federal_register: 03-32077
Data license: Public Domain (U.S. Government data) · Data source: Federal Register API & Regulations.gov API
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| document_number | title | type | abstract | publication_date | pub_year | pub_month | html_url | pdf_url | agency_names | agency_ids | excerpts |
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| 03-32077 | Special Areas; Roadless Area Conservation; Applicability to the Tongass National Forest, Alaska | Rule | The Department of Agriculture is adopting this final rule to amend regulations concerning the Roadless Area Conservation Rule (hereinafter, referred to as the roadless rule) to temporarily exempt the Tongass National Forest (hereinafter, referred to as the Tongass) from prohibitions against timber harvest, road construction, and reconstruction in inventoried roadless areas. This temporary exemption of the Tongass will be in effect until the Department promulgates a subsequent final rule concerning the application of the roadless rule within the State of Alaska, as announced in the agency's second advance notice of proposed rulemaking published on July 15, 2003 (68 FR 41864). In State of Alaska v. USDA, the State of Alaska and other plaintiffs alleged that the roadless rule violated a number of Federal statutes, including the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act of 1980 (ANILCA). Passed overwhelmingly by Congress in 1980, ANILCA sets aside millions of acres in Alaska for the National Park Service, Forest Service, National Monuments, National Wildlife Refuges, and Wilderness Areas with the understanding that sufficient protection and balance would be ensured between protected areas established by the act and multiple-use managed areas. The Alaska lawsuit alleged that USDA violated ANILCA by applying the requirements of the roadless rule to Alaska's national forests. USDA settled the lawsuit by agreeing to publish a proposed rule which, if adopted, would temporarily exempt the Tongass from the application of the roadless rule (July 15, 2003, 68 FR 41865), and to publish a separate advance notice of proposed rulemaking (July 15, 2003, 68 FR 41864) requesting comment on whether to permanently exempt the Tongass and the Chugach National Forests in Alaska from the application of the roadless rule. Under this final rule, the vast majority of the Tongass remains off limits to development as specified in the 1997 Tongass Forest Plan. Commercial timber harvest will continue to be prohibited on more than 78 percent of the Tongass as required under the existing forest plan. Exempting the Tongass from the application of the roadless rule makes approximately 300,000 roadless acres available for forest management-- slightly more than 3 percent of the 9.34 million roadless acres in the Tongass, or 0.5 percent of the total roadless acres nationwide. This rule also leaves intact all old-growth reserves, riparian buffers, beach fringe buffers, and other protections contained in the 1997 Tongass Forest Plan. The preamble of this rule includes a discussion of the public comments received on the proposed rule published July 15, 2003 (68 FR 41865) and the Department's responses to the comments. This final rule also serves as the record of decision (ROD) for selection of the Tongass Exempt Alternative identified in the November 2000 final environmental impact statement for the roadless rule. | 2003-12-30 | 2003 | 12 | https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2003/12/30/03-32077/special-areas-roadless-area-conservation-applicability-to-the-tongass-national-forest-alaska | https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/FR-2003-12-30/pdf/03-32077.pdf | Agriculture Department; Forest Service | 12,209 | The Department of Agriculture is adopting this final rule to amend regulations concerning the Roadless Area Conservation Rule (hereinafter, referred to as the roadless rule) to temporarily exempt the Tongass National Forest (hereinafter, referred to as... |