Here’s where the list of CEs are for those curious. Somehow in all the discussion of Cat 6, I missed this one (which does have an acreage limit).
Update: It was one of the 2020 administrative CEs established based on the EADM effort via a rulemaking here.
On January 3, 2018, the USFS published in the Federal Register an Advance Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (83 FR 302) associated with the Agency’s Environmental Analysis and Decision Making (EADM) change effort. On June 13, 2019, the USFS published the proposed rule to update the Agency’s NEPA procedures, including several proposed CEs (80 FR 27544). In response to public comments on the proposed rule, some of the proposed CEs were modified or deleted. The CEs outlined in this document reflect those modifications and the CEs being established in the final rule.
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25) Forest and grassland management activities with a primary purpose of meeting restoration objectives or increasing resilience. Activities to improve ecosystem health, resilience, and other watershed and habitat conditions may not exceed 2,800 acres.
(i) Activities to meet restoration and resilience objectives may include, but are not limited to:
(A) Stream restoration, aquatic organism passage rehabilitation, or erosion control;
(B) Invasive species control and reestablishment of native
species;
(C) Prescribed burning;
(D) Reforestation;
(E) Road and/or trail decommissioning (system and non-system);
(F) Pruning;
(G) Vegetation thinning; and
(H) Timber harvesting.
(ii) The following requirements or limitations apply to this category:
(A) Projects shall be developed or refined through a collaborative process that includes multiple interested persons representing diverse interests;
(B) Vegetation thinning or timber harvesting activities shall be designed to achieve ecological restoration objectives, but shall not include salvage harvesting as defined in Agency
policy; and
(C) Construction and reconstruction of permanent roads is limited to 0.5 miles.
Construction of temporary roads is limited to 2.5 miles, and all temporary roads shall be decommissioned no later than 3 years after the date the project is completed. Projects may include repair and maintenance of NFS roads and trails to prevent or address resource impacts; repair and maintenance of NFS roads and trails is not subject to the above mileage limits.
Thanks for that clarification – which leads to the question of why “thinning or brush control to improve growth or to reduce fire hazard” was determined to have effects that did not warrant an acreage limit in CE-6, while thinning activities (G) with a purpose of “meeting restoration objectives or increasing resilience” did need an acreage limit in CE-25. The purpose of projects should have nothing to do with the significance of effects when establishing a CE. Something smells arbitrary here.