the 

next 15–20 years. One or more 

Development Concept Plans, which 

guide more detailed, site-specific 

preservation and development actions, 

may be included with the GMP. 

Consistent with NPS Planning 

Program Standards, the update GMP 

will: (1) Describe the Ross Lake National 

Recreation Area’s (Ross Lake NRA) 

purpose, significance, and primary 

interpretive themes; (2) identify the 

fundamental resources and values of 

Ross Lake NRA, its other important 

resources and values, and describe the 

condition of these resources; (3) 

describe desired conditions for cultural 

and natural resources and visitor 

experiences throughout the Ross Lake 

NRA; (4) develop management zoning to 

support these desired conditions; (5) 

develop alternative applications of these 

management zones to the Ross Lake 

NRA’s landscape (i.e., zoning 

alternatives); (6) address user capacity; 

(7) analyze potential boundary 

modifications; (8) ensure that 

management recommendations are 

developed in conclusion with interested 

stakeholders and the public and 

adopted by NPS after a thorough 

analysis of the benefits, potential 

environmental consequences, and 

economic costs of alternative courses of 

action; (9) develop cost estimates 

implementing each of the alternatives; 

and (10) identify and prioritize 

subsequent detailed studies, plans and 

actions that may be needed to 

implement the updated GMP. 

Scoping Process: A comprehensive 

scoping outreach effort is planned so as 

to elicit early public comment regarding 

issues and concerns, the nature and 

extent of potential environmental 

impacts (and as appropriate, mitigation 

measures), and possible alternatives that 

should be addressed in the preparing of 

the Draft EIS and proposed update to 

the GMP. Through the various scoping 

outreach activities planned, the NPS 

welcomes information and suggestions 

from the public regarding resource 

protection, visitor use, and land 

management. This notice formally 

initiates the public scoping comment 

phase for the EIS process. All written 

scoping comments must be postmarked 

not later than December 30, 2006. All 

comments should be addressed to: 

General Management Plan, Ross Lake 

National Recreation Area, Attn: Bill 

Paleck, Superintendent, North Cascades 

National Park Service Complex, 810 

State Route 20, Sedro-Woolley, WA 

92884–1289. At this time, it is expected 

that public workshops will be hosted in 

towns near Ross Lake NRA, and the 

metropolitan area of Seattle, 

Washington the week of October 16, 

2006, and the week of October 23, 2006. 

Detailed information regarding these 

meetings will be posted on the GMP 

Web site (http://parkplanning.nps.gov/ 

rola). All participants will be given the 

opportunity to ask questions and 

provide comments to the planning team. 

The GMP Web site will provide the 

most up-to-date information regarding 


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63352 Federal Register / Vol. 71, No. 209 / Monday, October 30, 2006 / Notices 

the project, including project 

description, planning process updates, 

meeting notices, reports and documents, 

and useful links associated with the 

project; direct mailings will also be 

made periodically. 

Please note that our practice is to 

make comments, including names, 

home addresses, home phone numbers, 

and e-mail addresses of respondents, 

available for public review. Individual 

respondents may request that we 

withhold their names and/or home 

addresses, etc., but if you wish us to 

consider withholding this information 

you must state this prominently at the 

beginning of your comments. In 

addition, you must present a rationale 

for withholding this information. This 

rationale must demonstrate that 

disclosure would constitute a clearly 

unwarranted invasion of privacy. 

Unsupported assertions will not meet 

this burden. In the absence of 

exceptional, documentable 

circumstances, this information will be 

released. We will always make 

submissions from organizations or 

businesses, and from individuals 

identifying themselves as 

representatives of or officials of 

organizations or businesses, available 

for public inspection in their entirety. 

Supplementary Information: As noted 

above, Ross Lake NRA is managed as 

one unit of the North Cascades National 

Park Complex (North Cascades), which 

also includes North Cascades National 

Park (north and south units), and Lake 

Chelan National Recreation Area (which 

adjoins the park on the south). North 

Cascades is located deep in the 

northernmost reaches of the Cascades 

Range in Washington State and borders 

British Columbia, Canada. 

Management guidance for Ross Lake 

NRA was included in the North 

Cascades GMP (now 18 years old) and 

has become inadequate to address the 

policy and operational issues now 

facing park management for Ross Lake 

NRA. Since the completion of the North 

Cascades GMP, many changes have 

occurred that affect NRA management. 

Seattle City Light’s three dam facilities 

have been re-licensed by the Federal 

Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC). 

The mitigation package approved as part 

of the relicensing agreement included 

several large-scale changes and 

improvements for Ross Lake NRA that 

were not included or fully envisioned in 

the 1988 North Cascades GMP. It is 

timely to update the GMP to address 

these large scale changes that are 

occurring in Ross Lake NRA and to 

address resource protection, visitor use, 

and management issues surrounding 

these enhancements. 

Additionally, Ross Lake NRA also 

faces other broad natural and cultural 

resource protection issues—these 

include bioregional management 

strategies for grizzly bear recovery, 

control of invasive species, local climate 

change effects, changing lake levels, air 

quality, archeology, and American 

Indian traditional uses. Complementary 

management strategies will be pursued 

for these resource challenges. 

Visitor use within Ross Lake NRA has 

diversified and significantly increased 

since the 1988 North Cascades GMP, 

due in part to the enhanced recreational 

facilities. Boating on Diablo and Ross 

Lakes has intensified. Use of 

Washington State’s North Cascades 

Highway 20 (which bisects 

approximately 25 miles of Ross Lake 

NRA) has increased dramatically and is 

the most popular motorcycle touring 

route in the region. The GMP update is 

needed to adequately provide 

management guidance for visitor use, 

boats, and motor vehicles within the 

Ross Lake NRA and address carrying 

capacity for visitor experience and 

resource protection. 

Following the completion of the 1988 

North Cascades GMP, the Stephen 

Mather Wilderness within the North 

Cascades National Park Complex was 

designated by Congress in November 

1988. This act brought 93% of the park 

complex under the provisions of the 

1964 Wilderness Act, and 69% of Ross 

Lake NRA is designated wilderness (4% 

is designated potential wilderness). The 

new GMP is needed to adequately 

update zoning for the management of 

wilderness lands within Ross Lake 

NRA, and will ratify the current 

management contained in the 

Wilderness Management Plan. 

Trans-boundary ecosystem and 

recreation management is also a 

significant issue for Ross Lake NRA, 

which borders British Columbia 

provincial parks for five miles along its 

northern border. Hozomeen, at the USCanada border, is the most developed 

access point onto Ross Lake. Ross Lake 

NRA is within a large extended 

watershed that begins in Canada, 

continues through the North Cascades 

and lower river valley, and then drains 

into the Pacific Ocean. An effort by 

Skagit Environmental Endowment 

Commission (SEE), an endowed 

organization established by 

international treaty, is underway to 

manage the upper Skagit watershed 

more holistically between Canada and 

the United States. The new GMP will 

address trans-boundary resource 

management issues as well as 

partnership opportunities with U.S. and 

Canadian entities. In addition, SEE has 

provided funding to the province of 

British Columbia to complete a 

managment plan for its provincial park 

units adjacent to Ross Lake NRA and 

within the upper Skagit watershed. 

Decision Process: Following the 

scoping phase and consideration of 

public concerns and other agency 

comments, a Draft EIS and proposed 

GMP will be prepared and released for 

public review. Availability of the 

forthcoming Draft EIS for public review 

and written comment will be formally 

announced with publication of a Notice 

of Availability in the Federal Register, 

as well as through local and regional 

news media, direct mailings, and via 

Web site postings. Following due 

consideration of all agency and public 

comment, a Final EIS will be prepared; 

it is anticipated that the final GMP 

proposal will be available in September 

2009. As a delegated EIS, the official 

responsible for the decision on the 

proposed GMP is the Regional Director, 

Pacific West Region, National Park 

Service. Subsequently, the official 

responsible for implementation of the 

approved GMP would be the 

Superintendent, North Cascades 

National Park Service Complex. 

Dated: September 14, 2006. 

Patricia L. Neubacher, 

Acting Regional Director, Pacific West Region. 

[FR Doc. 06–8949 Filed 10–27–06; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 4312–GX–M 

DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR 

National Park Service 

Final Environmental Impact Statement/ 

General Management Plan, Minidoka 

Internment National Monument, 

Jerome County, ID; Notice of Approval 

of Record of Decision 

Summary: Pursuant to Section 

102(2)(C) of the National Environmental 

Policy Act of 1969 (Pub. L. 91–190, as 

amended) and the implementing 

regulation promulgated by the Council 

on Environmental Quality (40 CFR 

1505.2), the Department of the Interior, 

National Park Service has prepared, and 

the Regional Director, Pacific West 

Region has approved, the Record of 

Decision for the General Management 

Plan for Minidoka Internment National 

Monument. The formal no-action period 

was officially initiated July 28, 2006, 

with the U.S. Environmental Protection 

Agency’s Federal Register notification 

of the filing of the Final Environmental 

Impact Statement (EIS). 

Decision: As soon as practicable the 

monument will begin to implement as 

its new General Management Plan the 


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