Rehabilitation of Highway 62 West, Crater Lake National Park, Klamath County, Oregon
INTRODUCTION
SCOPING
Scoping is the effort to involve agencies and citizens in determining the nature and extent of issues to be addressed in this environmental assessment. Scoping determines important issues and eliminates issues that are not important; allocates assignments among the interdisciplinary team members and/or other participating agencies; identifies related projects and associated documents; identifies permits, surveys, consultations, etc. required by other agencies; and creates a schedule that allows adequate time to prepare and distribute the environmental assessment for public review and comment before a final decision is made. Scoping includes any interested agency, or any agency with jurisdiction by law or expertise to obtain early input.
The staff of Crater Lake National Park, Federal Highway Administration, U.S. Forest Service, and resource professionals of the National Park Service, Denver Service Center, conducted internal scoping. This interdisciplinary process defined the purpose and need, identified potential actions to address the need, determined the likely issues and impact topics, and identified the relationship of the proposed action to other planning efforts at the park.
A press release initiating public scoping and describing the proposed action was issued 26 June 2002 (appendix 1). Comments were solicited during a public scoping period. No comments were received. Letters were sent to tribes and agencies on 3 July 2002 (see “Consultation and Coordination” in appendix 2).
The undertakings described in this document are subject to section 106 of the National Historic Preservation Act, as amended in 1992 (16 United States Code (USC) 470 et seq.). The National Park Service conducted a survey for historic properties in July and August of 2002, and in a determination of eligibility, recommended the “Wagon Roads in Crater Lake (Western Half)” as eligible for listing in the National Register of Historic Places. The Oregon State Historic Preservation Office (SHPO) concurred on the determination of eligibility (see Appendix 2) and a copy of this environmental assessment will be sent to the Oregon SHPO in accordance with the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation regulations (36 CFR Part 800).
In accordance with section 7(c) of the Endangered Species Act of 1973, as amended (16 USC 1531 et seq.), it is the responsibility of the federal agency proposing the action, in this case the National Park Service, to determine whether the proposed action would adversely affect any listed species or designated critical habitat; this determination is documented in a letter to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service dated 23 August 2002 (see appendix 5).
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