In order to protect and enhance certain scenery and wildlife within the Ouachita National Forest, Oklahoma, certain lands within such national forest, as generally depicted on a map entitled “Beech Creek National Scenic Area—Proposed”, dated March 1988, are hereby designated as the “Beech Creek National Scenic Area” (hereinafter in this subchapter referred to as the “national scenic area”).

The Secretary of Agriculture (hereinafter in this section referred to as the “Secretary”) shall, as soon as practicable after October 18, 1988, file a map and a legal description of the national scenic area with the Committee on Interior and Insular Affairs and the Committee on Agriculture of the United States House of Representatives and the Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry of the United States Senate. Each such map and legal description shall have the same force and effect as if included in this subchapter; except that correction of clerical and typographical errors in such legal description and map may be made. The map and legal description shall be on file and available for public inspection in the Office of the Chief of the Forest Service, Department of Agriculture.

The Secretary shall administer the national scenic area in accordance with the laws, rules, and regulations applicable to the national forests in such manner as will best further the purposes of this section, as set forth in subsection (a). Timber management practices within the area shall promote a mixed hardwood and conifer forest with species and age class diversity approximating natural succession and with significant mast production and den trees for wildlife. Unevenaged management shall be the timber management practice in the area, except that the Secretary is authorized to use evenaged management practices in order to promote public safety or to mitigate the effects of fire, insects, and disease.

(Pub. L. 100–499, § 11, Oct. 18, 1988, 102 Stat. 2496.)