Decision Notice and Finding of No Significant Impact South Fowl ...

“Human environment shall be interpreted comprehensively to include the
natural and physical environment and the relationship of people with that
environment. The means that economic or social effects are not intended
by them selves to require preparation of an environmental impact
statement.”
While there is considerable debate and disagreement, much of that debate
surrounds Forest Service land management policy and is beyond the scope of this
project. There may never be full agreement on that policy; however that policy
was decided through law, which includes our Forest Plan. This decision is in full
compliance with law, regulation and policy. The fact that the debate continues
does not result in that being a significant issue for this project.
B. Intensity – CEQ 1508.27 (b) states that intensity refers to the severity of the impact.
The severity of the impact will not be significant based on the following:
1. Both adverse and beneficial impacts of the selected alternative are discussed in
Chapter 3 of the EA. Beneficial effects have not been used to offset or
compensate for potential adverse effects. Based on my experience, the EA, BE,
and planning record, there are no significant adverse or beneficial effects of the
selected alternatives.
As discussed for Alternative 2 above, the primary impacts to the BWCAW are
sights and sounds of snowmobiles in the winter. There will be no physical
impacts to the Wilderness. Intensity of the sound is fairly simple to relate, the
perception is more difficult. A normal conversation is about 72 decibels at 0.5
feet and 60 decibels at 2 feet (EPA, 2006). A snowmobile operated at 15 miles
per hour is measured at 73 decibels at 50 feet (ACSA, 2004). The closest distance
to Royal Lake is 600-800 feet from the proposed route, so the decibel level would
be 24 decibels lower (MPCA 1999) to 49, for a person on Royal Lake, through
open air. For comparison sake, a typical library is 50 decibels while a remote
forest is 30 decibels. At the design speed (average safe speed for the trail) of 15
miles per hour, it would take a snowmobile roughly eight minutes to travel the 2.2
miles through the northern route. Again, at that slow pace, the time a snowmobile
might be visible would be about 5 seconds at a perceptible level of approximately
49 decibels. In this location of the BWCAW, I find that impact is not significant.
Sights and sounds are also an issue for Alternative 4. There are folks who don’t
want to hear snowmobiles from their cabins on McFarland Lake. Alternative 4
would put greater sounds near those cabins; snowmobiling is quite common near
roads and would occur even under no action. These impacts, although they may
be unwelcome, are not significant.
Intensity of the impact to rare plants is not significant since there were no
federally listed sensitive plants found along the route. Indirect impacts are
speculative, i.e. “What if rock climbers started using these cliffs?” Or, “What if
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