30 Day Public Review of National Park Service Environmental Assessment for the Princess Ditch Trail Construction

Date: March 19, 2014
Contact: Sean Denniston , 530-242-3445

Whiskeytown National Recreation Area (NRA) park officials today announced the release of the Princess Ditch Trail Construction Environmental Assessment (EA) for public review. To assist the National Park Service with this project, the public is invited to provide comments during the review period, running from March 19, 2014 to April 18, 2014.The Environmental Assessment may also be downloaded and comments posted directly to the National Park Service Planning, Environment and Public Comment website at:

https://parkplanning.nps.gov/PrincessDitchTrailConstructionEA.Copies of the document are available for viewing at Park Headquarters, the Park Visitor Center, and the Redding branch of Shasta Public Libraries.

This EA evaluates the potential environmental impacts to NRA resources by the proposal to construct a new trail along the Princess Ditch in the southeastern portion of the park.This new trail will provide public access from Whiskeytown National Recreation Area to a network of trails in the Swasey Recreation Area, which is administered by the Bureau of Land Management.

The EA contains an analysis of the impacts of both the proposed action and the no-action alternative. The Proposed Action Alternative is to construct the Princess Ditch Trail.The trail would allow the NPS to provide recreational opportunities in a part of the park where a water ditch once existed that would be stabilized for use as a trail.Approximately 1.9 miles of trail would be constructed, most of which would occur along the framework of the Princess Ditch, a water-delivery system built in the mid-19^th century.To access this section of trail from the existing park trail network, approximately 0.5 miles of newly constructed trail would also be created.

To provide comments, or for additional information, please feel free to contact the Whiskeytown National Recreation Area Division ofInterpretation and Resources Management at 530-242-3445 or write to Sean Denniston, Whiskeytown NRA, P.O. Box 188, Whiskeytown, CA 96095.Comments via email may be addressed to [e-mail]. In the subject line, please include a note indicating these comments are for the Princess Ditch Trail Construction EA.

For more information on Whiskeytown, please call or stop by the Visitor Center from 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. daily, or call [phone].You can also visit the park website at www.nps.gov/whis.