[Federal Register Volume 75, Number 122 (Friday, June 25, 2010)]
[Notices]
[Pages 36435-36436]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2010-15326]


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DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR

Bureau of Land Management

[LLNVW00000 L16100000.DP0000 LXSS015F0000 241A; 10-08807; 
MO4500012011; TAS:14X1109]


Notice of Availability of the Draft Winnemucca District Resource 
Management Plan and Environmental Impact Statement, Nevada

AGENCY: Bureau of Land Management, Interior.

ACTION: Notice of Availability.

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SUMMARY: In accordance with the National Environmental Policy Act of 
1969, as amended, and the Federal Land Policy and Management Act of 
1976, as amended, the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) has prepared a 
Draft Resource Management Plan (RMP) and Draft Environmental Impact 
Statement (EIS) for the Winnemucca District and by this notice is 
announcing the opening of the comment period.

DATES: To ensure that comments will be considered, the BLM must receive 
written comments on the Draft RMP/Draft EIS within 90 days following 
the date the Environmental Protection Agency publishes its notice of 
the Draft RMP/Draft EIS in the Federal Register. The BLM will announce 
future meetings or hearings and any other public participation 
activities at least 15 days in advance through public notices, media 
releases, and/or mailings.

ADDRESSES: You may submit comments related to the Winnemucca District 
Draft RMP/Draft EIS by any of the following methods:
     Web site: http://www.blm.gov/nv/st/en/fo/wfo/blm_information/rmp
     E-mail: [email protected].
     Fax: (775) 623-1503
     Mail: Bureau of Land Management, Winnemucca District Draft 
RMP/EIS, 5100 East Winnemucca Boulevard, Winnemucca, Nevada 89445.
    Copies of the Winnemucca District Draft RMP/Draft EIS are available 
in the Winnemucca District Office at the above address or on the 
following website: http://www.blm.gov/nv/st/en/fo/wfo/blm_information/rmp

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: For further information contact Bob 
Edwards, RMP Team Lead, telephone (775) 623-1597; address 5100 E. 
Winnemucca Boulevard, Winnemucca, Nevada 89445, e-mail: [email protected].

[[Page 36436]]


SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The Winnemucca District Draft RMP/Draft EIS 
was developed through a collaborative planning process. The Winnemucca 
RMP decision area encompasses approximately 7.2 million acres of public 
land administered by the BLM Winnemucca District, which are located in 
Humboldt, Pershing, Lyon, Churchill and Washoe counties, Nevada. It 
does not include private lands, State lands, Indian reservations, 
Federal lands not administered by BLM or lands addressed in the Black 
Rock Desert-High Rock Canyon, Emigrant Trails National Conservation 
Area RMP EIS (July 2004).
    The Draft RMP/Draft EIS includes strategies for protecting and 
preserving the biological, wildlife, cultural, recreational, 
geological, educational, scientific, and scenic values while managing 
for sustainable development, energy and mineral development, and 
livestock grazing. Current guidance is provided by the Sonoma-Gerlach 
and Paradise-Denio Management Framework Plans (1982) and land use plan 
amendments (1999). The key issues raised during the planning process 
include landscape health, recreation, access, transportation routes, 
wilderness characteristics, and visual resources. Five alternatives, 
including a no-action alternative, were developed in response to these 
key issues. The alternatives also address air resources, biological 
resources, cultural resources, fire management, grazing management, 
hazardous materials, lands and realty, mineral and energy resources, 
Native American issues, social and economic conditions, soils, and 
water resources. The no action alternative, Alternative A, represents 
the current management of public lands within the Winnemucca District. 
The four action alternatives, Alternatives B through D, present 
reasonable, yet varying, management scenarios. The alternatives range 
from emphasizing maintenance of the naturalness of the Winnemucca 
District decision area, by restricting some human uses, to emphasizing 
continued human uses. Comments collected during the scoping process in 
2005, during which four public open houses were held, were instrumental 
in determining the issues to be addressed. Through the Draft RMP/Draft 
EIS, the BLM is seeking public input on the developed alternatives that 
address these issues. The Winnemucca District's preferred alternative 
is Alternative D which focuses on a balance between managing public 
lands for economic and recreational growth while protecting valuable 
resources. Alternative D also incorporates sustainable development 
principles and techniques to achieve this balance.
    The Osgood Mountains Milkvetch Area of Critical Environmental 
Concern (ACEC) is the only special designation area currently within 
the Winnemucca District. The use limitations in this area include: 
closure to mineral material disposal (salable minerals); no surface 
occupancy and stipulations to accompany fluid and solid mineral 
leasing; locatable minerals withdrawn from entry; and Visual Resource 
Management (VRM) Class II. Alternative B mirrors the Alternative A 
management of the ACEC. Alternative C proposes to designate three new 
ACECs: Pine Forest, Raised Bog and Stillwater Range. Management of all 
four ACECs would be as follows: closed to mineral material disposal 
(salable minerals), fluid mineral and solid mineral leasing; locatable 
minerals withdrawn from entry; priority fire suppression areas; and VRM 
Class II. Alternative D is almost identical to the proposal in 
Alternative C and in addition the proposed ACECs would be closed to new 
communication sites. The proposed Pine Forest, Raised Bog, and 
Stillwater Range ACECs would be open for acquiring the rights to 
locatable minerals with special mitigation on operations. Alternative D 
proposes to manage the Osgood Mountains Milkvetch ACEC as a VRM Class 
III.
    Before including your address, phone number, e-mail address, or 
other personal identifying information in your comment, you should be 
aware that your entire comment-including your personal identifying 
information-may be made publicly available at any time. While you can 
ask us in your comment to withhold your personal identifying 
information from public review, we cannot guarantee that we will be 
able to do so.

Ron Wenker,
State Director, Nevada.

    Authority:  40 CFR 1506.6, 1506.10, and 43 CFR 1610.2

[FR Doc. 2010-15326 Filed 6-24-10; 8:45 am]
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