213 



have a preferred alternative in the draft environmental impact 

 statement, so they can start positioning themselves for any changes 

 that would need to occur when finals are developed and records of 

 decisions are signed. And the time line on that, we are expecting, 

 is about a year from now, to have the final environmental impact 

 statements complete and the records of decisions signed. 



Mr. Hansen. Thank you, Mr. Blackwood. 



Mr. Van Sickle, I want to ask you basically the same thing. What 

 additional activities will be required for the Southern Appalachian 

 Assessment? 



Mr. Van Sickle. I guess I am somewhat lost. 



Mr. Hansen. What additional activities will be required subse- 

 quent to the assessment process, to incorporate the information 

 from the assessment into the forest plans for the Southern Appa- 

 lachian Assessment? 



Mr. Van Sickle. I think I would prefer to ask my coleader, For- 

 est Carpenter, to respond to that question inasmuch as you rep- 

 resented 



Mr. Hansen. Mr. Carpenter, I am sorry. Go ahead. I want to get 

 the right person here. 



Mr. Carpenter. Yes. Currently the planners on each National 

 Forest are reviewing material that is in the assessment. When that 

 is completed, the notice of intent is out and the Federal Register 

 and management planning process can begin. I see that the infor- 

 mation we have is data and inventories that will fit into the proc- 

 ess in a very effective way. 



Mr. Hansen. What do you have to say to that, Mr. Van Sickle? 

 Just say amen. 



Mr. Van Sickle. Amen. 



Let me use this opportunity to comment. One of the features of 

 the Southern Appalachian Assessment is that we expect the vast 

 amount of data that has been put together for the Southern Appa- 

 lachian Assessment to be useful for a lot of other applications as 

 well. 



We do have a fairly detailed public information release plan. We 

 expect to encourage colleges and universities, high schools, librar- 

 ies, and other archives to use this information for a variety of pur- 

 poses. We think it has considerable application in community and 

 county planning. But that is up to those groups, to extract the in- 

 formation from the assessment that is useful to them. 



Mr. Hansen. Thank you. 



Mr. Aune, do you want to go over the same thing, on what addi- 

 tional activities would be required to incorporate the information 

 from the assessment to evaluate plans to make any necessary ad- 

 justments to those documents? 



Mr. AUNE. The National Forest 



Mr. Hansen. Pull the mike a little closer, please. 



Mr. Aune. In terms of the California Owl Report, the planning 

 teams and regional forester will review the Sierra Nevada Eco- 

 system Project documents to see if there is any new information 

 that is not described in the current environmental impact state- 

 ment and record of decision and make a determination as to all 

 new information under the National Environmental Policy Act, 

 what appropriate changes and actions will be necessary. 



