Land Between The Lakes (LBL) National Recreation Area is preparing an environmental assessment (EA) for regenerating and maintaining the native Shortleaf Pine vegetative community within the Devil’s Backbone project area. In June 2008, the Devil’s Backbone Project scoping letter was released. Since the release of that scoping letter, additional considerations have developed and Forest Service (FS) staff determined that a second scoping period would be beneficial to get input on these additional actions.
One proposed action is the need to amend the 2004 Land and Resource Management Plan (Area Plan) to take into account the increased size of the Devil’s Backbone State Natural Area. The cooperative agreement between the FS and the Tennessee State Department of
Environment and Conservation (TDEC) increased the official designated area from 160 acres to 1,386 acres in 2008. This increase was not accounted for in the 2004 Area Plan. In addition, this second scoping period is an opportunity to describe the proposed herbicide use, as well as target non-native invasive plant species in further detail.
The proposed project area is recognized as a Tennessee State Natural Area and is managed in cooperation with the State of Tennessee to restore and promote native Shortleaf Pine. The official scoping comment period is an opportunity to provide written input that will be utilized to identify any issues on the proposed actions. To be most helpful, please provide explanations of your concerns or support.
Public comments may be sent to comments-southern-land-between-lakes@fs.fed.us. Please put Devil’s Backbone in the subject line. To be most useful, your comments need to be received by November 21, 2008.
Both scoping letters are available at http://www.lbl.org/LRMPProjects.html for these details. The Devil’s Backbone project description, maps, and other information is on the Internet at http://www.lbl.org/LRMPProjects.html or by request from the project leader, Jaime Hernandez at 270-924-2073 or jahernandez@fs.fed.us
.
Additional LBL information is also available on our website at www.lbl.org or by calling 1-800-LBL-7077 or 270-924-2000.
