[Federal Register Volume 78, Number 67 (Monday, April 8, 2013)]
[Notices]
[Pages 20942-20943]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2013-08105]
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DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR
Fish and Wildlife Service
National Park Service
[FWS-R6-R-2013-N021; FXRS1265066CCP0-134-FF06R06000]
Niobrara Confluence and Ponca Bluffs Conservation Areas, NE and
SD; Draft Environmental Impact Statement and Land Protection Plan;
Request for Public Comments
AGENCY: Fish and Wildlife Service, National Park Service, Interior.
ACTION: Notice of availability.
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SUMMARY: We, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) and the National Park
Service (NPS), as lead agencies, announce the availability of a draft
environmental impact statement (DEIS) and land protection plan (LPP)
for the proposed Niobrara Confluence Conservation Area and Ponca Bluffs
Conservation Area in Nebraska and South Dakota for public review and
comment. In these documents, we describe alternatives, including our
proposed action, for implementing conservation actions along the
Missouri River and its tributaries. We are furnishing this notice in
compliance with the National Wildlife Refuge System Administration Act
of 1966, as amended, the National Park Service Organic Act of 1916, as
amended, and the National Environmental Policy Act to advise other
agencies, Tribal governments, and the public of our intentions to
provide the opportunity for public review and comment on the DEIS and
LPP.
DATES: To ensure consideration, please send your written comments by
June 14th, 2013. We will announce upcoming public meetings in local
news media, on our Web site, and by mail.
ADDRESSES: You may submit your comments or a request for copies (hard
copies or a CD-ROM) or more information by any of the following
methods:
Agency Web site: http://parkplanning.nps.gov/niob-ponca.
Email: niobrara_ponca@fws.gov.
In-Person Viewing or Pickup: Call (605) 665-0209 to make an
appointment during regular business hours at Missouri River National
Recreational River Headquarters, 508 East 2nd Street, Yankton, SD
57078.
Mail: Nick Kaczor, USFWS, Division of Refuge Planning, P.O. Box
25486, DFC, Denver, CO 80225.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Nick Kaczor, Planning Team Leader, at
(303) 236-4387, or by mail at Division of Refuge Planning, USFWS, P.O.
Box 25486, DFC, Denver, CO 80225.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
Introduction
With this notice, we continue the LPP process for the proposed
Niobrara Confluence and Ponca Bluffs Conservation Areas. We started
this process through a notice in the Federal Register (77 FR 8892,
February 15, 2012).
The proposed Niobrara Confluence and Ponca Bluffs Conservation
Areas are partnership-based projects being taken on by the U.S. Fish
and Wildlife Service and National Park Service, to build upon existing
conservation efforts along the Missouri River in northeast Nebraska and
southeast South Dakota. This proposal aims to work with willing private
landowners, local communities, and other conservation entities to
conserve important wildlife habitats, increase quality recreational
opportunities, preserve sensitive historical sites, and maintain
sustainable ranching operations.
The Missouri River
The Missouri River is the artery to America's heartland, coursing
its way
[[Page 20943]]
through the scenic landscapes of the Great Plains to the Eastern
deciduous forest. It drains one-sixth of the United States and
encompasses over 500,000 square miles, flowing 2,341 miles from its
headwaters in western Montana to where it joins the Mississippi River,
at St. Louis, Missouri. It is home to thousands of fish, wildlife, and
plants, while providing unlimited recreational opportunities for its
visitors. Visitors can also experience scenic bluffs, forests,
grasslands, and traditional rural lifestyles critical to the local
communities.
Niobrara Confluence
The Niobrara Confluence segment between Fort Randall Dam and Lewis
and Clark Lake is one of the last portions of the middle Missouri River
that remains unchannelized, relatively free-flowing, and undeveloped.
This area of the Missouri River's main channel in the old, wider river
valley contains important habitat for at least 60 native and 26 sport
fish. In addition, the riparian woodlands and island complexes are
important for approximately 25 year-round bird species and 115 species
of migratory birds, including piping plovers, least terns, and bald
eagles.
Ponca Bluffs
The Ponca Bluffs segment between Gavins Point Dam and Sioux City is
a diverse, relatively unaltered riverine/floodplain ecosystem
characterized by a main channel, braided channels, wooded riparian
corridor, pools, chutes, sloughs, islands, sandbars, backwater areas,
wetlands, natural floodplain and upland forest communities,
pastureland, and croplands. This area also supports a wide variety of
wildlife and fisheries resources similar to those found in the Niobrara
Confluence segment.
The Concept
We are proposing to work with willing landowners to conserve
valuable recreational, natural, scenic, and historical resources. By
combining agency resources and working together with other conservation
efforts like the Natural Resource Conservation Service's Wetland
Reserve Program, we hope to maintain a legacy for future generations.
Our personnel and technical resources in each agency's various programs
will help improve the delivery of actions outlined in this plan. The
concept of this project is to combine agency resources to enhance
conservation; enhance recreation; increase tourism; instill new money
into local economies; improve quality of life through healthy air,
water, and ecosystems; and increase the appreciation and awareness of
the natural resources.
This would be achieved by purchasing conservation easements from
willing landowners or the use of fee-title acquisition. Fee-title
acquisition could be used when rehabilitation is needed to improve the
ecological function of the river by allowing a more natural meander, or
when extensive public access is anticipated.
Conservation Easements
We recognize that the preservation of working landscapes such as
farms and rangeland through easement acquisition is more cost
effective, socially acceptable, and politically popular than fee title
acquisition, while still effectively promoting the preservation of
unfragmented quality habitat. Conservation easements provide a unique
tool for agencies to use in partnership with willing landowners.
Easements allow the land to stay in private ownership and on the local
tax rolls while still providing the greater American public lifelong
conservation value. The alternatives outlined in the plan (B-C) allow
for a greater use of easements (80 percent) over more traditional fee
title acquisition. With easement acquisitions, landowners will be
compensated for perpetually conserving their property in a native
state, and in turn will have funds available to use for investment in
the local communities.
The purpose of the easements would be to promote native grasses,
shrubs, and trees; eliminate or reduce invasive species such as eastern
red cedars; and protect culturally or tribally significant sites. All
easement conditions would be mutually agreed upon by the landowner and
us.
Priorities
We developed this draft conservation plan by focusing on the
overall ecological function of the Missouri River. We identified areas
that are important for native fish and wildlife species such as bald
eagles and pallid sturgeon. In addition, we prioritized areas that
increase access to the river, conserve scenic areas such as chalkstone
bluffs, and maintain historically significant sites.
Public Availability of Comments
Before including your address, phone number, email address, or
other personal identifying information in your comment, you should be
aware that your entire comment, including your personal identifying
information, may be made publicly available at any time. While you can
ask us in your comment to withhold your personal identifying
information from public review, we cannot guarantee that we will be
able to do so.
Authorities
The FWS and NPS are furnishing this notice in compliance with the
National Wildlife Refuge System Administration Act of 1966 (16 U.S.C.
668dd-668ee) (Administration Act), as amended by the National Wildlife
Refuge System Improvement Act of 1997; the National Park Service
Organic Act of 1916 (16 U.S.C. l et seq.), and amendments thereto, and
the National Environmental Policy Act (42 U.S.C. 4321 et seq.) and its
implementing regulations.
Dated: Feb 21, 2013.
Michael Reynolds,
Midwest Regional Director, National Park Service.
Dated: Feb 26, 2013.
Matt Hogan,
Acting, Regional Director, Mountain Prairie Region, U.S. Fish and
Wildlife Service.
[FR Doc. 2013-08105 Filed 4-5-13; 8:45 am]
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