[Federal Register Volume 65, Number 161 (Friday, August 18, 2000)]
[Notices]
[Pages 50562-50563]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 00-21065]


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DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR Bureau of Land Management

[C0-150-00-1210-PA-242A]


Notice of Intent to Amend the Uncompahgre Resource Management 
Plan and Environmental Impact; Statement and Prepare a National 
Conservation Area Management Plan and Environmental Impact; Statement 
for the Gunnison Gorge National Conservation Area and Wilderness

AGENCY: Bureau of Land Management (BLM), Uncompahgre Field Office, 
Montrose, Colorado.

ACTION: Notice; Intent to amend the Uncompahgre Basin Resource 
Management Plan (RMP) and associated Environmental Impact Statement 
(EIS) and invite public comment for the preparation of management plan 
for the Gunnison Gorge National Conservation Area (NCA) and Wilderness.

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SUMMARY: This document provides notice of the Bureau of Land 
Management's intent to amend its Uncompahgre Basin Resource Management 
Plan governing the management of public land within the Uncompahgre 
Field Office Area in southwest Colorado, in particular, those lands 
within and adjacent to the newly designated Gunnison Gorge National 
Conservation Area and Wilderness, formerly managed as the Gunnison 
Gorge Special Recreation Management Area (SRMA) and Wilderness Study 
Area (WSA). This notice also initiates the public scoping process for 
the

[[Page 50563]]

preparation of the Gunnison Gorge NCA/Wilderness plan to examine 
proposed issues and planning criteria. This scoping process will also 
include an evaluation of the existing Resource Management Plan in the 
context of NCA management.

ADDRESSES: For further information and/or to have your name added to 
the NCA/Wilderness Plan mailing list, contact Karen Tucker, Bureau of 
Land Management, Uncompahgre Field Office, 2505 South Townsend Ave., 
Montrose, CO 81401; Telephone (970) 240-5309; Fax. (970) 240-5367.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The Gunnison Gorge National Conservation 
Area and Wilderness Plan will replace the existing Recreation Area 
Management Plan for the Gunnison Gorge Recreation Lands, Colorado 
(RAMP, 1985) and Addition to the Recreation Area Management Plan (RAMP 
Add., 1988) and amend the Uncompahgre Basin Resource Management Plan 
and Environmental Impact Statement (RMP/EIS, 1987). Existing decisions 
in those documents which are still valid will be carried forward into 
the new NCA Management Plan. The Uncompahgre RMP/EIS and Gunnison Gorge 
Recreation Area Management Plans are located in the Uncompahgre Field 
Office in Montrose, Colorado.
    The NCA planning area includes the 57,725 acres Gunnison Gorge 
National Conservation Area and 17,700 acres Gunnison Gorge Wilderness 
Area included within the NCA boundary. Other BLM lands immediately 
adjacent to the NCA, Wilderness Area, and Black Canyon of the Gunnison 
National Park will also be included within the planning area boundary. 
These lands include, but are not limited to the former Tri-State lands, 
approximately 5,000 acres located at the northwest end of the NCA, 
public lands in the Peach Valley and Flat Top area on the NCA's west 
and south border, and public lands on the east side of the Gunnison 
River in the Red Canyon and Fruitland Mesa areas.
    Public and focus groups meetings will be held throughout the plan 
scoping and preparation period. Meeting locations will be rotated 
between the towns of Montrose, Delta, Olathe, Hotchkiss, Crawford, and 
Paonia in order to ensure local community participation and input. An 
interactive NCA web site will provide additional opportunities for 
public comment and participation. Written comments will also be 
accepted throughout the planning process at the address shown above. A 
newsletter will be sent out to all interested individuals and groups 
requesting comments on the planning proposal. Meetings and comment 
deadlines will be announced through the local news media, in the 
newsletter, and on the BLM NCA web site. Additional public 
participation opportunities will be provided for comment on the 
alternatives and upon publishing the Draft NCA/EIS.
    Documents pertinent to this proposal may be examined at the BLM 
office in Montrose, Colorado. Some of the issues that have been 
identified in the initial phases of the NCA Plan process include: Water 
quantity and quality, water rights, landscape health, riparian and 
aquatic habitat protection, threatened and endangered specie habitat 
protection, wildlife habitat quality and fragmentation, declining 
biodiversity, reintroduction of native species, and noxious weed 
control. Other factors to be considered include recreation and resource 
use, protection of wilderness, riparian, and scenic values, the level 
and intensity of recreation management, including allocation of 
commercial and private river and upland use, upgrade and new 
construction of recreation facilities, cultural resource protection and 
interpretation, grazing of livestock, management of the mineral estate 
on adjacent areas not withdrawn from mineral entry and location, public 
access, transportation and utility corridors, off highway vehicle 
designations, and woodland product harvest.
    The following disciplines will be represented on the BLM planning 
team: Wilderness, recreation, wildlife, fisheries, range management, 
forestry, geology, realty, soils, and hydrology. Planning criteria 
include: policy, legal, and regulatory constraints, The Black Canyon of 
the Gunnison National Park and Gunnison Gorge National Conservation 
Area Act of 1999 (P. L. 106-76, October 21, 1999), the Wilderness Act, 
public land health standards, as well as other requirements to maintain 
scenic values, recreational values and meet public recreation demands, 
determine the level of management intensity required, determine the 
need for land or easement acquisition, and set management objectives to 
protect the priority resources within the NCA and Wilderness.

BACKGROUND INFORMATION: The Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park 
and Gunnison Gorge National Conservation Area Act of 1999 designated 
the 57, 25 acre Gunnison Gorge National Conservation Area (NCA) and 
Wilderness Area (17,700 acres) which are managed by the Bureau of Land 
Management Uncompahgre Field Office (UFO) in Montrose, Colorado. The 
Act also upgraded the former Black Canyon of the Gunnison National 
Monument (which is contiguous to the NCA) to National Park status and 
expanded the National Park with the transfer of approximately 7,000 
acres of former BLM managed land to the National Park Service. A 
National Conservation Area or NCA is the designation given by the U.S. 
Congress to special lands managed by the Bureau of Land Management to 
permanently protect and conserve identified resource values of national 
interest. The 1999 Act directs the BLM to develop a ``comprehensive 
plan for the long-range protection and management of the Conservation 
Area'' within four years of the designation date.

    Dated: August 10, 2000.
Allan J. Belt,
Uncompahgre Field Office Manager.
[FR Doc. 00-21065 Filed 8-17-00; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4310-JB-P