Rolnictwo i żywność · 29/07/2003

National Environmental Policy Act Documentation Needed for Limited Timber Harvest

The Forest Service gives notice of revised procedures for implementing the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) and Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) regulations. These revised procedures are being issued by Interim Directive (ID) 1909.15-2003-2 to Forest Service Handbook 1909.15, Chapter 30, Section 31.2, which describes categorical exclusions, i.e., categories of actions which do not individually or cumulatively have a significant effect on the human environment and therefore normally do not require further analysis in either an environmental assessment or an environmental impact statement. This ID adds three such categories of actions to the agency's NEPA procedures that are applicable to small timber harvesting projects: Category 12 allows harvest of live trees not to exceed 70 acres with no more than \1/2\ mile of temporary road construction; Category 13 allows the salvage of dead and/or dying trees not to exceed 250 acres with no more than \1/2\ mile of temporary road construction; and Category 14 allows commercial and non-commercial felling and removal of any trees necessary to control the spread of insects and disease on no more than 250 acres with no more than \1/