[Federal Register Volume 67, Number 37 (Monday, February 25, 2002)]
[Notices]
[Pages 8701-8703]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 02-4495]


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DEPARTMENT OF INTERIOR

Bureau of Land Management

[WY-030-02-1610; WY-100-02-1610]


Great Divide Resource Management Plan; Rawlins, Wyoming

AGENCY: Bureau of Land Management, Interior.

ACTION: Notice of Intent To Revise The Great Divide Resource Management 
Plan (RMP) and Call for Coal and Other Resource Information for the 
Bureau of Land Management (BLM) Rawlins Field Office, Rawlins, Wyoming.

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SUMMARY: The BLM Rawlins Field Office is initiating a revision of the 
Great Divide Resource Management Plan (RMP) to guide future management 
actions on the public lands within the Rawlins Field Office 
administrative (or management) area. The existing Great Divide RMP will 
continue to guide management actions and decisions for the Rawlins 
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 will provide further guidance on nationwide 
standards 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 Rawlins 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 Rawlins 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 publication of this notice in the 
Federal Register.

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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 Rawlins 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 Rawlins RMP planning area will be available at 1300 
North Third Street, P.O. Box 2407, Rawlins, Wyoming 82301-2407. 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 
Rawlins 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 Rawlins RMP (currently known as the 
Great Divide RMP) revision, contact John Spehar, Rawlins RMP team 
leader, at the Rawlins address above or phone (307) 328-4264.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The current Great Divide RMP provides 
management guidance and direction for approximately four million acres 
of BLM-administered public land surface and five million acres of BLM-
administered federal mineral estate in Albany, Carbon, Laramie, and 
Sweetwater counties. When the Great Divide RMP is revised, it will be 
renamed the Rawlins RMP to be consistent with the current 
organizational structure and naming of BLM land use plans in Wyoming.
    The Rawlins RMP planning area includes five wilderness study areas 
(WSAs--Encampment River Canyon, Prospect Mountain, Bennett Mountains, 
Adobe Town, Ferris Mountain), four areas of critical environmental 
concern (ACECs--Jep Canyon, Como Bluff, Shamrock Hills, Sand Hills), 
and three special recreation management areas (SRMAs--Continental 
Divide National Scenic Trail, North Platte River, Shirley Mountain 
Caves). Revision of the Rawlins 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 management 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 Great Divide 
(Rawlins) 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 Rawlins RMP 
revision effort. Comments should be sent to the Rawlins address above.
Issue 1: Potential Conflicts Between Mineral Exploration and 
Development Activities and Other Land and Resource Uses and Values
Issue 2: Special Management Area Designations or Changes
Issue 3: Access Limitations to Public Lands and Resources
Issue 4: Wildland/Urban Interface Concerns
Issue 5: Special Status Plant and Animal Species Management
Issue 6: Concerns for Maintaining or Improving Water Quality and 
Meeting State and Federal Water Quality Standards
Issue 7: Conflicting Demands for Consumptive and Non-consumptive 
Vegetation Uses
Issue 8: Potential Conflicts of Various Public Land and Resource Uses 
with Recreation, Cultural Resources (including National Historic 
Trails) and Paleontological Resources

    The BLM is requesting the public to help identify additional 
problems and conflicts and resource management opportunities that 
should also be addressed in the Rawlins RMP revision process.
    This notice includes a request for any available resource 
information and data pertaining to the Rawlins RMP 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 is issued to obtain any 
available coal resource data and any other resource information 
pertinent to applying the coal unsuitability criteria, and to identify 
any additional areas of interest for possible Federal coal leasing in 
the Rawlins RMP planning area. Coal resource information submissions 
will assist the BLM in determining those areas with coal development 
potential. As appropriate and as part of the Rawlins RMP planning 
process, the coal screening/coal planning procedures will be conducted 
on those areas with Federal coal development potential to determine 
which Federal coal areas are acceptable for further consideration for 
leasing. This coal resource information will also be pertinent to 
addressing potential coal bed methane development areas.
    Some of the Rawlins 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 Rawlins RMP planning 
area are now subject to ``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.
    Identification at this time of definite interests in future leasing 
of Federal coal in the Rawlins RMP planning area, substantiated with 
adequate coal resource data, will 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.
    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 are 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.

[[Page 8703]]

    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 
Rawlins 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. 02-4495 Filed 2-22-02; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4310-22-P