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This Draft Niobrara National Scenic River General Management Plan and Environmental Impact Statement is responsive to two federal courts ordering the National Park Service to prepare a general management plan and environmental impact statement that complies with the Wild and Scenic Rivers Act and National Environmental Policy Act, and to prepare boundaries that will protect and enhance the outstandingly remarkable values of the Niobrara National Scenic River. Accordingly, this draft plan presents three boundary alternatives and three alternatives for managing the Scenic River. It also analyzes the environmental consequences of implementing any of the alternatives.
Alternatives for managing the Scenic River include a no action option (Alternative A), describing a continuation of existing conditions with no National Park Service action and developed as a baseline for comparison with two action alternatives; a preferred alternative (Alternative B), developing a vision for cooperative management of the Scenic River wherein the National Park Service would provide stewardship through an array of federal, state, and local partnerships to achieve management outcomes inherent in the operation of a unit of the National Park System on a landscape that would remain largely privately owned; and Alternative C, developing a vision of independent National Park Service management on a landscape that would, in time, be federally owned within the limits permitted by the Wild and Scenic Rivers Act.
The boundary alternatives in this plan were developed separate from the management alternatives, and any boundary could be matched with any management alternative. The interim boundary set by the Wild and Scenic Rivers Act (Boundary Alternative 1 in the plan) is an inflexible one-quarter-mile from the ordinary high water mark on each side of the river and includes 24,320 acres of land. Boundary Alternative 2 favors the protection of the Niobrara's scenic and paleontological resources, while incorporating but not always favoring its inherent recreational, geologic, and fish and wildlife values. Boundary Alternative 2 includes 22,472 acres. The preferred boundary (Boundary Alternative 3) was drawn to protect as equitably as possible the Scenic River's outstandingly remarkable scenic, recreational, geologic, fish and wildlife, and paleontological values, and includes 23,074 acres.
For additional information or to comment on this plan, contact the park superintendent at:
Niobrara National Scenic River
P.O. Box 591
O'Neill, Nebraska 68763
(402) 336-3970
Superintendent
Niobrara National Scenic River
P.O. Box 591
O'Neill, Nebraska 68763
(402) 336-3970
Alternatives for managing the Scenic River include a no action option (Alternative A), describing a continuation of existing conditions with no National Park Service action and developed as a baseline for comparison with two action alternatives; a preferred alternative (Alternative B), developing a vision for cooperative management of the Scenic River wherein the National Park Service would provide stewardship through an array of federal, state, and local partnerships to achieve management outcomes inherent in the operation of a unit of the National Park System on a landscape that would remain largely privately owned; and Alternative C, developing a vision of independent National Park Service management on a landscape that would, in time, be federally owned within the limits permitted by the Wild and Scenic Rivers Act.
The boundary alternatives in this plan were developed separate from the management alternatives, and any boundary could be matched with any management alternative. The interim boundary set by the Wild and Scenic Rivers Act (Boundary Alternative 1 in the plan) is an inflexible one-quarter-mile from the ordinary high water mark on each side of the river and includes 24,320 acres of land. Boundary Alternative 2 favors the protection of the Niobrara's scenic and paleontological resources, while incorporating but not always favoring its inherent recreational, geologic, and fish and wildlife values. Boundary Alternative 2 includes 22,472 acres. The preferred boundary (Boundary Alternative 3) was drawn to protect as equitably as possible the Scenic River's outstandingly remarkable scenic, recreational, geologic, fish and wildlife, and paleontological values, and includes 23,074 acres.
For additional information or to comment on this plan, contact the park superintendent at:
Niobrara National Scenic River
P.O. Box 591
O'Neill, Nebraska 68763
(402) 336-3970
Contact Information
Paul HedrenSuperintendent
Niobrara National Scenic River
P.O. Box 591
O'Neill, Nebraska 68763
(402) 336-3970