Federal Register / Vol. 79, No. 199 / Wednesday, October 15, 2014 / Notices 61849 

annual burden, is estimated to be 1 hour 

per respondent. 

Estimated Annual Number of 

Respondents: 298,943. 

Estimated Annual Number of 

Reponses Per Respondent: 3. 

Estimated Total Annual Responses: 

1,565,366. 

Estimated Total Annual Burden 

Hours: 2,036,452. 

We are requesting comments on all 

aspects of this information collection to 

help us to: 

(1) Evaluate whether the collection of 

information is necessary for the proper 

performance of the functions of FSA, 

including whether the information will 

have practical utility; 

(2) Evaluate the accuracy of FSA’s 

estimate of burden including the 

validity of the methodology and 

assumptions used; 

(3) Enhance the quality, utility, and 

clarity of the information to be 

collected; 

(4) Minimize the burden of the 

collection of information on those who 

are to respond, including through the 

use of appropriate automated, 

electronic, mechanical, or other 

technological collection techniques or 

other forms of information technology. 

All responses to this notice, including 

name and addresses when provided, 

will be summarized and included in the 

request for OMB approval. All 

comments will also become a matter of 

public record. 

Signed on October 3, 2014. 

Val Dolcini, 

Executive Vice President, Commodity Credit 

Corporation, and Administrator, Farm 

Service Agency. 

[FR Doc. 2014–24535 Filed 10–14–14; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 3410–05–P 

DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 

Forest Service 

Klamath National Forest, California, 

Westside Fire Recovery Project 

AGENCY: Forest Service, USDA. 

ACTION: Notice of intent to prepare an 

environmental impact statement. 

SUMMARY: The Klamath National Forest 

will prepare an environmental impact 

statement (EIS) on a proposal to reduce 

safety hazards to the public and forest 

workers, obtain the maximum economic 

commodity values from burned timber, 

and increase the likelihood and speed 

by which burned forested areas are 

regenerated on about 63,883 acres that 

burned with high severity in the Beaver 

Creek, Whites, and Happy Camp 

Complex fires in 2014. The project area 

includes 162,264 acres of National 

Forest System lands and 20,863 acres of 

private land. Treatments for the project 

will be limited to National Forest 

System lands. It is located on the west 

side of the Forest within the Beaver 

Creek, Horse Creek-Klamath River, 

Humbug Creek-Klamath River, Elk 

Creek, Indian Creek, Lower Scott River, 

Seiad Creek-Klamath River, Thompson 

Creek-Klamath River, Ukonom CreekKlamath River, French Creek-Scott 

River, North Fork Salmon River, and 

South Fork Salmon River 5th field 

watersheds. The legal description of the 

project area is Township (T) 39 North 

(N) Range (R) 10 West (W), T39NR11W, 

T40NR8W, T40NR10W, T40NR11W, 

T41NR10W, T41NR11W, T43NR12W, 

T44NR11W, T44NR12W, T45NR10W, 

T45NR11W, T45NR12W, T46NR8W, 

T46NR9W, T46NR10W, T46NR11W, 

T46NR12W, T47NR8W, T47NR9W, and 

T47NR10W of the Humboldt Meridian 

and T14NR8 East (E), T15NR7E, 

T15NR8E, T16NR7E, T16NR8E of the 

Humboldt Meridian. 

DATES: The comment period on the 

proposed action will extend 30 days 

from the date the Notice of Intent is 

published in the Federal Register. The 

draft EIS is expected to be completed by 

March 2015, and the final EIS is 

expected to be completed by June 2015. 

ADDRESSES: Send written comments to: 

Patricia A. Grantham, Forest Supervisor, 

Klamath National Forest, 1711 South 

Main Street, Yreka, California 96097, 

ATTN: Westside Fire Recovery Team 

Leader, or send facsimile to 530–841– 

4571. Submit electronic comments at 

the Klamath National Forest’s project 

Web page: http://www.fs.fed.us/nepa/fsusda-pop.php/?project=45579 by 

selecting the ‘‘Comment on Project’’ link 

in the ‘‘Get Connected’’ group at the 

right hand side of the project Web page. 

Put the project name in the subject line; 

attachments may be in the following 

formats: Plain text (.txt), rich text format 

(.rtf), Word (.doc, .docx), or portable 

document format (.pdf). 

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: 

Wendy Coats, Klamath National Forest, 

Yreka, California 96097. Phone: 530– 

841–4470. 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 

The purpose of this project is to: 

1. Reduce safety hazards to adjacent 

landowners, the public, and Forest 

workers from falling trees (i.e. ‘‘hazard 

trees,’’ also known as ‘‘danger trees’’) or 

hazardous fuels conditions. Trees killed 

or severely burned by wildfire (i.e. 

snags) are often unstable and at risk for 

falling or snapping off, especially during 

high wind events. It is important that 

safety is maintained and hazardous 

fuels conditions are abated, where they 

exist within the Wildland Urban 

Interface, especially within one-quarter 

mile of private property in burned areas 

or within areas that underwent fire 

suppression-related activity. It is also 

imperative that infrastructure, 

especially utility lines, roads, trailheads, 

campgrounds, fire lookouts, and 

bridges, are maintained for use by the 

public and Forest workers. Further, 

dead and dying trees within proposed 

salvage harvest areas need to be 

addressed to minimize safety hazards to 

the public who recreate in the area, 

Forest workers (i.e. planting), and 

firefighters (i.e. to enable future 

suppression efforts should the area burn 

again). 

2. Obtain the maximum economic 

commodity and value from burned 

timber by offering a sale while the wood 

is still marketable. The Forest Plan 

directs the Forest to harvest dead or 

dying trees to produce wood products as 

consistent with Forest goals. Dead 

timber loses significant value if left 

standing beyond two winters and is 

most profitable if harvested even sooner. 

Capturing the marketability of the 

timber provides the agency a viable 

means of meeting this and other project 

needs, since the timber sale can be used 

to fund restoration implementation. If 

treatment is delayed beyond the 

marketability period of the timber, the 

Forest Service will need to pay for the 

hazard tree abatement and removal of 

dead and dying trees in order to meet 

the first need described above. By 

contrast, if salvage occurs during the 

marketability period, funds gained from 

the salvage sale can be used for 

additional restoration work. Capturing 

the maximum economic value of the 

salvaged timber will benefit Siskiyou 

County and surrounding communities 

by maintaining and/or creating jobs in 

forest management by providing timber 

to the local mills who are major 

employers of these rural communities. 

3. Promote ecosystem sustainability 

by increasing the likelihood and speed 

by which burned, forested areas are 

restored. Although wildfires have some 

benefits (e.g., snag and downed wood 

creation), intensely burned forested 

areas may be slow to recover and heavy 

fuel loading will result from fallen 

snags. Following a high severity 

wildfire, heavy fuel loading predisposes 


tkelley on DSK3SPTVN1PROD with NOTICES
61850 Federal Register / Vol. 79, No. 199 / Wednesday, October 15, 2014 / Notices 

an area to higher intensity and higher 

severity wildfires in the future. Such 

fires would inhibit stand regeneration, 

resulting in stand type changes to brush 

or other non-forested vegetation types 

and delaying these lands from reaching 

the desired conditions of the Forest 

Plan. 

Proposed Action 

The proposed action was designed to 

meet the purpose and need for action. 

The proposed action will treat a total of 

about 63,883 acres within the 214,848- 

acre project boundary (10,600 acres of 

salvage harvest, 21,872 acres of roadside 

hazard treatment, 11,411 acres of 

hazardous fuels treatment and 20,000 

acres of site preparation, planting and 

release). Acres do not account for the 

overlap in treatment types. Treatment 

acreages are approximate at this point 

and will be adjusted and refined 

following scoping. 

Responsible Official 

Patricia A. Grantham, Forest 

Supervisor, Klamath National Forest, 

1711 South Main Street, Yreka, CA 

96097. 

Nature of Decision To Be Made 

The responsible official will decide 

whether to adopt and implement the 

proposed action, an alternative to the 

proposed action, or take no action to 

make changes to existing conditions in 

the Westside Fire Recovery Project Area. 

Scoping Process 

Public participation is important at 

numerous points during the analysis. 

The Forest Service seeks information, 

comments and assistance from federal, 

state, and local agencies and individuals 

or organizations that may be interested 

in or affected by the proposed action. 

The Forest Service conducts scoping 

according to the Council on 

Environmental Quality (CEQ) 

regulations (40 CFR 1501.7). In addition 

to other public involvement, this Notice 

of Intent initiates an early and open 

process for determining the scope of 

issues to be addressed in the EIS and for 

identifying the significant issues related 

to a proposed action. This scoping 

process allows the Forest Service to not 

only identify significant environmental 

issues deserving of study, but also to 

deemphasize insignificant issues, 

narrowing the scope of the EIS process 

accordingly (40 CFR 1500.4(g)). 

This project is subject to comment 

pursuant to 36 CFR 218, Subparts A and 

B; however, the Forest is requesting an 

emergency situation determination as 

provided for in 36 CFR 218.21. If it is 

determined that an emergency situation 

exists with respect to all or part of the 

proposed project or activity, the 

proposed action shall not be subject to 

the pre-decisional objection process and 

implementation may proceed 

immediately after notification of the 

decision (§ 218.21(d)(1)). The 

responsible official shall identify any 

emergency situation determination 

made for a project in the notification of 

the decision (§ 218.21(e)). The Forest is 

also seeking alternative arrangements 

with the Council on Environmental 

Quality; arrangements may include but 

are not limited to a reduced comment 

period on the draft EIS and release of 

the final EIS and record of decision at 

the same time. 

Comment Requested 

This Notice of Intent initiates the 

scoping process which guides the 

development of the EIS. Comments on 

the proposed action should be 

submitted within 30 days of the date of 

publication of this Notice of Intent in 

the Federal Register. 

Early Notice of Importance of Public 

Participation in Subsequent 

Environmental Review: The draft EIS is 

expected to be filed with the 

Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) 

and to be available for public review by 

March 2015. A draft EIS will be 

available for comment when the 

Environmental Protection Agency 

publishes the notice of availability in 

the Federal Register. The Forest Service 

believes, at this early stage, it is 

important to give reviewers notice of 

several court rulings related to public 

participation in the environmental 

review process. First, reviewers of a 

draft EIS must structure their 

participation in the environmental 

review of the proposal so that it is 

meaningful and alerts an agency to the 

reviewer’s position and contentions. 

Vermont Yankee Nuclear Power Corp. v. 

NRDC, 435 U.S. 519, 553 (1978). Also, 

environmental objections that could be 

raised at the draft EIS stage but that are 

not raised until after completion of the 

final EIS may be waived or dismissed by 

the courts. 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). 

Because of these court rulings, it is very 

important that those interested in this 

proposed action participate during the 

comment period so 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 final EIS. 

The final EIS is scheduled to be 

completed in June 2015. 

To assist the Forest Service in 

identifying and considering issues and 

concerns on the proposed action, 

comments on the proposal should be as 

specific as possible. 

Comments received, including the 

names and addresses of those who 

comment, will be considered part of the 

public record on this proposal and will 

be available for public inspection. 

(Authority: 40 CFR 1501.7 and 1508.22; 

Forest Service Handbook 1909.15, 

Section 21) 

Dated: October 8, 2014. 

Patricia A. Grantham, 

Forest Supervisor. 

[FR Doc. 2014–24441 Filed 10–14–14; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 3411–15–P 

COMMISSION ON CIVIL RIGHTS 

Notice of Public Meeting of the 

Oklahoma Advisory Committee for a 

Meeting To Discuss Potential Project 

Topics 

AGENCY: U.S. Commission on Civil 

Rights. 

ACTION: Notice of meeting. 

SUMMARY: Notice is hereby given, 

pursuant to the provisions of the rules 

and regulations of the U.S. Commission 

on Civil Rights (Commission) and the 

Federal Advisory Committee Act that 

the Oklahoma Advisory Committee 

(Committee) will hold a meeting on 

Friday, October 24, 2014, at 3:30 p.m. 

for the purpose of discussing potential 

project topics for the committee to study 

in the coming year. Committee members 

will discuss the issues that they believe 

warrant further investigation. 

Members of the public can listen to 

the discussion. This meeting is available 

to the public through the following tollfree call-in number: 888–329–8877, 

conference ID: 2711081. Any interested 

member of the public may call this 

number and listen to the meeting. 

Callers can expect to incur charges for 

calls they initiate over wireless lines, 

and the Commission will not refund any 

incurred charges. Callers will incur no 

charge for calls they initiate over landline connections to the toll-free 

telephone number. Persons with hearing 

impairments may also follow the 

proceedings by first calling the Federal 

Relay Service at 1–800–977–8339 and 

providing the Service with the 

conference call number and conference 

ID number. 

Members of the public are also 

entitled to submit written comments; 

the comments must be received in the 

regional office by November 24, 2014. 


tkelley on DSK3SPTVN1PROD with NOTICES