[Federal Register Volume 73, Number 221 (Friday, November 14, 2008)]
[Notices]
[Pages 67542-67544]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: E8-27029]
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR
Bureau of Land Management
[WY-070-08-1610-DO]
Notice of Intent To Revise a Resource Management Plan for the
Buffalo Field Office, Wyoming, and Prepare an Associated Environmental
Impact Statement
AGENCY: Bureau of Land Management, Interior.
ACTION: Notice of intent.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
SUMMARY: The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) Field Office, Buffalo,
Wyoming, intends to revise a Resource Management Plan (RMP) and prepare
an associated Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) for the Buffalo
Field Office and by this notice is announcing the beginning of the
scoping process and soliciting input on the identification of issues,
proposed planning criteria, and calling for resource information. The
RMP will replace the existing Buffalo Resource Management Plan of 1985.
DATES: The BLM will announce public scoping meetings to identify
relevant issues through local news media, newsletters, and the BLM Web
site http://www.blm.gov/wy/st/en/programs/Planning/rmps/buffalo.html at
least 15 days prior to the first meeting. We will provide additional
opportunities for public participation upon publication of the Draft
RMP/EIS, including a 90-day public comment period.
ADDRESSES: You may submit comments on issues, planning criteria, and
resource information by any of the following methods:
Web site: http://www.blm.gov/wy/st/en/programs/Planning/rmps/buffalo.html.
E-mail: [email protected].
Fax: (307) 684-1122.
Mail: Buffalo RMP Revision, Attn: Thomas Bills, RMP
Technical Coordinator, Buffalo Field Office, 1425 Fort Street, Buffalo,
WY 82834.
Documents pertinent to this proposal may be examined at the BLM
Buffalo Field Office.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION: For further information and/or to have your
name added to our mailing list, contact Linda Slone, RMP Project
Manager; Telephone (307) 261-7520; e-mail [email protected] .
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: This document provides notice that the BLM
Field Office, Buffalo, Wyoming, intends to revise an RMP and prepare an
associated EIS for the Buffalo Field
[[Page 67543]]
Office and announces the beginning of the scoping process and seeks
public input on issues, planning criteria, and resource information.
The planning area is located in Campbell, Johnson, and Sheridan
counties, Wyoming and encompasses approximately 800,000 acres of public
surface land and 4.7 million acres of Federal mineral estate. The
purpose of the public scoping process is to determine relevant issues
that will influence the scope of the environmental analysis, including
alternatives, and guide the planning process.
1. Preliminary Issues
Preliminary issues for the planning area have been identified by
BLM personnel, other agencies, and in meetings with individuals and
user groups. These issues are: Energy and mineral resource exploration
and development; access to and transportation on BLM lands; recreation
and off-highway vehicle management; wildlife habitat management;
management and the cumulative effect of land uses and human activities
on threatened, endangered, candidate, and sensitive species and their
habitats; vegetation, including impacts of invasive non-native species;
management of cultural and paleontological resources, including
historic trails; landownership adjustments; fire management; livestock
grazing; visual resource management; Areas of Critical Environmental
Concern (ACEC), Wilderness Study Areas (WSA), Wild and Scenic Rivers
(W&SR), or other special management areas; and air and water quality.
2. Preliminary Planning Criteria
Proposed planning criteria are the following:
1. The proposed RMP will be in compliance with Federal Land Policy
and Management Act and all other applicable laws, regulations, and
policies.
2. Impacts from the management alternatives considered in the
revised RMP will be analyzed in an EIS developed in accordance with
regulations at 43 CFR 1610 and 40 CFR 1500.
3. Lands covered in the RMP will be public surface land and Federal
mineral estate managed by BLM. No decisions will be made relative to
non-BLM administered lands.
4. The planning process will follow 10 stages of an EIS-level
planning process: conducting scoping; development of a Management
Situation Analysis report; formulation of alternatives; analysis of the
alternatives' effects; selection of a preferred alternative;
publication of a Draft RMP/EIS, providing a 90-day public comment
period; preparation and publication of a Proposed Plan/Final EIS,
providing a 30-day public protest period; and preparation of a Record
of Decision and Approved RMP. For specific information, please see the
Land Use Planning Handbook, H-1601-1.
5. For program specific guidance of land use planning level
decisions, the process will follow the Land Use Planning Manual 1601
and Handbook H-1601-1, Appendix C.
6. Broad-based public participation will be an integral part of the
planning and EIS process.
7. Decisions in the plan will strive to be compatible with the
existing plans and policies of adjacent local, State, Federal, and
Tribal agencies as long as the decisions are consistent with the
purposes, policies, and programs of Federal law, and regulations
applicable to public lands.
8. The RMP will recognize the State's responsibility and authority
to manage wildlife. BLM will coordinate with the Wyoming Game and Fish
Department.
9. The National Sage-grouse Strategy requires that impacts to
sagebrush habitat and sagebrush-dependent wildlife species be analyzed
and considered in BLM land use planning efforts for public lands with
sagebrush habitat in the planning area.
10. The RMP will recognize valid and existing rights.
11. The RMP/EIS will incorporate management decisions brought
forward from existing planning documents.
12. The planning team will work cooperatively and collaboratively
with cooperating agencies and all other interested groups, agencies,
and individuals.
13. The BLM and cooperating agencies will jointly develop
alternatives for resolution of resource management issues and
management concerns.
14. The planning process will incorporate the Standards for Healthy
Rangelands and Guidelines for Livestock Grazing Management for Public
Lands Administered by the Bureau of Land Management in the State of
Wyoming as goal statements.
15. Areas with special environmental quality will be protected and
if necessary designated as ACECs, W&SR, or other appropriate
designations.
16. Any public land surface found to meet the suitability factors
to be given further consideration for inclusion in the W&SR System will
be addressed in the RMP revision effort in terms of developing interim
management options in the alternatives for the EIS.
17. WSAs will continue to be managed under the Interim Management
Policy (IMP) for Lands under Wilderness Review until Congress either
designates all or portions of the WSA as wilderness or releases the
lands from further wilderness consideration. It is no longer the policy
of the BLM to make formal determinations regarding wilderness
character, to designate additional WSAs through the RMP process, or to
manage any lands other than existing WSAs in accordance with the
Wilderness IMP.
18. Forest management strategies will be consistent with the
Healthy Forests Restoration Act.
19. Fire Management strategies will be consistent with the Wyoming
Fire Management Plan (2004).
20. GIS and metadata information will meet Federal Geographic Data
Committee (FGDC) standards, as required by Executive Order 12906. All
other applicable BLM data standards will also be followed.
21. The planning process will involve American Indian Tribal
governments and will provide strategies for the protection of
recognized traditional uses.
22. All proposed management actions will be based upon current
scientific information, research and technology, as well as existing
inventory and monitoring information.
23. The RMP will include adaptive management criteria and protocols
to deal with future issues.
24. The planning process will use the Wyoming BLM Mitigation
Guidelines to develop management options and alternatives and analyze
their impacts, and as part of the planning criteria for developing the
options and alternatives and for determining mitigation requirements.
25. A reasonable foreseeable development scenario for fluid
minerals will be developed.
26. Planning and management direction will be focused on the
relative values of resources and not the combination of uses that will
give the greatest economic return or economic output.
27. Where practicable and timely for the planning effort, current
scientific information, research, and new technologies will be
considered.
28. Known areas in the Buffalo planning area with coal development
potential are located in Campbell and Sheridan counties, Wyoming. Coal
screening determinations were made on these areas and updated during
planning efforts for the existing Buffalo
[[Page 67544]]
RMP and the Thunder Basin National Grasslands Land and Resource
Management Plan. No additional coal screening determinations with
associated coal planning decisions are planned for the Buffalo RMP,
unless public submissions of coal resource information or surface
resource issues indicate a need to update these determinations.
29. The RMP/EIS will address the Pennaco Court Decision (Docket No.
02-CV-116-CAB) requiring analysis of coalbed natural gas development
for fluid mineral leasing decisions in the Powder River Basin.
3. Public Participation
You may submit comments on issues, planning criteria, and resource
information in writing to the BLM at any public scoping meeting, or you
may submit them to the BLM using one of the methods listed in the
ADDRESSES section above. To be most helpful, you should submit comments
within 30 days after the last public meeting. Before including your
address, phone number, e-mail address, or other personal identifying
information in your comment, you should be aware that your entire
comment--including your personal identifying information--may be made
publicly available at any time. While you can ask us in your comment to
withhold your personal identifying information from public review, we
cannot guarantee that we will be able to do so. The minutes and list of
attendees for each scoping meeting will be available to the public and
open for 30 days after the meeting to any participant who wishes to
clarify the views he or she expressed.
4. Categorization of Issues
The BLM will evaluate identified issues to be addressed in the
plan, and will place them into one of three categories:
1. Issues to be resolved in the plan;
2. Issues to be resolved through policy or administrative action;
or
3. Issues beyond the scope of this plan.
The BLM will provide an explanation in the plan as to why we placed
an issue in category two or three. The public is also encouraged to
help identify any management questions and concerns that should be
addressed in the plan. The BLM will work collaboratively with
interested parties to identify the management decisions that are best
suited to local, regional, and national needs and concerns.
5. Call for Coal and Other Resource Information
Parties interested in leasing and development of Federal coal in
the planning area should provide coal resource data for their area(s)
of interest. Specifically, information is requested on the location,
quality, and quantity of Federal coal with development potential, and
on surface resource values related to the 20 coal unsuitability
criteria described in 43 CFR 3461. This information will be used for
any necessary updating of coal screening determination (43 CFR 3420.1-
4) in the area and in the environmental analysis.
In addition to coal resource data, the BLM seeks resource
information and data for other public land values (e.g., air quality,
cultural and historic resources, fire/fuels, fisheries, forestry, lands
and realty, non-energy minerals and geology, oil and gas (including
coalbed natural gas), paleontology, rangeland management, recreation,
soil, water, and wildlife) in the planning area. The purpose of this
request is to assure that the planning effort has sufficient
information and data to consider a reasonable range of resource uses,
management options, and alternatives for management of the public
lands.
Proprietary data marked as confidential may be submitted in
response to this call for coal and other resource information. Please
submit all proprietary information submissions to the Buffalo Field
Manager at the address listed above. The BLM will treat submissions
marked as ``Confidential'' in accordance with the laws and regulations
governing the confidentiality of such information.
6. Interdisciplinary Team Approach
The BLM will use an interdisciplinary approach to develop the plan
in order to consider the variety of resource issues and concerns
identified. Specialists with expertise in the following disciplines
will be involved in the planning process: Air quality, archaeology,
fire/fuels, fisheries and wildlife, forestry and other vegetative
communities, hydrology, hazardous materials, lands and realty, minerals
and geology, paleontology, rangeland management, recreation, soils,
sociology, and economics.
Authority: 43 CFR 1610.2(c) and 3420.1-2.
Donald A. Simpson,
Acting State Director.
[FR Doc. E8-27029 Filed 11-13-08; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4310-22-P