[Federal Register Volume 66, Number 235 (Thursday, December 6, 2001)]
[Notices]
[Pages 63404-63405]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 01-30277]


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DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR

Bureau of Land Management

[WY-040-01-1610]


Notice of Intent To Prepare an Environmental Impact Statement for 
the Coordinated Activity Plan for the Jack Morrow Hills Area, 
Sweetwater, Fremont, and Sublette Counties, WY

AGENCY: Bureau of Land Management, Interior.

ACTION: Notice of intent.

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SUMMARY: The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) Rock Springs Field Office 
proposes to prepare a Supplemental Draft Environmental Impact Statement 
(EIS), Coordinated Activity Plan (CAP), and amendment to the Green 
River Resource Management Plan (GRRMP) for the Jack Morrow Hills (JMH) 
area of Wyoming. The JMH CAP is an integrated activity planning effort 
to provide more specific management direction for certain public lands 
located in Sweetwater, Fremont, and Sublette Counties, Wyoming. The JMH 
CAP will amend the GRRMP with regard to fluid mineral leasing and 
mineral location. Comments to the draft EIS for the CAP, issued in July 
2000, resulted in the submission of new resource information; 
consequently, the BLM is preparing a supplemental draft EIS for the JMH 
CAP. To the extent possible, existing analyses and information used to 
prepare the original draft EIS will be updated and used in preparing 
the supplemental draft EIS.
    This notice also requests any resource information, including fluid 
mineral resource information (oil and gas, coalbed methane), mineral 
location information (gold, diamonds), operational or development 
plans, and other resource information that will help in developing 
fluid mineral and mineral location management direction, Resource 
Management Plan (RMP) decisions, and in analyzing environmental 
impacts.

DATES: The official scoping period for this planning effort will 
commence with the publication of this notice. Open house workshops will 
be scheduled in Lander and Rock Springs, Wyoming, during the week of 
December 9, 2001. Two scoping meetings will be held in these same 
locations during the week of January 6, 2002. Notification of the open 
house-information sharing workshops and the scoping meetings will be 
done through public notices, media news releases, internet postings, 
and/or mailings. The purpose of these workshops and scoping meetings is 
to share information, identify specific concerns and issues pertaining 
to the various resource and land use values in the JMH CAP planning 
area, and to identify any data gaps, needs and data sources pertaining 
to the area. Scoping comments must be submitted by January 11, 2002, or 
within 30 days of publication of this notice, whichever occurs later.
    Future meetings, hearings, or any other public involvement 
activities will be scheduled as needed. Notification of these 
activities will be through other public notices, media news releases, 
internet postings, or mailings.

ADDRESSES: Scoping comments must be submitted to: Rock Springs BLM 
Field Office, 280 Highway 191 North, Rock Springs, Wyoming 82901. 
Comments submitted by electronic mail should be sent to: 
[email protected], reference Supplemental Draft in the 
subject line. All comments must include legible full name and return 
address on the envelope, letter, postcard, or e-mail. Public comments 
submitted for this planning effort, including names and street 
addresses of respondents, will be available for public review after the 
comment period closes at the Rock Springs Field Office during regular 
business hours (7:45 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.), Monday through Friday, except 
holidays. All submissions from organizations, or businesses, and from 
individuals who are representatives or officials of organizations, or 
businesses, will be made available for public inspection in their 
entirety. Individual respondents may request confidentiality. If you 
wish to withhold your name or address from public review, or from 
disclosure, under the Freedom of Information Act, you must state this 
prominently at the beginning of your comments. Such requests will be 
honored to the extent allowed by law.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Andy Tenney, Assistant Team Leader, 
Bureau of Land Management, Rock Springs Field Office, 280 Highway 191 
North, Rock Springs, Wyoming 82901-3447, telephone number 307-352-0311.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The JMH CAP planning area contains 622,340 
acres of Federal, State, and private lands. It includes Steamboat 
Mountain, the Greater Sand Dunes, White Mountain Petroglyphs, and 
Oregon Buttes Areas of Critical Environmental Concern (ACEC); seven 
wilderness study areas; and part of the South Pass Historic Landscape 
ACEC. BLM has deferred fluid mineral leasing and mineral location 
decisions in the Jack Morrow Hills core area and has placed a 
moratorium on fluid mineral leasing throughout the JMH CAP planning 
area pending completion of this CAP. This planning effort will address 
the leasing and development of energy resources; transportation 
planning, access, designation of roads; wildlife habitat and vegetation 
management; livestock grazing practices; and other issues.
    In conformance with the Federal Land Policy and Management Act 
(FLPMA) and the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), a 
supplemental draft EIS will be prepared in the course of developing the 
CAP. The existing GRRMP and interim management criteria will guide 
management actions in the JMH CAP area until the CAP is completed.
    BLM invites public identification of the issues that should be 
addressed in the JMH CAP planning process. Comments may be sent to the 
address above. Preliminary issues that have been identified to date 
include:
    Issue 1: Minerals Resource Management and Rights-of-Way.
    Issue 2: Resource Uses Affecting Vegetation, Soils, Air, and 
Watershed Values.
    Issue 3: Recreation and Cultural Resource Management.
    Issue 4: Special Management Area Resource Management.
    Public participation will be an essential component of the 
supplemental draft EIS and Coordinated Activity Plan preparation 
process. Several techniques for public involvement will be used 
including: Federal Register announcements, one-to-one discussion with 
key groups and individuals interested in the JMH CAP area, internet 
postings, news releases and articles in the local media, and individual 
mailings to all parties who have expressed an interest in the process. 
For those persons wishing to be placed on this mailing list, a BLM 
contact is provided elsewhere in this notice.
    RMP level decisions to be made through the CAP will constitute 
amendment to the Green River RMP and will be subject to protest by 
parties who participate in the planning process and who have an 
interest which is, or may be, adversely affected by the adoption of RMP 
decision as provided by Title 43, Code of Federal Regulations, 
Sec. 1610.5-2 (43 CFR 1610.5-2).


[[Page 63405]]


    Dated: November 13, 2001.
Alan R. Pierson,
State Director.
[FR Doc. 01-30277 Filed 12-5-01; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4310-22-P