Special Areas; Roadless Area Conservation; Applicability to the Tongass National Forest, Alaska

요약

Notice is hereby given that the public comment period is being extended for the proposed rule published on July 15, 2003 (68 FR 41865), to amend regulations concerning the roadless area conservation rule published on January 12, 2001 (66 FR 3244) (the roadless rule), to temporarily exempt the Tongass National Forest from prohibitions against timber harvest, road construction, and reconstruction in inventoried roadless areas until a final rule is promulgated as announced by the Forest Service on July 10, 2001, in an advance notice of proposed rulemaking (ANPR) (66 FR 35918). The original comment period for this proposed rule ended August 14, 2003. In conjunction with this notice, the agency is publishing a separate notice of extension of the comment period for the ANPR to solicit public input concerning the applicability of the roadless rule to both the Tongass and the Chugach National Forests in Alaska, elsewhere in the same part of today's Federal Register. The ANPR was published on July 15, 2003 (68 FR 41864), with an original comment period end date of August 14, 2003. The agency has received a large volume of responses to the proposed rule thus far; and therefore, has decided t