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Notices Federal Register

46312 

Vol. 78, No. 147 

Wednesday, July 31, 2013 

AFRICAN DEVELOPMENT 

FOUNDATION 

Board of Directors Executive Session 

Meeting 

Meeting: African Development 

Foundation, Board of Directors 

Executive Session Meeting 

Time: Tuesday, August 6, 2013 8:30 

a.m. to 1:00 p.m. 

Place: 1400 Eye Street, NW., Suite 

1000, Washington, DC 20005 

Date: Tuesday, August 6, 2013 

Status 

1. Open session, Tuesday, August 6, 

2013, 8:30 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. 

2. Closed session, Tuesday, August 6, 

2013, 12:00 p.m. to 1:00 p.m. 

Doris Mason Martin, 

General Counsel, acting on behalf of the 

President/CEO, USADF. 

[FR Doc. 2013–18428 Filed 7–30–13; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE P 

DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 

Forest Service 

Spruce Beetle Epidemic and Aspen 

Decline Management Response; Grand 

Mesa, Uncompahgre and Gunnison 

National Forests (GMUG), Colorado 

AGENCY: Forest Service, USDA. 

ACTION: Notice of intent to prepare an 

environmental impact statement. 

SUMMARY: A large portion of the Grand 

Mesa, Uncompahgre and Gunnison 

National Forests (GMUG) has 

experienced mortality from insects and 

diseases over the past decade. The 

purpose of the project is to proactively 

and adaptively respond to declining 

forest vegetation conditions. The 

approach is to actively manage 

vegetation consistent with the goals 

outlined in the Western Bark Beetle 

Strategy (July 2011) including: 

Promoting recovery from the insect 

outbreak, improving the resiliency of 

green stands to future disturbances and 

providing for human safety. Treatments 

would be carried out on National Forest 

System (NFS) Lands within the scope of 

direction provided in the GMUG 

Revised Land and Resource 

Management Plan. 

DATES: To be most helpful, comments 

concerning the scope of the analysis 

should be received by August 30, 2013. 

The draft environmental impact 

statement is expected to be released in 

during the summer of 2014. Following 

publication of the availability of the 

draft environmental impact statement, 

there will be a 45-day comment period. 

Only individuals and entities making 

specific written comments (defined in 

36 CFR 218.2) within either official 

comment period may file objections 

under 36 CFR 218 Subparts A and B. 

The final environmental impact 

statement and draft record of decision is 

expected to be released in winter 2015. 

ADDRESSES: Send written comments to 

Scott Armentrout, Forest Supervisor, 

2250 Highway 50, Delta, CO 81416. 

Comments may be sent via facsimile to 

970–874–6698. Comments may also be 

sent via email to 

scottwilliams@fs.fed.us, with 

‘‘SBEADMR Project’’ in the subject line. 

Electronic comments must be submitted 

in Word (.doc or docx.), Rich Text (.rtf), 

or Adobe Acrobat (.pdf) format. 

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: 

Scott Williams, Project Team Leader, 

USDA Forest Service, P.O. Box 6, 

Kernville, CA 93238, phone (760) 383– 

7371, or email at 

scottwilliams@fs.fed.us. 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: 

Purpose and Need for Action 

Across the GMUG, approximately 

140,000 acres of spruce-fir and 145,000 

acres of aspen forests have experienced 

substantial mortality from insects and 

diseases over the past decade. Impacts 

have rapidly increased in recent years. 

Based upon patterns of bark beetle kill 

that have occurred on adjacent Forests, 

the GMUG expects rapidly increasing 

mortality. Once attacked by beetles, 

most trees typically die and eventually 

fall to the ground, adding dead and dry 

fuels that increases wildfire hazard. 

The purpose of the project is to treat 

affected stands, improve the resiliency 

of stands at risk of these large-scale 

epidemics and reduce the safety threats 

of falling, dead trees and large-scale 

wildfires. 

The GMUG is located in Colorado on 

the western slope of the Rockies and 

into the Colorado Plateau. It covers 

3,161,900 acres across diverse 

vegetation ranging from sagebrush, 

pin ̃ on, juniper and ponderosa pine to 

Engelmann spruce, subalpine fir, and 

quaking aspen. Tree ring records and 

recent weather data indicate that the 

past decade has been the hottest and 

driest in centuries. This climate pattern, 

together with disturbance such as 

windthrow and vast landscapes of 

susceptible forest, are supporting huge 

outbreaks (Dendroctonus rufipennis) 

across the landscape. 

Spruce beetles prefer large diameter 

trees, but will attack smaller trees once 

most of the larger trees are exhausted 

within a stand. Beetle outbreaks 

commonly occur following windthrow 

events. The ongoing massive spruce 

beetle outbreak on the San Juan and Rio 

Grande National Forests for over a 

decade is now spilling over the 

Continental Divide and is impacting 

large portions of the GMUG. Based on 

aerial survey data from 2012, 

approximately 311,000 acres of spruce 

beetle activity were identified in 

Colorado. Approximately 85,000 of that 

occurred on the GMUG. Current spruce 

beetle activity on the GMUG was 

initiated by windthrow events on the 

Grand Mesa National Forest, as well as 

other centers initiated by smaller, 

localized windthrow events on the 

Uncompahgre and Gunnison National 

Forests. 

During roughly the same time frame 

as the growth in the spruce beetle 

epidemic, aspen dieback and mortality 

has occurred on a larger scale than 

previously experienced. Although 

stand-level episodes of aspen mortality 

have always occurred, occasionally 

clustered in time, the speed, pattern, 

severity, landscape scale, and causes of 

the mortality in the middle of the last 

decade were so novel that it was 

described as a new disease, Sudden 

Aspen Decline (SAD). Aspen in drier 

locations are more at risk. The recent 

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