Bog Creek Road Project Environmental Impact Statement (January 2020)

U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and the U.S. Forest Service (Forest Service) Idaho Panhandle National Forests (IPNF) have prepared a joint Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) to identify and assess potential impacts upon the environment of: repairing and maintaining an approximately 5.6-mile section of the existing Bog Creek Road, which is located in the Selkirk Mountains in Boundary County, Idaho, within approximately two miles of the Canadian border, on land within the Blue-Grass Bear Management Unit (BMU) that is managed by the IPNF; and closing for motorized use additional roads within the Blue-Grass BMU to comply with the IPNF Forest Plan Amendments for Motorized Access Management within the Selkirk and Cabinet-Yaak Grizzly Bear Recovery Zones and reduce road density in the Blue-Grass BMU.

Final RODs

CBP and Forest Service have decided to implement the Bog Creek Road project and each Agency has released a final record of decision. The Notice of Availability (NOA) for the Final Records of Decision (ROD) was published in the Federal Register on February 7, 2020, and can be found here: https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2020/02/07/2020-02466/notice-of-availability-of-the-bog-creek-road-project-final-records-of-decision

Final EIS and Draft RODs:

The NOA for the Final EIS and Draft RODs was published in the Federal Register on February 15, 2019, and can be found here: https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2019/02/15/2019-02282/notice-of-availability-of-the-bog-creek-road-project-final-environmental-impact-statement-and-draft

The legal notice of the Forest Service objection filing period was published in the Coeur d'Alene Press on February 15, 2019.

Biological Opinion and Biological Assessment:

The Biological Opinion, Biological Assessment, and Errata Sheet for the Bog Creek Road Project can be seen on the Analysis tab of the Forest Service project website here: https://www.fs.usda.gov/project/?project=41296

Draft EIS:

The NOA for the draft EIS was published in the Federal Register on June 1, 2018, and can be found here: https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2018/06/01/2018-11766/notice-of-availability-of-the-bog-creek-road-project-draft-environmental-impact-statement.

The public comment period for the draft EIS originally ran from June 1- July 16, 2018, but was extended an additional 15 days until July 31, 2018. The Federal Register notice of reopening of comment period can be found here: https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2018/07/20/2018-15684/bog-creek-road-project-draft-environmental-impact-statement-reopening-of-comment-period.

Copies of the comments received during this period can be seen on the Supporting tab of the Forest Service project website here: https://www.fs.usda.gov/project/?project=41296. Response to comments can be seen in Appendix C of the Final EIS.

Scoping:

The Notice of Intent (NOI) to prepare the EIS was published in the Federal Register on April 27, 2016, and can be found here: https://www.federalregister.gov/articles/2016/04/27/2016-09790/notice-of-intent-to-prepare-a-joint-environmental-impact-statement-and-to-conduct-public-scoping.

Comments received during initial scoping and the NOI scoping period were summarized in a Scoping Report and Addendum.