[Federal Register Volume 69, Number 134 (Wednesday, July 14, 2004)]
[Notices]
[Pages 42203-42204]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 04-15887]


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DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR

Bureau of Land Management


Notice of Intent To Prepare a Resource Management Plan and 
Environmental Impact Statement for Eastern San Diego County, CA

AGENCY: Bureau of Land Management, Interior.

ACTION: Notice of intent.

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SUMMARY: In accordance with the Federal Land Policy and Management Act 
of 1976 (43 U.S.C. 1701), as amended; the National Environmental Policy 
Act of 1969 (NEPA) (42 U.S.C. 4321), as amended; and the Council on 
Environmental Quality (CEQ) regulations (40 CFR parts 1500-1508), the 
Bureau of Land Management (BLM) will prepare a Resource Management Plan 
(RMP) for Eastern San Diego County and a Environmental Impact Statement 
(EIS) to evaluate the effects of land and resource management decisions 
in the Eastern San Diego County Planning Area.

DATES: BLM will accept written and electronic comments on the scope of 
the RMP until October 12, 2004 and received by October 22, 2004, and 
electronic comments received by October 12, 2004. Additional 
opportunities for public involvement, including a schedule of public 
meetings, will be announced separately from this notice in local 
newspapers.

ADDRESSES: You may submit comments by the following methods: Written: 
Lynnette Elser, Eastern San Diego County Resource Management Plan and 
EIS, 1661 South 4th Street, El Centro, CA 92243. Electronic: 
[email protected].

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: For general information, including 
information on how to comment, you may contact Lynnette Elser, Bureau 
of Land Management, El Centro Field Office, 1661 South 4th Street, El 
Centro, CA or phone (760) 768-4400.

[[Page 42204]]


SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Individual respondents may request 
confidentiality. If you wish BLM to withhold your name or street 
address, except for the city or town, from public view or from 
disclosure under the Freedom of Information Act, you must state this 
prominently at the beginning of your written comment. We will honor 
requests to the extent allowed by law. All submissions from 
organizations or businesses, and from individuals identifying 
themselves as representatives or officials of organizations or 
businesses, will be available for public inspection in their entirety.
    Background Information: The Eastern San Diego County Planning Area 
encompasses 98,902 acres of land administered by the BLM in Eastern San 
Diego County, California. BLM lands within the Planning Area are 
administered by the El Centro Field Office and are immediately west of 
the California Desert Conservation Area. Land management within the 
Planning Area is currently guided by the Eastern San Diego County 
Management Framework Plan, completed in 1981. There are two Wilderness 
Areas (Carrizo Gorge and Sawtooth Mountain) within the Planning Area. 
There are also four Wilderness Study Areas. Two Areas of Critical 
Environmental Concern (Table Mountain and McCain Valley) are 
designated. Lark Canyon Off-Road Vehicle Area is managed for vehicular 
recreation. Remaining areas are managed in accordance with Multiple Use 
Classes.
    The intent of the current Resource Management Plan and EIS 
preparation process is to analyze and update land and resource 
management objectives within the Planning Area. The Resource Management 
Plan will consider: impacts posed by rapid population and community 
growth, the need to make resource decisions that are scientifically 
sound, legally defensible and sustainable resource decisions, the need 
to provide access to significant energy sources and communication 
sites, the need for utility corridors, the need for continuation of 
grazing activities, the need to maximize use of public lands in species 
recovery and habitat conservation, and the need to provide adequate 
facilities for safe recreation and visitation on the public lands.
    Issues to be addressed in the Resource Management Plan will include 
recreation, off-highway vehicle use, routes-of-travel designations, 
wildlife, botanical resources, endangered species, cultural resources, 
Native American concerns, visual resources, livestock grazing, 
wilderness, fire management, and mining. Existing wilderness study 
areas designations will be evaluated. Boundaries and existence of 
currently designated wilderness areas will not be changed. 
Compatibility with management plans proposed by other public land 
management entities for adjacent lands will be considered.
    The Resource Management Plan and EIS will be prepared by an 
interdisciplinary team with specialists for recreation, wilderness, 
botany, biology, archeology, wildlife, range management, realty, visual 
resources, geology and mining, range management and planning.
    The approved Resource Management Plan will replace the existing 
East San Diego County Framework Management Plan as the document guiding 
land and resource management decisions on BLM-administered lands in the 
Planning Area.

Lynnette Elser,
Acting Field Manager.
[FR Doc. 04-15887 Filed 7-13-04; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4310-40-P