[Federal Register Volume 79, Number 225 (Friday, November 21, 2014)]
[Notices]
[Pages 69519-69521]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2014-27590]
=======================================================================
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR
Fish and Wildlife Service
[FWS-R5-R-2014-N199; BAC-4311-K9-S3]
Great Swamp National Wildlife Refuge, Morris County, New Jersey;
Final Comprehensive Conservation Plan and Finding of No Significant
Impact
AGENCY: Fish and Wildlife Service, Interior.
ACTION: Notice of availability.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
SUMMARY: We, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (Service), announce the
availability of the final comprehensive conservation plan (CCP) and
finding of no significant impact (FONSI) for Great Swamp National
Wildlife Refuge (NWR), located in Morris County, New Jersey, for public
review and comment. In this final CCP, we describe how we will manage
the refuge for the next 15 years.
ADDRESSES: You may view or obtain copies of the final CCP and FONSI by
any of the following methods. You may request a hard copy or a CD-ROM.
Agency Web site: Download a copy of the document at http://www.fws.gov/refuge/Great_Swamp/what_we_do/conservation.html.
Email: Send requests to northeastplanning@fws.gov. Include ``Great
Swamp CCP'' in the subject line of your email.
Mail: Bill Perry, Natural Resource Planner, U.S. Fish and Wildlife
Service, 300 Westgate Center Drive, Hadley, MA 01035.
Fax: Attention: Bill Perry, 413-253-8468.
In-Person Viewing or Pickup: Call 973-425-1222 to make an
appointment (necessary for view/pickup only) during regular business
hours at Great Swamp NWR, 241 Pleasant Plains Road, Basking Ridge, NJ
07920. For more information on locations for viewing or obtaining
documents, see ``Public Availability of Documents'' under SUPPLEMENTARY
INFORMATION.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Steven Henry, Acting Refuge Manager,
973-425-1222 (phone), or Bill Perry, Planning Team Leader, 413-253-8688
(phone); northeastplanning@fws.gov (email).
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
Introduction
With this notice, we finalize the CCP process for Great Swamp NWR.
We started this process through a notice in the Federal Register (75 FR
41879) on July 19, 2010.
Great Swamp NWR was established by an act of Congress on November
3, 1960, and formally dedicated in 1964, primarily under the
authorities of the Migratory Bird Treaty Act of 1918 (16 U.S.C. 703-
711) and the Migratory Bird Conservation Act of 1929 (U.S.C. 715-715s,
45 Stat. 1222) as amended, ``for use as an inviolate sanctuary, or for
any other management purpose, for migratory birds.'' The refuge
currently encompasses 7,768 acres and has an approved acquisition
boundary that
[[Page 69520]]
would allow for refuge expansion to a maximum of 9,429 acres. Great
Swamp NWR is located approximately 26 miles from New York City and is
an area that is heavily suburbanized. The refuge provides vital
brooding, nesting, feeding, and resting habitat for a variety of
migratory bird species, including waterfowl. Although established
primarily for migratory birds, the refuge's mosaic of forested
wetlands, emergent wetlands, and various successional stages of upland
vegetation provides habitats for a diversity of wildlife species.
We announce our decision and the availability of the FONSI for the
final CCP for Great Swamp NWR in accordance with National Environmental
Policy Act (NEPA) (42 U.S.C. 4321 et seq.) requirements. We completed a
thorough analysis of impacts on the human environment, which we
included in the draft CCP/environmental assessment (EA).
The CCP will guide us in managing and administering Great Swamp NWR
for the next 15 years. Alternative B, as described for the refuge in
the draft CCP/EA, and with minor modifications described below, is the
foundation for the final CCP.
Background
The National Wildlife Refuge System Administration Act of 1966 (16
U.S.C. 668dd-668ee) (Refuge Administration Act), as amended by the
National Wildlife Refuge System Improvement Act of 1997, requires us to
develop a CCP for each refuge. The purpose for developing a CCP is to
provide refuge managers with a 15-year plan for achieving refuge
purposes and contributing to the mission of the National Wildlife
Refuge System (NWRS), consistent with sound principles of fish and
wildlife management, conservation, legal mandates, and our policies. In
addition to outlining broad management direction on conserving wildlife
and their habitats, CCPs identify wildlife-dependent recreational
opportunities available to the public, including opportunities for
hunting, fishing, wildlife observation and photography, and
environmental education and interpretation. We will review and update
the CCP at least every 15 years in accordance with the Refuge
Administration Act.
CCP Alternatives, Including the Selected Alternative
Our draft CCP/EA (79 FR 27634) addressed several key issues,
including:
Evaluation of consolidating managed habitats of the
refuge.
Better understanding the implications and trade-offs of
habitat management on refuge wildlife.
Identifying and addressing climate change concerns
impacting the refuge.
Providing more public use opportunities on the refuge and
linking to nearby urban populations.
Providing additional hunting opportunities, including fall
archery deer hunting and spring turkey hunting.
Expanding and strengthening partnerships.
To address these issues and develop a plan based on the refuge's
establishing purposes, vision, and goals, we evaluated four management
alternatives for Great Swamp NWR in the draft CCP/EA. The alternatives
have several actions in common. All alternatives include measures to
control invasive species, monitor and abate diseases affecting wildlife
and plant health, protect cultural resources, continue existing
projects managed by outside programs, and manage threatened and
endangered species populations on the refuge. There are other actions
that differ among the alternatives. The draft CCP/EA provides a full
description of each alternative and relates each to the issues and
concerns that arose during the planning process. Below, we provide
summaries of the four alternatives.
Management Alternatives
Alternative A (Current Management)
Alternative A (current management) satisfies the NEPA (40 CFR
1506.6(b)) requirement of a ``no action'' alternative, which we define
as ``continuing current management.'' It describes our existing
management priorities and activities, and serves as a baseline for
comparing and contrasting alternatives B, C, and D. It would maintain
our present levels of approved refuge staffing and the biological and
visitor programs now in place. We would continue to manage for and
maintain a diversity of habitats, including freshwater wetlands,
impoundments, scrub-shrub, grasslands, wet meadows, and forests on the
refuge. The refuge would continue to provide an active visitor use
program that supports environmental education and interpretation,
hunting, fishing, and wildlife observation and photography.
Alternative B (Enhance Biological Diversity and Public Use
Opportunities)
This alternative is the Service-preferred alternative. It combines
the actions we believe would most effectively achieve the refuge's
purposes, vision, and goals, and respond to the issues raised during
the scoping period. This alternative emphasizes management of specific
refuge habitats to support viable populations of focal species whose
habitat needs benefit other species, especially those of conservation
concern. We would continue to maintain a diversity of forest, non-
forested, open water, grassland, and scrub-shrub habitats. However,
habitats would be reconfigured and maintained to create large (greater
than 50 acres) contiguous patches to promote wildlife use, increase
connectivity, decrease fragmentation, and increase maintenance
efficiency and reduce associated costs. This alternative emphasizes
habitat for priority bird species and federally listed species,
including the bog turtle and Indiana bat.
This alternative would also enhance the refuge's public use
opportunities, and place more emphasis on connecting with communities
in nearby urban areas. It would expand the hunt program by pursuing the
processes for permitting archery for deer and opening the refuge to
turkey hunting. It would also improve wildlife viewing and photography
opportunities in a variety of habitats, expand visitor center hours,
and increase the number of environmental education and interpretation
programs on- and off-refuge. It attempts to balance public use with
resource protection.
Alternative C (Emphasis on Maximizing Natural Regeneration)
Alternative C emphasizes allowing natural succession or
regeneration to occur to the maximum extent practical. We would
maximize core forest habitats while maintaining large (i.e., greater
than 50 acres) contiguous patches of actively managed grasslands and
scrub-shrub habitats. This alternative would guide management to
restore, where practical, the distribution of natural communities of
the Great Swamp that would have resulted from natural processes without
the influence of human settlement or management intervention. This
alternative recognizes that refuge habitats and wildlife populations
are not ecologically independent from the surrounding landscape, and
that by taking a long-term regional perspective, the refuge can best
contribute to higher conservation priorities at greater scales. This
alternative continues to provide actively managed habitats in select
areas to maintain wildlife viewing and photography opportunities for
refuge visitors, as well as vital habitat for the refuge's species of
conservation concern. Although some open water habitat would be
eliminated, the refuge
[[Page 69521]]
would continue to maintain open water habitat for waterfowl use. Under
this alternative, the public use program would be similar to
alternative A; however, under this alternative, we would eliminate less
used or dead-end trails in the wilderness area.
Alternative D (Focus on Expansion of Priority Public Uses)
Alternative D emphasizes expanding wildlife-dependent priority
public uses on the refuge. Public use and access would be maximized to
the greatest extent practical, while minimizing impacts to wildlife. We
would expand refuge infrastructure, including construction of new
trails, observation towers, signage, and parking lots; expand hunting;
and allow fishing in select areas of the refuge. This alternative would
maximize public outreach, enhance and develop new environmental
interpretation and education programs, aggressively expand
partnerships, and increase staff presence at programs and events. In
general, refuge habitats would be managed similarly to alternative B;
however, this alternative would increase open water habitat to improve
public viewing opportunities.
Comments
We solicited comments on the draft CCP/EA from May 14 to June 30,
2014 (79 FR 27634). During the comment period, we received 80 written
responses. We evaluated all of the substantive comments we received,
and include a summary of those comments, and our responses to them, as
appendix G in the final CCP.
Selected Alternative
After considering the comments we received on our draft CCP/EA, we
made minor changes to alternative B, including not moving forward on
the proposed parking area and wildlife observation opportunity on White
Bridge Road, and correcting minor editorial, formatting, and
typographical errors. These changes are described in the FONSI
(appendix E in the final CCP) and in our response to public comments
(appendix G in the final CCP).
We have selected alternative B to implement for Great Swamp NWR,
with these minor changes, for several reasons. Alternative B comprises
a mix of actions that, in our professional judgment, work best towards
achieving the refuge's purposes, vision, and goals, NWRS policies, and
the goals of other State and Regional conservation plans. We also
believe that alternative B most effectively addresses key issues raised
during the planning process. The basis of our decision is detailed in
the FONSI (appendix E in the final CCP).
Public Availability of Documents
You can view or obtain the final CCP, including the FONSI, as
indicated under ADDRESSES.
Dated: October 6, 2014.
Deborah Rocque,
Acting Regional Director, Northeast Region.
[FR Doc. 2014-27590 Filed 11-20-14; 8:45 a.m.]
BILLING CODE 4310-55-P