[Federal Register Volume 69, Number 64 (Friday, April 2, 2004)]
[Notices]
[Pages 17448-17449]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 04-7417]


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DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR

Bureau of Land Management

[UT 110-1610-DO-]


Notice of Intent To Prepare a Resource Management Plan for Public 
Lands and Resources Managed by the Kanab Field Office and Call for Coal 
Information

AGENCY: Bureau of Land Management, Interior.

ACTION: Notice of intent.

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SUMMARY: This document provides notice that the Bureau of Land 
Management (BLM) intends to prepare a Resource Management Plan (RMP) 
and EIS for lands managed by the Kanab Field Office. These planning 
activities encompass approximately 600,000 acres of public land in 
Garfield and Kane Counties, Utah. 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), and BLM management 
policies. The BLM will work collaboratively with interested parties to 
identify the management decisions that are best suited to local, 
regional, tribal, and national needs and concerns. The public scoping 
process will identify planning issues and develop planning criteria, 
including an evaluation of the existing land use plans in the context 
of the needs and interests of the public.

ADDRESSES: For the Kanab Field Office RMP, written comments should be 
sent to RMP Comments, Bureau of Land Management, Kanab Field Office, 
318 N. 100 E., Kanab, UT 84741; or Fax 435-644-4620. Documents 
pertinent to this proposal may be examined at the BLM's Kanab Field 
Office.
    All comments and/or data received, including names and street 
addresses of respondents, will be available for public review at the 
Field Office during regular business hours, 8 a.m. to 4:30 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 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. Anonymous comments will not be accepted. 
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.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: For further information regarding the 
Kanab RMP and/or to have your name added to this mailing list, contact 
Lorraine Christian, RMP Project Manager, Bureau of Land Management, 
Kanab Field Office, 318 N. 100 E., Kanab, UT 84741, phone: 435-644-
4600.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: We will hold public meetings throughout the 
region in order to promote public involvement in this process. In order 
to ensure local community participation and input, public meetings will 
be held at a variety of locations, which will likely include Kanab, 
Escalante, Panguitch, St. George, and Salt Lake City, Utah. These and 
other locations, if necessary, will be announced in local and regional 
news media, and planning bulletins. The minutes and list of attendees 
for each meeting will be available to the public and open for 30 days 
to any participant who wishes to clarify the views he or she expressed. 
Comments on issues and planning criteria will be most useful if 
received during the ongoing scoping period at the address listed above. 
Written comments will be accepted throughout the planning process at 
the address shown below. In addition to the ongoing public scoping 
process, formal opportunities for public participation will be provided 
during a comment period for the draft alternatives and upon publication 
of the draft RMP/draft EIS. Early participation by all interested 
parties is encouraged and will help shape the future management of the 
public lands in the Kanab Field Office.
    Preliminary issues and management concerns have been identified by 
BLM personnel during planning evaluations and pre-planning analysis for 
the RMP. They represent the BLM's knowledge to date of the existing 
issues and concerns with current management. The major issues that will 
be addressed in the plan revisions are: management and protection of 
public land resources; management of conflicting and competing uses; 
access to and transportation on the public-lands; and balancing 
multiple uses. Other specific issues may include cultural resource 
management, fire management, woodland harvest and management, lands and 
realty management, rangeland health and management potential, 
establishment of special designation areas, and special-status species 
management.
    43 CFR 3420.1-2(a) requires that the BLM publish a call for coal 
and other resource information in the Federal Register if there are 
areas with coal occurrence in the planning area. Parties interested in 
coal leasing and development should provide coal resource data for 
their area(s) of interest. Identification of interests in future coal 
leasing, substantiated with adequate coal resources data, allows the 
BLM to address development potential during the RMP process and helps 
avoid unnecessary work, delays, or RMP amendments.
    Proprietary data marked as confidential may be submitted in 
response to this call for coal resource information and other resource 
information. Please submit all proprietary information submissions to 
the individual at the address listed above. The BLM will treat 
submissions marked as ``Confidential'' in accordance with the laws and 
regulations governing the confidentiality of such information.
    In addition to coal resource data, the BLM seeks resource 
information and data for other public land values and uses (e.g., air 
quality, cultural resources, fire/fuels, fisheries, forestry, geologic 
hazards, lands and realty, oil and gas (including coalbed methane), 
paleontology, rangeland management, recreation, visual resources, water 
quality, soils, sociology, economics, and wildlife, among others).
    After gathering public comments on what issues the plan should 
address, 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; or
    3. Issues beyond the scope of this plan.
    Rationale will be provided in the plan for each issue placed in 
category two or three. In addition to the major issues, a number of 
management questions and concerns will be addressed in the plan. The 
public is encouraged to help identify these questions and concerns 
during the scoping phase of plan development. An interdisciplinary 
approach will be used to develop the plan in order to consider the 
variety of resource issues and concerns identified. The Field Office is 
seeking public involvement at the earliest possible stages of this 
planning process in order to enhance collaboration. If you have 
information or concerns you would like to share, including ideas or 
opportunities that could enhance data

[[Page 17449]]

collection, resource inventories, formulation of issues or 
alternatives, or development of planning criteria that would be 
applicable to the Kanab planning effort, please submit them to the 
above address.
    A reasonable range of alternatives that resolve those issues and 
management concerns identified during the scoping process will be 
developed and analyzed in the Draft RMP/Draft EIS, which will be 
published and made available for public review.

Sally Wisely,
State Director.
[FR Doc. 04-7417 Filed 4-1-04; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4310-DQ-P