Whiskeytown Unit, Whiskeytown-Shasta-Trinity National Recreation Area; Bicycling

DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR <SUBAGY>National Park Service</SUBAGY> <CFR>36 CFR Part 7</CFR> <DEPDOC>[NPS-WHIS-NPS38501; PX.P0234207B.00.1-PPPWWHISM0-PFE00FEPR.YP0000]</DEPDOC> <RIN>RIN 1024-AE52</RIN> <SUBJECT>Whiskeytown Unit, Whiskeytown-Shasta-Trinity National Recreation Area; Bicycling</SUBJECT> <HD SOURCE="HED">AGENCY:</HD> National Park Service, Interior. <HD SOURCE="HED">ACTION:</HD> Proposed rule. <SUM> <HD SOURCE="HED">SUMMARY:</HD> The National Park Service proposes to amend the special regulations for Whiskeytown National Recreation Area to allow bicycle use on approximately 79.8 miles of multi-use trails. National Park Service regulations require promulgation of a special regulation to allow bicycles on new trails outside of developed areas and for existing trails that require construction or significant modification to accommodate bicycles. </SUM> <EFFDATE> <HD SOURCE="HED">DATES:</HD> Comments on the proposed rule must be received by 11:59 p.m. EDT on February 28, 2025. </EFFDATE> <HD SOURCE="HED">ADDRESSES:</HD> You may submit comments, identified by Regulation Identifier Number (RIN) 1024-AE52, by either of the following methods: (1) <E T="03">Electronically:</E> Go to the Federal eRulemaking Portal: <E T="03">https://www.regulations.gov.</E> Follow the instructions for submitting comments. (2) <E T="03">By hard copy:</E> Mail to: Superintendent, Whiskeytown National Recreation Area, P.O. Box 188, Whiskeytown, CA 96095. <E T="03">Document Availability:</E> The Trails Management Plan and Environmental Assessment and the Finding of No Significant Impact provide information and context for this proposed rule and are available online at <E T="03">https://parkplanning.nps.gov/whis</E> by clicking the link entitled “All Docs & Projects,” then clicking the link entitled “Whiskeytown NRA Trails Management Plan,” and then clicking the link entitled “Document List.” <E T="03">Instructions:</E> Comments will not be accepted by fax, email, or in any way other than those specified above. All submissions received must include the words “National Park Service” or “NPS” and must include the docket number or RIN (1024-AE52) for this rulemaking. Comments received may be posted without change to <E T="03">https://www.regulations.gov,</E> including any personal information provided. <E T="03">Docket:</E> For access to the docket to read background documents or comments received, go to <E T="03">https://www.regulations.gov</E> and search for “1024-AE52”. <FURINF> <HD SOURCE="HED">FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:</HD> Laura Shaskey, Division Manager, Resources and Interpretation, Whiskeytown National Recreation Area; phone: 530-242-3457; email: <E T="03">Laura_Shaskey@nps.gov.</E> Individuals in the United States who are deaf, deafblind, hard of hearing, or have a speech disability may dial 711 (TTY, TDD, or TeleBraille) to access telecommunications relay services. Individuals outside the United States should use the relay services offered within their country to make international calls to the point-of-contact in the United States. In compliance with the Providing Accountability Through Transparency Act of 2023, the plain language summary of the proposal is available on <E T="03">Regulations.gov</E> in the docket for this rulemaking. </FURINF> <SUPLINF> <HD SOURCE="HED">SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:</HD> <HD SOURCE="HD1">Background</HD> <HD SOURCE="HD2">Purpose and Management Authority for the Recreation Area</HD> Congress established the Whiskeytown-Shasta-Trinity National Recreation Area in 1965 for public outdoor recreation, use and enjoyment. 16 U.S.C. 460q. Congress directed the Secretary of the Interior to administer the Whiskeytown unit and directed the Secretary of Agriculture to administer the Shasta and Trinity units. The National Park Service (NPS) administers the Whiskeytown unit, on the behalf of the Secretary of the Interior, as the Whiskeytown National Recreation Area (referred to in this document as the “recreation area”). The U.S. Forest Service manages the Shasta and Trinity units, on behalf of the Secretary of Agriculture, as the Shasta-Trinity National Recreation Area. Each bureau is required to administer their units in a manner that will best provide for public outdoor recreation benefits and conserve the scenic, scientific, historic, and other values that contribute to public enjoyment. 16 U.S.C. 460q-3. In addition to the enabling legislation described above, the NPS manages the recreation area pursuant to the NPS Organic Act of 1916, which gives the NPS broad authority to regulate the use of the lands and waters that it administers as part of the National Park System. See 54 U.S.C. 100101; 100751(a). <HD SOURCE="HD2">Significance and Visitor Use of the Recreation Area</HD> The recreation area encompasses 42,497 acres in Shasta County, nestled within the Klamath Mountains in Northern California. The recreation area has diverse ecosystems ranging from oak scrubland to dense coniferous forests, with elevations ranging from 800 feet in lower Clear Creek to more than 6,200 feet atop Shasta Bally. This dynamic landscape, range in elevation, rugged topography, and numerous soil types contribute to a rich biodiversity. These habitats provide shelter and sustenance to an abundant and diverse wildlife community, including numerous species of concern and other rare species. High-elevation forests have been profoundly influenced by wildland fire. Fire management continues to play a key role in the preservation and restoration of natural communities in the recreation area. The recreation area includes significant cultural resources. For thousands of years before the arrival of European Americans, the Wintu People and their ancestors lived in villages along Clear Creek and its tributaries. Archeological remains document their extensive habitation and use of the land, and traditional ties to the recreational area remain among contemporary Wintu. In the early part of the 19th century, European explorers and trappers began visiting the upper Sacramento Valley and Wintu homelands. They were soon followed by parties of settlers on their way to central California and Oregon, and in 1848 gold was discovered on Clear Creek just south of the recreation area. During the 100-year gold rush, lands within the recreation area were subject to intensive mining exploration and development. This history of mining is evident throughout the recreation area. In the early 1900s, the United States Government began establishing the Central Valley Project to manage the water of the Sacramento River and provide for its use in the Central Valley of California. The construction of Whiskeytown Dam in 1962 created Whiskeytown Lake. With 36 miles of shoreline, the crystal-clear water of Whiskeytown Lake is perhaps the most recognized feature of the recreation area. Due to its forested, mountain setting and consistent water level, the lake provides high-quality recreational opportunities throughout the primary recreation season. Visitors enjoy swimming, beaches, lakeside camping, boating, sport fishing, and picnicking. Beyond the shoreline of the lake, the rugged canyons, forests, streams, and waterfalls within the recreation area provide visitors with outstanding recreational opportunities. An extensive trail system allows visitors to experience a variety of forested terrain for birdwatching, camping, picnicking, wildlife viewing, hiking, horseback riding, and bicycling. Trails are located primarily upon historic logging and mining infrastructure south, east, and west of Whiskeytown Lake. In total, more than 800,000 visitors come to enjoy the recreation area each year, including casual sightseers, experienced adventurers and everyone in between. <HD SOURCE="HD2">Bicycle Use in the Recreation Area</HD> Bicycle use has occurred in the recreation areas for several decades. Today, bicycles are used on roads that are open to public motor vehicle use, on 42.2 miles of administrative roads that are closed to motor vehicle use by the public but open to motor vehicle use by the NPS for administrative purposes, and on the majority of trails in the existing trail system. Public roads, administrative roads, and trails that are open to traditional bicycles are also open to Class 1 electric bicycles, which are defined in NPS regulations as an electric bicycle equipped with a motor that provides assistance only when the rider is pedaling, and that ceases to provide assistance when the bicycle reaches the speed of 20 miles per hour. Class 2 and 3 electric bicycles are not allowed on trails or administrative roads within the recreation area, however they are permitted on roads that are open to public motor vehicle use. The trails identified below are closed to bicycle use: • All portions of the Shasta Divide Nature Trail between Kennedy Memorial Drive and Whiskeytown Lake. • All portions of the Davis Gulch Trail between the trailheads at Kennedy Memorial Drive and the Brandy Creek Day Use Area. • All portions of the Crystal Creek Water Ditch Trail. • James K. Carr Trail to Whiskeytown Falls (from Mill Creek Trail junction to the falls). • Boulder Creek Falls Trail. • The portion of Brandy Creek Falls Trail beyond the intersection with Rich Gulch Trail. Other trails in the network are reserved for use by the Whiskeytown Environmental School (WES) and are not open to the public. These WES-only trails are the Ladybug Lane Trail, Martha's Ditch Trail and the Ridge Trail. <HD SOURCE="HD2">Trails Management Plan Environmental Assessment</HD> With the growth of the city of Redding eight miles to the east, the recreation area has transitioned from a wildland setting to an urban location that offers recreation opportunities for the largest metropolitan area in the northern Sacramento Valley. Facilities and infrastructure ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Preview showing 10k of 37k characters. Full document text is stored and available for version comparison. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━