[Federal Register Volume 67, Number 37 (Monday, February 25, 2002)]
[Notices]
[Pages 8700-8701]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 02-4494]
[[Page 8699]]
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Part IV
Department of Interior
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Bureau of Land Management
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Resource Management Plans; Pinedale and Rawlins, Wyoming; Notice
Federal Register / Vol. 67, No. 37 / Monday, February 25, 2002 /
Notices
[[Page 8700]]
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
DEPARTMENT OF INTERIOR
Bureau of Land Management
[WY-030-02-1610; WY-100-02-1610]
Resource Management Plans; Pinedale and Rawlins, WY
AGENCY: Bureau of Land Management, Interior.
ACTION: Notice of Intent to Revise the Pinedale Resource Management
Plan (RMP) and Call for Coal and Other Resource Information for the
Bureau of Land Management (BLM) Pinedale Field Office, Pinedale,
Wyoming.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
SUMMARY: The BLM Pinedale Field Office is initiating a revision of the
Pinedale Resource Management Plan (RMP) to guide future management
actions on the public lands within the Pinedale Field Office
administrative (or management) area. The existing Pinedale RMP will
continue to guide management actions and decisions for the Pinedale
Field Office until the RMP revision is completed.
The revised RMP will be a comprehensive land use plan that will
allocate and identify allowable public land and resource uses, land use
and resource condition management goals, public land and resource use
conditional requirements, and general management practices needed to
achieve RMP objectives. It will also identify lands available for
consideration for transfer from BLM jurisdiction (via public
disposition or transfer to another agency). Requirements, standards,
and procedures for preparing RMPs are contained in 43 CFR 1600, BLM
Manual 1601 and BLM Handbook H-1601-1. The BLM Washington Office
provides further guidance for BLM land use planning. The BLM Wyoming
State Office will continue to provide guidance for land use planning in
the ten Field Offices in the State of Wyoming to guide BLM managers in
producing balanced public land and resource use decisions that meet
requirements of law and regulation. The Pinedale Field Office will
develop planning criteria applicable to the planning effort to provide
the public a preview of the types of considerations that will be made
in developing the RMP decisions for the planning area.
Freedom of Information Act Considerations: Public comments
submitted for this planning effort, including names and street
addresses of respondents, will be available for public review in their
entirety after comment periods close, during regular business hours
(7:45 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.), Monday through Friday, except holidays, at
the Pinedale Field Office. 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. All
submissions from organizations or businesses, and from individuals or
officials representing organizations or businesses, will be made
available for public inspection in their entirety.
DATES: This initial call for coal and other resource information and
identification of issues for this planning effort will be open for 60
days, and will commence with the date following publication of this
notice in the Federal Register. Notification of future scoping
activities and meetings and other meetings or hearings and any other
public involvement activities that may be scheduled during the course
of the planning effort will be handled through public notices, media
news releases, internet postings, or mailings.
The purpose of this call for resource data, issues, and concerns is
to help BLM identify specific problems, concerns, and issues pertaining
to the various resource and land use values in the Pinedale planning
area and to help identify any data gaps, data needs, and data sources
pertaining to the planning area. This planning effort is scheduled to
be completed by the fall of 2004.
ADDRESSES: Documentation of the planning process and completed
documents for the Pinedale RMP planning area will be available at 432
East Mill Street, P.O. Box 768, Pinedale, Wyoming 82941-0768. All
comments must include legible full name and address on the envelope,
letter, or postcard.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: If you wish to be placed on the
Pinedale RMP mailing list, or if you wish to comment on the preliminary
list of public land and resource problems, conflicts, concerns, or
issues being considered in the Pinedale RMP revision, contact Kellie
Roadifer, Pinedale RMP team leader, at the Pinedale address above or
phone (307) 367-5309.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The current Pinedale RMP provides guidance
and direction for management of approximately 931,000 acres of BLM-
administered public land surface and 1,185,000 acres of BLM-
administered Federal mineral estate in Sublette, Lincoln, and Fremont
counties, Wyoming. Approximately 919,000 acres are both Federal surface
and Federal mineral estate. The Pinedale RMP planning area includes two
wilderness study areas (WSA--Scab Creek and Lake Mountain). These have
been addressed in separate environmental impact statement (EIS)
documents and will not be addressed in the revision of the Pinedale
RMP. There are two areas of critical environmental concern (ACEC--Rock
Creek and Beaver Creek), and three special recreation management areas
(SRMAs --Scab Creek, Upper Green River, and Boulder Lake). Revision of
the Pinedale RMP may result in altering the designation of these ACECs
and SRMAs, and the management prescriptions for these areas could also
change. The potential for additional special management areas will be
explored, and if any other areas are nominated for special mnagement
area designation, they will be considered in the EIS for the planning
effort.
To date, the BLM has identified eight preliminary issues associated
with the existing management direction provided by the Pinedale RMP.
The BLM invites the public to comment on these preliminary issues and
to identify any additional issues, concerns, problems or conflicts that
should be considered in the Pinedale RMP revision effort. Comments
should be sent to the Pinedale address above.
Issue 1: Potential Conflicts Between Mineral Exploration and
Development Activities and Other Land and Resource Uses and Values
Isssue 2: Limited Accessability to Public Lands and Resources and Land
Tenure Adjustments
Issue 3: Conflicting Demands for Consumptive and Non-consumptive
Vegetation Uses
Issue 4: Potential Conflicts of Various Public Land and Resource Uses
with Recreation, Cultural Resources (including National Historic
Trails) and Paleontological Resources
Issue 5: Wildland/Urban Interface Concerns
Issue 6: Special Status Plant and Animal Species Management
Issue 7: Concerns for Maintaining or Improving Water Quality and
Meeting State and Federal Water Quality Standards
Issue 8: Special Management Area Designations or Changes
The BLM is requesting the public to help identify additional
problems and conflicts and resource management opportunities that
should also be addressed in the Pinedale RMP Revision process.
This notice includes a request for any available resource
information and data pertaining to the Pinedale RMP
[[Page 8701]]
planning area. The purposes of this request are (1) to assure that the
planning effort has sufficient information and data to consider the
fullest possible range of public land and resource uses, management
options and alternatives, and (2) to include the call for coal resource
information required by the Federal Coal Regulations (43 CFR 3420.1-2).
The call for coal resource information in the Pinedale RMP planning
area is primarily to update information on areas where coal occurs.
There is little, if any, known potential for or interest in developing
coal in the Pinedale RMP planning area. However, identifying the areas
of coal occurrence is necessary to address potential coal bed methane
development.
The usual purpose of the call for coal resource information is to
obtain any available coal resource data and any other resource
information pertinent to applying the coal unsuitability criteria, and
to identify any areas of interest for possible Federal coal leasing.
Coal resource information submissions would assist the BLM in
determining those areas with coal development potential. As a part of
the RMP planning process, the coal screening/coal planning procedures
would be conducted on those areas with Federal coal development
potential to determine which Federal coal areas are acceptable for
further consideration for leasing. Identification at this time of
definite interests in future leasing of Federal coal in the Pinedale
RMP planning area, substantiated with adequate coal resource data,
would allow the BLM to address this potential during the planning
effort and possibly avoid unnecessary work, delays, or amendments to
the RMP in the near future.
Some of the Pinedale RMP planning area is within the Green River-
Hams Fork Coal Production Region. A Notice that the coal region was
decertified was published in the Federal Register, Vol. 53, No. 77,
April 21, 1988. Federal coal leasing regulations contained in 43 CFR
3425 are now in effect and coal reserves in the Pinedale RMP planning
area are subject to potential ``leasing by application''. This type of
coal leasing is essentially done on a case-by-case basis rather than
through the regional leasing process under 43 CFR 3420. Note that the
sale and issuance of Federal coal leases under these provisions is
still done through a competitive bidding process.
The BLM has very limited capability to conduct additional coal or
other resource inventories in the planning area. Thus, parties
interested in Federal coal leasing and development or in coal bed
methane exploration and development will be expected to provide coal
resource data for their areas of interest. The schedule for completing
this planning effort requires that areas of interest and coal resource
data must be submitted within 60 days following publication of this
notice. If coal resource data is insufficient or unavailable for your
area(s) of interest at this time, but can be obtained in 2002, the BLM
will accept, until April 30, 2002, an estimate of the extent and
locations of the coal resource and a schedule for providing the data.
The adequacy and timing of the coal resource information provided will
determine the extent to which the Federal coal resource, its
development potential and coal bed methane development potential may be
addressed in this planning effort.
Public participation will be an essential component of this
planning effort. Several techniques for providing public involvement
opportunities will be used during the planning process, including:
Federal Register announcements, one-on-one discussion with interested
groups and individuals, internet postings, articles in local news
media, and individual mailings to all parties who have expressed an
interest in the process. For those persons wishing to be placed on the
Pinedale mailing list, notify the BLM contact provided in the ADDRESSES
section of this notice.
Dated: January 17, 2002.
Alan R. Pierson,
State Director.
[FR Doc. 02-4494 Filed 2-22-02; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4310-22-P