[Federal Register Volume 67, Number 79 (Wednesday, April 24, 2002)]
[Notices]
[Pages 20155-20157]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 02-9597]
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR
Bureau of Land Management
National Park Service
[AZ 100-02-1610-DO-083A]
Grand Canyon Parashant National Monument
AGENCY: Bureau of Land Management, Arizona Strip Field Office, St.
George, Utah; National Park Service, Lake Mead National Recreation
Area, Boulder City, Nevada.
ACTION: Notice of Intent to (1) prepare a Resource Management Plan
(RMP) for the Grand Canyon Parashant National Monument, designated
January 11, 2000, (2) prepare a RMP for the Vermilion Cliffs National
Monument, designated November 9, 2000, and (3) revise the 1992 Arizona
Strip RMP. These three actions will require a single Environmental
Impact Statement (EIS). These lands are located in Mohave and Coconino
Counties, Arizona.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
SUMMARY: This document provides notice that the Bureau of Land
Management (BLM) intends to prepare a RMP with an associated EIS for
the Arizona Strip Field Office. BLM will work in cooperation with the
National Park Service (NPS) for lands administered by the NPS Lake Mead
National Recreation Area in the Grand Canyon Parashant National
Monument. Separate plans will be developed for the Vermilion Cliffs
National Monument and the Grand Canyon Parashant National Monument.
This planning activity encompasses approximately 2,800,000 acres of
public land, including 1,052,000 acres in the Grand Canyon Parashant
Monument and 293,000 acres in the Vermilion Cliffs National Monument.
The plan will fulfill the needs and obligations set forth by the
National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), the Federal Land Policy and
Management Act (FLPMA), the National Park Service Organic Act, the Lake
Mead National Recreation Area Enabling Legislation, the two monument
proclamations, and the NPS and BLM management policies. The BLM will
work closely with interested parties to
[[Page 20156]]
identify the management decisions that are best suited to the needs of
the public. This collaborative process will take into account local,
regional, and national needs and concerns. This notice initiates the
public scoping process to identify planning issues and to develop
planning criteria. The scoping process will include an evaluation of
the existing RMP in the context of the needs and interests of the
public and protection of the objects of historic and scientific
interest specified in the proclamations.
Comments: Public meetings will be held throughout the plan scoping
and preparation period. In order to ensure local community
participation and input, public meeting locations will be rotated among
towns, which could include St. George and Kanab, Utah; Flagstaff,
Kingman, Page, and Phoenix, Arizona; and Mesquite and Las Vegas,
Nevada. Early participation by all those interested is encouraged and
will help determine the future management of the Grand Canyon Parashant
and Vermilion Cliffs National Monuments and the Arizona Strip Field
Office public lands. The publication of this notice will initiate the
BLM and NPS scoping comment period. Scoping will last a minimum of 90
days. At least 15 days public notice will be given for activities where
the public is invited to attend. Written comments will be accepted
throughout the planning process at the addresses shown below. Meetings
and comment deadlines will be announced through the local news media,
newsletters and the BLM web site (www.az.blm.gov). In addition to the
ongoing public participation process, formal opportunities for public
participation will be provided through comment on the alternatives and
upon publication of the joint BLM draft RMP/EIS and NPS draft General
Management Plan (GMP)/EIS. Documents pertinent to this proposal may be
examined at the Arizona Strip Field Office located in St. George, Utah.
Comments, including names and street addresses of respondents, will be
available for public review at the Arizona Strip Field Office located
in St. George, Utah, during regular business hours 7:45 a.m. to 4:15
p.m., Monday through Friday, except holidays, and may be published as
part of the EIS. Individual respondents may request confidentiality. If
you wish to withhold your name or street address from public review or
from disclosure under the Freedom of Information Act, you must state
this prominently at the beginning of your written comment. Such
requests will be honored to the extent allowed by law. All submissions
from organizations and businesses, and from individuals identifying
themselves as representatives or officials of organizations or
businesses, will be available for public inspection in their entirety.
ADDRESSES: For further information and/or to have your name added to
our mailing list, contact Dennis Curtis, Telephone 435 688-3202, or
Diana Hawks, Telephone 435 688-3266, Bureau of Land Management, Arizona
Strip Field Office, 345 E. Riverside Drive, St. George, Utah 84790; Fax
435 688-3388; or Jim Holland, Telephone 702 293-8986, National Park
Service, Lake Mead National Recreation Area, 601 Nevada Highway,
Boulder City, Nevada 89005; Fax 702 293-8967.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The designation of Grand Canyon Parashant
and Vermilion Cliffs National Monuments and the changing needs and
interests of the public necessitates a revision of the Arizona Strip
RMP, 1992, and Lake Mead National Recreation Area GMP, 1986. Two
monument plans and a revised RMP for the remaining BLM Arizona Strip
area will be combined into one planning effort. These actions require
three separate Records of Decision (ROD)within a single EIS.
Preliminary issues and management concerns have been identified by
BLM and NPS personnel, other agencies, and in meetings with individuals
and user groups. They represent BLM's and NPS's knowledge to date on
the existing issues and concerns with current management. The major
issue themes that will be addressed in the plan effort are: management
and protection of public land resources, recreation/visitor use and
safety; access and transportation on the public lands; integrating
monument management with community, tribal, and other agency needs; and
balancing multiple uses. After gathering public comments, the suggested
issues will be placed in one of three categories:
1. Issues to be resolved in the plan.
2. Issues resolved through policy or administrative action.
3. Issues beyond the scope of this plan.
Rationale will be provided in the plan for each issue placed in
category 2 or 3. In addition to the preceding major issues, management
questions and concerns to be addressed in the plan include, but are not
limited to: ecosystem health, riparian condition, threatened and
endangered species habitat, wildlife habitat, reintroduction of native
species, cultural resource protection and interpretation, recreation/
visitor use, rangeland management, woodland product harvest, and
minerals management. The following disciplines will be represented on
the BLM/NPS planning team: wilderness, recreation, wildlife, range
management, botany, fire ecology, forestry, geology, realty, cultural
resources, soils, hydrology, Geographic Information Systems (GIS), and
engineering. Where necessary and available, outside expertise will be
used.
Background Information: On January 11, 2000, the President signed
Proclamation 7265, creating the Grand Canyon Parashant National
Monument. The monument encompasses approximately 1,052,000 acres of
public lands in Mohave County, Arizona. It borders Nevada to the west
and Grand Canyon National Park to the south and BLM managed public
lands to the east and north. The Vermilion Cliffs National Monument was
established by Presidential Proclamation on November 9, 2000, and is
under the administration of the BLM. The monument is located on the
Colorado Plateau in northern Arizona. It borders the Kaibab National
Forest to the west, Glen Canyon National Recreation Area to the east,
and the state of Utah to the north.
The Grand Canyon Parashant National Monument proclamation states
that the NPS and the BLM shall manage the monument cooperatively and
shall prepare an agreement to share, consistent with applicable laws,
whatever resources are necessary to properly manage the monument;
however, the NPS shall continue to have primary management authority
over the portion of the monument within the Lake Mead National
Recreation Area, and the BLM shall have primary management authority
over the remaining portion of the monument. The plan will need to
address and incorporate, to the extent possible, NPS policies,
regulations and management directives.
The Arizona Strip RMP was completed in 1992 and amended in 1998 to
implement the Mohave Desert Tortoise Recovery Plan. Several significant
multi-discipline plans have recently been completed, including the Mt.
Trumbull Resource Conservation Area Plan in 1995 and the Parashant
Resource Conservation Area Plan in 1997. The Lake Mead National
Recreation Area GMP was completed in 1986, and the Shivwits portion of
this plan was revised as part of Parashant Interdisciplinary Plan
completed cooperatively by the two agencies in 1997. We anticipate
incorporating much
[[Page 20157]]
of the information in the existing plans into this plan revision.
Roger G. Taylor,
Arizona Strip Field Manager.
William K. Dickinson,
Lake Mead National Recreation Area, Superintendent.
[FR Doc. 02-9597 Filed 4-23-02; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4310-32-P