[Federal Register Volume 63, Number 98 (Thursday, May 21, 1998)]
[Notices]
[Pages 27917-27919]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 98-13544]



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DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE

Forest Service


Longleaf Ecosystem Restoration Project, National Forests in 
Alabama, Conecuh National Forest, Covington and Escambia Counties, AL

AGENCY: Forest Service, USDA.

ACTION: Notice of intent to prepare an Environmental Impact Statement.

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SUMMARY: Forest Service will prepare an Environmental Impact Statement 
on a proposal to emphasize expansion of the longleaf ecosystem across 
the Conecuh National Forest in a systematic five-year program 
involving:
    1. Restoration cuts (regeneration) of 2,334 acres of off-site trees 
to restore 64 sites to the native longleaf pine/wiregrass ecosystem.
    2. Thinning (intermediate cuts) of 1,939 acres of off-site trees 
(mostly slash pine) on about 56 sites to promote future conversion to 
the longleaf pine/wiregrass ecosystem.

DATES: Comments concerning this analysis should be received in writing 
by June 22, 1998.

ADDRESSES: Send written comments to: District Ranger, Conecuh NF, Route 
5, Box 157, Andalusia, Alabama 36420.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:
Gary Taylor, District Ranger, Robert Taylor, Silviculturist, Debbie 
Foley, NEPA Coordinator, Rick Lint, Wildlife Biologist, Telephone 
number: 334-222-2555, FAX Number: 334-222-6485.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

A. The Proposal

    1. Restoration cut (regenerate) 2,334 acres to restore 64 sites 
from off-site trees (mostly slash pine) to the native longleaf pine/
wiregrass ecosystem. Priority will be given to retaining existing 
longleaf pines on these sites.
    2. Thin (intermediate cut) 1,939 acres of off-site trees (mostly 
slash pine) of 56 sites to favor and promote future conversion to the 
native longleaf pine/wiregrass ecosystem.
    3. Re-establish restoration cut areas with longleaf pine seedlings 
within five years of cutting. Site preparation would include drum 
chopping and burning and/or chemical site prep and burning and/or 
shearing and windrowing of residual brush and logging slash. The type 
of site preparation prescribed for each site will be the least 
intensive treatment needed to insure survival of the planted longleaf 
seedlings.

B. Needs for the Proposal

    1. Restore the longleaf pine/sandhills ecosystem to provide more 
suitable (preferred) habitat for the red-cockaded woodpecker (RCW) to 
aid in recovery. RCW is an endangered species.
    2. Return acreage occupied by other tree species to native longleaf 
pine and promote recovery of the longleaf ecosystem.
    3. Establish a systematic program to aid in longleaf ecosystem 
restoration.
    4. Implement the goals and objectives of the Forest Plan. 
Specifically, to protect habitat and improve conditions for threatened, 
endangered and sensitive species occurring on National Forest lands

C. Nature and Scope of the Decision To Be Made

    Whether, and to what extent to, implement an accelerated program of 
restoring sites to longleaf pine and associated understory species. 
Historically, these sites were part of the longleaf pine/sandhills 
ecosystem but now contain off-site species that were artificially 
introduced.
    In the late 1960's and early 1970's regeneration of longleaf pine 
was difficult and often unsuccessful. Longleaf is more difficult to 
plant than other southern pines and most research on growing longleaf 
has only been done in recent years. Currently, about 13,000 acres 
(about 23%) of native longleaf pine sites on the Conecuh National 
Forest are forested in slash, loblolly, and in some cases sand pine. Of 
this, about 10,000 acres were planted to other species (now considered 
off-site) and about 3,000 acres reverted due to exclusion of fire from 
an ecosystem that evolved with and, is dependent on, fire. With the 
exclusion of fire, less tolerant species flourished in the Conecuh 
National Forest. The longleaf pine/sandhills ecosystem once encompassed 
some 90+ million acres ranging from Southern Virginia to East Texas. 
This acreage has been reduced to less than 3 million acres today due to 
conversion of forests to agriculture and urban areas, as well as 
conversion to other species.
    Beginning in 1987, through applied research, the availability of 
containerized seedlings, and experience, managers became very 
successful at planting longleaf pine with the expectation of adequate 
survival. Seedling survival on the Conecuh National Forest now averages 
about 90%.
    Many sensitive, threatened, and endangered plants and animals 
depend on this ecosystem for survival of their species. The staff of 
the Conecuh National Forest is committed to restoring this ecosystem on 
the native sites best suited to this important forest ecosystem.

D. Proposed Scoping Process

    The scoping period associated with this NOI will be thirty (30) 
days in length, beginning the day after publication of this notice. A 
public tour will be held on June 5 and 6 from 9 am until 1 pm. These 
tours are intended to show interested individuals a few of the sites 
proposed for treatment, as well as similar sites that have been treated 
in the past few years. These tours will serve as the public scoping 
meeting.
    Scoping for this proposal began in February 1997 when initial 
information was shared with the public and plans were to document the 
analysis in an Environmental Analysis. The proposal has been refined 
since that time and some preliminary issues and alternatives have been 
developed (and are included in this notice). A decision to proceed with 
an Environmental Impact Statement has been made due to potential 
effects for the RCW and the possible need for Formal Consultation with 
the Fish and Wildlife Service (USDI). Thus, an additional scoping 
period is being conducted at this time.
    The Conecuh National Forest is seeking additional information, 
comments, and assistance from Federal, State, and local agencies and 
other individuals or organizations who may be interested in or affected 
by the proposed action. This input will be used in preparation of the 
Draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS). The scoping process 
includes:
    1. Identifying potential issues.
    2. Identifying issues to be analyzed in depth.
    3. Eliminating insignificant issues or those which have been 
covered by a relevant previous environmental analysis.
    4. Exploring additional alternatives.
    5. Identifying potential environmental effects of the proposed 
action and alternatives.

A. Preliminary Issues Identified to Date Include

    1. What impacts will the release of woody/brushy understory 
vegetation resulting from thinning treatments have on the efforts to 
restore historic longleaf ecosystem understory?
    2. Can the existing longleaf ecosystem understory species be 
protected and maintained during implementation of the silviculture 
treatments (cutting and site preparation)? Currently, many of these 
stands have a desirable understory and care should be taken to tailor 
site preparation methods so as to preserve this understory.
    3. What short and long-term impacts will there be on the 
recreational

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experience along the Conecuh Trail? Five stands proposed for cutting 
are visible from the trail and concern exists to protect the scenic 
value along the trail.
    4. Do the long-term benefits of this project to Conecuh National 
Forest ecosystem restoration efforts justify the costs of reforestation 
at this time? Short-term economic impacts of the proposed action verses 
the ecological benefits of the restoration was questioned.
    5. Can off-site treatments to restore the longleaf ecosystem be 
implemented in order to have long-term (and possible short-term) 
benefits to the red-cocked woodpecker (RCW) while having no negative 
impacts to the existing RCW population?
    6. Long-term ecological concerns/benefits need to take priority 
over economic incentives. A concern was raised that economic benefits 
and support of the timber industry should be secondary to long-term 
ecological needs.
    7. Impacts of timber harvest to recreational uses (other than the 
Conecuh Trail).
    8. Importance of downed logs for rare amphibians, especially near 
known dusky gopher frog breeding ponds.
    9. Protection of soil and water resources.
    10. Scope/size of the project (whether an EIS might be needed 
instead of an EA).
    11. Fragmentation (concern not to increase).
    12. Early successional age class direction in the Land Management 
Plan (LMP). According to the LMP, early successional habitat should 
range from a minimum of 6% to a maximum of 17% per habitat unit.
    13. Big Bay (Bear Bay) roadless criteria.
    14. Cumulative effects. Whether cumulative effects could be 
adequately evaluated with a project of this magnitude.

B. Possible Alternatives Identified to Date Include

    1. No Action: This alternative will serve as a baseline for 
comparison of alternatives. This alternative will be fully developed 
and analyzed.
    2. Proposed Action: As listed above, this alternative would include 
a five-year systematic program of thinning and restoration cuts, 
including site preparation methods proven to result in fully stocked 
stands of free to grow seedlings in three to five years after cutting 
is complete.
    3. Modified Proposed Action that takes a more conservative approach 
to longleaf ecosystem restoration with fewer restoration cuts and more 
thinning. Age class distributions relevant to existing RCW guidance 
would be given more consideration than long-term ecosystem needs.
    4. Follow our normal order of entry into compartments as 
recommended in the Forest Land Management Plan. This would result in 
treatment of approximately 78% of the original proposal and reduce the 
scope of the project.
    5. Modified proposed action that is more sensitive to the economic 
impacts of establishing the new longleaf stands. The majority of the 
timber to be sold from the regeneration and thinning is pulpwood, thus 
expected revenues will not cover the cost of site preparation and 
planting of longleaf in the areas. This alternative will assess ways to 
reduce the cost of reforestation. This would be accomplished by: (a) 
Reducing the minimum acceptable stocking per acre; (b) reducing the 
number of trees planted per acre; (c) reducing acceptable survival 
rates; and (d) doing the minimum site preparation to accomplish (a). 
This alternative will also look at other possible funding sources for 
planting. For example, the National Forest Foundation and American 
Forests Global Re-Leaf program are two possible non-governmental 
funding sources that have provided funding in the past. Also, a 
national initiative for ecosystem restoration funding would fit this 
project nicely and help in the funding to establish the new stands of 
longleaf.
    6. Treat every known off-site stand (approximately 13,000 acres) by 
either thinning or restoring to longleaf at this time.
    7. Modified Proposed Action that places more emphasis on RCW areas 
in the Boggy Hollow area and on the western side of the CNF.
    8. Modified Proposed Action that would drop all proposed treatments 
for compartments 34 and 48. This was previously identified on the RARE 
II inventory (Big Bay).
    9. Uneven-age Management. Consider whether the purpose and need 
could be accomplished with this management regime.

C. Special Permit Needs

    There are no special permits required from any State or Federal 
agencies in order to implement this project.

D. Lead Agency

    The USDA Forest Service is the lead agency for this project. The 
Fish and Wildlife Service (USDI) has been involved with this proposal 
since inception and will continue to be throughout this analysis. 
Formal consultation may be required in order to implement one or more 
of the alternatives.
    The Conecuh Ranger District requests that comments be as specific 
as possible for this proposal and be sent to: District Ranger Gary L. 
Taylor, USDA, Forest Service, Route 5 Box 157, Andalusia, Alabama 
36420.
    It is estimated that the draft EIS will be available for public 
comment by August 15, 1998. It is very important that those interested 
in this proposed action participate at this time. To be helpful, 
comments on the DEIS should be as specific as possible and may address 
the adequacy of the statement or the merits of the alternatives 
discussed (see the Council on Environmental Quality Regulations for 
implementing the procedural provisions of the National Environmental 
Policy Act at 40 CFR 1503.3).
    In addition, Federal court decisions have established that 
reviewers of DEIS's must structure their participation in the 
environmental review of the proposal so that it is meaningful and 
alerts the agency to the reviewers' position and contentions: Vermon 
Yankee Nuclear Power Corp. v. NRDC, 435 U.S. 519, 553 (1978). 
Environmental objections that could have been raised at the draft stage 
may be waived if not raised until after completion of the final 
environmental impact statement (FEIS). City of Angoon v. Hodel, 803 
F.2d 1016, 1022 (9th Cir. 1986) and Wisconsin Heritages, Inc. v. 
Harris, 490 F. Supp. 1334, 1338 (E.D. Wis. 1980). The reason for this 
is to ensure that substantive comments and objections are made 
available to the Forest Service at a time when it can meaningfully 
consider them and respond to them in the FEIS.

Estimated Date for FEIS

    After the comment period ends on the DEIS, the comments will be 
analyzed, considered, and responded to by the Forest Service in 
preparing the FEIS. The final is scheduled to be completed by November 
1998. The responsible official will consider the comments, responses, 
environmental consequences discussed in the final supplement, 
applicable laws, regulations, and policies in making a decision 
regarding this proposal. The responsible official will document the 
decision and reasons for the decision in the Record of Decision. That 
decision will be subject to appeal under 36 CFR 215. The responsible 
official for this project will be Gary L. Taylor, District Ranger for 
the Conecuh Ranger District, National Forests in Alabama at: Route 5 
Box 157, Andalusia, Alabama 36420.


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    Dated: May 15, 1998.
Gary L. Taylor,
District Ranger.
[FR Doc. 98-13544 Filed 5-20-98; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 3410-52-M