Federal Register / Vol. 65, No. 73 / Friday, April 14, 2000 / Notices 20197

157,573 acres. Allowable animal unit

months (AUMs) would be doubled to

121,800.

Alternative 5, the IRMP with forest

health emphasis, emphasizes

regenerative harvesting to reduce the

existing impacts of insects and disease.

Alternative 6, the IRMP with

additional forest health, watershed

health and wildlife habitat emphasis,

places an additional emphasis on forest

and watershed health along with fish

and wildlife habitat. About 1,105.1

MMBF of timber would be harvested

across 123,556 acres and allowable

AUM’s would be reduced by 50 percent.

This notice is published in

accordance with section 1503.1 of the

Council on Environmental Quality

Regulations (40 CFR Parts 1500 through

1508), implementing the procedural

requirements of the National

Environmental Policy Act of 1969, as

amended (42 U.S.C. 4321 et seq.), and

the Department of the Interior Manual

(516 DM 1–6), and is in the exercise of

authority delegated to the Assistant

Secretary—Indian Affairs by 209 DM 8.

Dated: April 11, 2000.

Kevin Gover,

Assistant Secretary—Indian Affairs.

[FR Doc. 00–9396 Filed 4–13–00; 8:45 am]

BILLING CODE 4310–02–P

DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR

Bureau of Indian Affairs

Final Programmatic Environmental

Impact Statement for the Proposed

Navajo Ten-Year Forest Management

Plan, Navajo Nation, Arizona/New

Mexico

AGENCY: Bureau of Indian Affairs,

Interior.

ACTION: Notice.

SUMMARY: The Bureau of Indian Affairs

(BIA) intends to file a Final

Programmatic Environmental Impact

Statement (FPEIS) for the proposed

Navajo Nation Ten-Year Forest

Management Plan with the U.S.

Environmental Protection Agency, for

public review and comment. The FPEIS,

prepared by the BIA in cooperation with

the Navajo Nation, describes alternate

ways to promote the protection and

sustained use of forest resources and to

guide the development of multi-year

implementation programs for the Navajo

Nation Forestry Department. A

description of the project location and

of the environmental issues addressed

in the FPEIS follow as supplementary

information.

DATES: Comments must arrive by June

12, 2000.

ADDRESSES: If you wish to comment,

you may submit written comments by

any one of several methods. You may

mail or hand carry comments to Harold

D. Russell, Regional Forester, Bureau of

Indian Affairs, Navajo Regional Office,

P.O. Box 1060, Gallup, New Mexico

87305. You may also comment via the

Internet to HaroldRussell@bia.gov.

Please submit Internet comments as an

ASCII file, avoiding the use of special

characters and any form of encryption.

Include your name and return address

in your Internet message. If you do not

receive a confirmation from the system

that we have received your Internet

message, contact us directly at (502)

729–7228.

Comments, including names and

home addresses of respondents, will be

available for public review at the above

during regular business hours, 8:00 a.m.

to 4:30 p.m., Monday through Friday,

except holidays. Individual respondents

may request confidentiality. If you wish

us to withhold your name and/or

address from public review or from

disclosure under the Freedom of

Information Act, you must state this

prominently at the beginning of your

written comment. Such requests will be

honored to the extent allowed by law.

We will not, however, consider

anonymous comments. All submissions

from organizations or businesses, and

from individuals identifying themselves

as representatives or officials of

organizations or businesses, will be

made available for public inspection in

their entirety.

The FPEIS is available for review at

two locations: (1) The Branch of

Environmental Services, Navajo Area

Office, Federal Building, 301 West Hill,

Gallup, New Mexico; and (2) the Branch

of Forestry, Bureau of Indian Affairs, 1

mile north on Route 12, Fort Defiance,

Arizona. To obtain a copy of the FPEIS,

please write to the Navajo Nation

Forestry Department, P.O. Box 230, Fort

Defiance, Arizona 86504, or call (520)

729–4007.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:

Harold D. Russell, (520) 729–7228.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The

proposed action is to adopt a ten-year

management plan for the Navajo Forest.

The Navajo Forest lies in the Chuska

Mountains and Defiance Plateau areas of

the Navajo Nation, along the ArizonaNew Mexico border. The area

encompasses nearly 600,000 acres.

The FPEIS presents a preferred

alternative, the no action alternative and

three other action alternatives. Under

the preferred alternative, approximately

79,500 acres out of 253,754 acres

designated as commercial timberland

would be harvested over the next ten

years. Individual treatment areas would

be limited to 100 acres or less, and

harvesting would incorporate a

combination of even-aged and unevenaged management systems designed to

promote more diversity in the vegetative

structure. This alternative also

designates 74,735 acres as Special

Management Areas (SMAs), which

would be excluded from commercial

timberland in order to protect critical

wildlife habitat and vital watershed

areas, even where these SMAs are

located within the most productive

areas of the forest.

Timber protection activities under

this alternative include fire prevention,

prescribed burns, trespass control and

insect and disease control. Other

activities include monitoring and

mitigation, in accordance with

published plans, guidelines or

handbooks referenced in the FPEIS.

The no action alternative continues

current levels of production—

approximately 88,000 acres over the

next ten years, with even-aged

management and without SMA’s. The

three other action alternatives include:

(1) No timber harvesting and no SMA’s;

(2) even-aged management, with a lower

rate of harvest—approximately 79,000

acres over the next ten years—than the

no action alternative, and with SMA’s;

and (3) uneven-aged management, with

approximately 84,400 acres to be

harvested over the next ten years and

without SMA’s. All of the alternatives

include timber protection plus

monitoring and/or mitigation measures.

The FPEIS addresses the

environmental issues identified during

public scoping. These include timber

resources, other forest resources, water

resources, biological resources, air

quality, cultural resources and socioeconomics.

This notice is published in

accordance with section 1503.1 of the

Council on Environmental Quality

Regulations (40 CFR parts 1500 through

1508), implementing the procedural

requirements of the National

Environmental Policy Act of 1969, as

amended (42 U.S.C. 4321 et seq.), and

the Department of the Interior Manual

(516 DM 1–6), and is in the exercise of

authority delegated to the Assistant

Secretary—Indian Affairs by 209 DM 8.

Dated: April 11, 2000.

Kevin Gover,

Assistant Secretary—Indian Affairs.

[FR Doc. 00–9397 Filed 4–13–00; 8:45 am]

BILLING CODE 4310–02–M