National Park Service U.S. Department of the Interior

Golden Spike National Historic Site

P.O. Box 897 Brigham City, UT 84302 435-471-2209, ext. 12 phone 435-471-2341 fax

Golden Spike National Historic Site News Release

For Release: June 3, 2004

Contact: Mary Risser

Phone: 435-471-2209, ext. 12

Golden Spike National Historic Site

Develops Fire Management Plan

“In March 2003, we notified you that the National Park Service (NPS) was preparing an Environmental Assessment (EA) in support of a comprehensive Fire Management Plan for Golden Spike National Historic Site,” stated Superintendent Mary Risser. “We solicited comments from the public from March 27 through April 28, 2003, to help identify issues and develop alternative fire management approaches to be evaluated in the EA. We also invited you to participate in an open house on April 23, 2003, where NPS staff was available to provide information and answer questions about fire management planning.”

On June 5, 2003, two new fire management categorical exclusions (CEs) were published in the Federal Register (Vol 68, No. 108, pages 33814-33824). The NPS has determined that in very limited instances parks doing suppression and fuels reduction activities, which meet the guidelines, can use the CEs in conjunction with fire management plans. Golden Spike National Historic Site meets those specified guidelines.

The NPS received few comments during the public scoping period and the open house sessions. Because of the low level of controversy identified during public scoping and because Golden Spike National Historic Site meets the specified guidelines for the use of the CE, the NPS has determined to proceed with a categorical exclusion for implementation of a fire management program at Golden Spike.

Please be aware that names and addresses of respondents may be released if requested under the Freedom of Information Act. Our practice is to make comments, including names and home addresses of respondents, available for public review during regular business hours. Individual respondents may request that we withhold their home address from the record, which we will honor to the extent allowable by law. There also may be circumstances in which we would withhold from the record a respondent’s identity, as allowable by law. If you wish us to withhold your name and/or address, you must state this prominently at the beginning of your written comments. We will make all

submissions from organizations or businesses, and from individuals identifying themselves as representatives of officials of organizations or businesses, available for public inspection in their entirety.

The NPS plans to release a draft fire management plan for public review later this summer. If you have any comments about the use of a CE for the fire management plan, please send your comments to Superintendent, Golden Spike National Historic Site, P.O. Box 897, Brigham City, Utah 84302 by June 25, 2004.