[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]]

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Part IV





Department of Interior





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Bureau of Land Management



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Resource Management Plans; Pinedale and Rawlins, Wyoming; Notice

  Federal Register / Vol. 67, No. 37 / Monday, February 25, 2002 / 
Notices  

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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.

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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