[Federal Register Volume 70, Number 247 (Tuesday, December 27, 2005)]
[Notices]
[Pages 76465-76466]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 05-24486]


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DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR

Bureau of Land Management

National Park Service

[AZ-110-05-1610-DP-083A-241E]


Notice of Availability for the Draft Resource Management Plan and 
Draft Environmental Impact Statement for the Arizona Strip, the 
Vermilion Cliffs National Monument, and the Grand Canyon-Parashant 
National Monument, and a Draft General Management Plan and Draft 
Environmental Impact Statement for the Grand Canyon-Parashant National 
Monument

AGENCIES: Bureau of Land Management, Department of the Interior. 
National Park Service, Department of the Interior.

ACTION: Issuance of a Notice of Availability for the Draft Resource 
Management Plan and Draft EIS for the Arizona Strip, the Vermilion 
Cliffs National Monument, and the Grand Canyon-Parashant National 
Monument, and a Draft General Management Plan and Draft EIS for the 
Grand Canyon-Parashant National Monument, all located in Mohave and 
Coconino counties, Arizona.

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SUMMARY: In accordance with the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) 
planning regulations, Title 43 Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) 
1610.2(f)(3), the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) Regulations, 
Title 40 CFR 1502.9(a), and the National Park Service (NPS) Director's 
Order 2 (Park Planning), the BLM and NPS hereby gives notice that the 
Draft Resource Management Plan/Draft EIS for the Arizona Strip Field 
Office, the Vermilion Cliffs National Monument, and the BLM portion of 
the Grand Canyon-Parashant National Monument, and a Draft General 
Management Plan/Draft EIS for the NPS portion of the Grand Canyon-
Parashant National Monument (Draft Plan/DEIS) is available for public 
review and

[[Page 76466]]

comments. The Draft Plan/DEIS addresses management on approximately 
3,322,960 acres of public land. Issues addressed in the Draft Plan/DEIS 
include access, wilderness, protection of resources including monument 
objects, livestock grazing management, and recreation management. The 
range of alternatives was prepared in accordance with applicable BLM 
and NPS planning procedures.

DATES: Written comments on the Draft Plan/DEIS will be accepted for 90 
days following the date the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) 
publishes its Notice of Availability in the Federal Register. Future 
meetings and any other public involvement activities will be announced 
at least 15 days in advance through local media. The BLM and NPS will 
present information on the Draft Plan/DEIS at a minimum of eight 
public, open-house meetings.

ADDRESSES: Written comments may be mailed to Planning Team, Arizona 
Strip District Office, Bureau of Land Management, 345 East Riverside 
Drive, St. George, Utah 84790. You may also comment via e-mail to 
[email protected]. The Draft Plan/DEIS is posted on the Internet 
at http://www.az.blm.gov/LUP/strip/strip_plan.htm (subject to change) 
or http://www.nps.gov/para and has been mailed to those who indicated 
they wanted it on hard copy or on a compact disk. A limited number of 
copies of the Draft Plan/DEIS, in hard copy or on a compact disk, are 
available at the BLM Arizona Strip District Office, 345 East Riverside 
Drive, St. George, Utah 84790. Copies can also be viewed at the 
Washington County Library in St. George, Utah, the Fredonia Town 
Library in Fredonia, Arizona, and the Page Public Library in Page, 
Arizona. Public comments, including names and street addresses of 
respondents, will be available for public review at the Grand Canyon-
Parashant National Monument Office, 91 West 1470 South, St. George, 
Utah, during regular business hours, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., Monday through 
Friday, except holidays. 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 comments. 
Such requests will be honored 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 made available for public inspection in their 
entirety.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Diana Hawks, Bureau of Land 
Management, 345 East Riverside Drive, St. George, Utah 84790, telephone 
(435) 688-3266; or Darla Sidles, National Park Service, Grand Canyon-
Parashant National Monument, 345 East Riverside Drive, St. George, Utah 
84790, telephone (435) 688-3226.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The Grand Canyon-Parashant National Monument 
(Parashant) was established by Presidential Proclamation on January 11, 
2000. The Parashant is cooperatively managed by the Arizona Strip 
District Office of the BLM and the Lake Mead National Recreation Area 
of the NPS. It includes 1,048,293 acres in Mohave County, Arizona, of 
which 808,724 is administered by the BLM and 208,444 is administered by 
the NPS. The Vermilion Cliffs National Monument (Vermilion) was 
established by Presidential Proclamation on November 9, 2000. The 
Vermilion covers 293,679 acres in Coconino County, Arizona, and is 
administered solely by the BLM. The remainder of the BLM-administered 
lands on the Arizona Strip encompasses approximately 1,981,000 acres 
located in Mohave and Coconino counties, Arizona, north of the Grand 
Canyon and is almost entirely between the two national monuments listed 
above. The Draft Plan/DEIS was developed with broad public 
participation through a four-year collaborative planning process. 
Issues identified during public scoping addressed in the Draft Plan/
DEIS include: (1) Access and Transportation: How will transportation 
and access be managed? (2) Wilderness: How will wilderness 
characteristics be protected? (3) Protection of Resources: How will 
national monument objects, cultural and natural resources be protected? 
(4) Livestock Grazing: How will livestock grazing be addressed, 
particularly on the national monuments? (5) Recreation: How will 
people's recreational activities be managed?
    The preferred alternative, for BLM-administered lands only, 
identifies 14 potential Areas of Critical Environmental Concern (ACEC) 
covering 158,398 acres: Beaver Dam Slope ACEC (51,984 acres); Black 
Knolls ACEC (80 acres); Coyote Valley ACEC (776 acres); Fort Pearce 
ACEC (5,498 acres); Johnson Spring ACEC (2,058 acres); Kanab Creek ACEC 
(13,146 acres); Little Black Mountain ACEC (241 acres); Lone Butte ACEC 
(1,900 acres); Lost Spring Mountain ACEC (17,744 acres); Marble Canyon 
ACEC (9,852 acres); Moonshine Ridge ACEC (9,231 acres); Shinarump ACEC 
(3,619 acres); Virgin River Corridor ACEC (2,063 acres); and Virgin 
Slope ACEC (40,206 acres). Nine of these ACECs (127,193 acres) are 
carried forward from the Arizona Strip RMP (1992), five are new ACECs. 
There are up to six additional potential ACECs in one or more of the 
other alternatives: Buckskin ACEC (160 acres); Clayhole ACEC (7,362 
acres); Gray Points ACEC (12,881 acres); Hurricane Cliffs ACEC (23,464 
acres); Lime Kiln/Hatchett Canyon ACEC (11,731 acres); and, Twist Hills 
ACEC (1,255 acres). The following types of resource use limitations 
would generally apply to these ACECs: (1) Motorized travel would be 
permitted only on existing (temporary) or designated open routes; (2) 
closed to vegetative product sales in all ACECs and collection of 
vegetative materials in ACECs designated for the protection of special 
status plants; (3) seasonal limitations on livestock grazing in ACECs 
designated for protection of special status animals; and (4) new 
mineral material disposal sites would not be authorized. For detailed 
information, see the Special Area Designations sections of Chapter 2.
    Three Records of Decision (ROD) will be prepared by the BLM for the 
Arizona Strip: one for the Vermilion Cliffs National Monument Resource 
Management Plan (RMP), one for the Arizona Strip Field Office RMP, and 
one for the BLM portion of the Grand Canyon-Parashant National 
Monument. Another ROD will be prepared by the NPS for the Grand Canyon-
Parashant National Monument General Management Plan for the NPS portion 
of the monument.

    Dated: December 16, 2005.
Elaine Y. Zielinski,
Arizona State Director, Bureau of Land Management.
Patricia L. Neubacher,
Acting Regional Director, Pacific West Region, National Park Service.
[FR Doc. 05-24486 Filed 12-23-05; 8:45 am]
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