[Federal Register Volume 76, Number 185 (Friday, September 23, 2011)]
[Notices]
[Pages 59156-59157]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2011-24340]


-----------------------------------------------------------------------

DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR

Bureau of Land Management

[LLAZG03000.L16100000.DQ0000. LXSS085A0000.241A.00]


Notice of Availability of the Proposed Ironwood Forest National 
Monument Resource Management Plan/Final EIS

AGENCY: Bureau of Land Management.

ACTION: Notice of Availability.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

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 
Proposed Resource Management Plan (RMP)/Final Environmental Impact 
Statement (EIS) for the Ironwood Forest National Monument and by this 
notice is announcing its availability.

DATES: BLM planning regulations state that any person who meets the 
conditions as described in the regulations may protest the BLM's 
Proposed RMP/Final EIS. The protest must be filed within 30 days of the 
date that the Environmental Protection Agency publishes this notice in 
the Federal Register.

ADDRESSES: Copies of the Ironwood Forest National Monument Proposed 
RMP/Final EIS have been sent to affected Federal, State, and local 
government agencies; the Ak Chin Indian Community, Gila River Indian 
Community, Tohono O'odham Nation, Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian 
Community, and San Carlos Apache Indian Community; and to other 
stakeholders. Copies of the Proposed RMP/Final EIS are available for 
public inspection at the BLM Tucson Field Office, 12661 East Broadway 
Boulevard, Tucson, Arizona. Interested persons may also review the 
Proposed RMP/Final EIS on the Internet at http://www.blm.gov/az/st/en/prog/planning/ironwood.html. All protests must be in writing and mailed 
to the following addresses:
Regular Mail:
    BLM Director (210), Attention: Brenda Hudgens-Williams, P.O. Box 
71383, Washington, DC 20024-1383
Overnight Mail:
    BLM Director (210), Attention: Brenda Hudgens-Williams, 20 M. 
Street, SE., Room 2134LM, Washington, DC 20003.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Laura Olais, Ironwood Forest National 
Monument Manager, Tucson Field Office, 12661 East Broadway, Tucson, 
Arizona 85748-7208; or by telephone at 520-258-7235; or by e-mail at 
[email protected]. Persons who use a telecommunications device for the 
deaf (TDD) may call the Federal Information Relay Service (FIRS) at 1-
800-877-8339 to contact the above individual during

[[Page 59157]]

normal business hours. The FIRS is available 24 hours a day, 7 days a 
week, to leave a message or question with the above individual. You 
will receive a reply during normal business hours.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The Ironwood Forest National Monument, 
established by Presidential Proclamation on June 9, 2000, encompasses 
approximately 128,400 acres of Federal land administered by the BLM; 
approximately 54,700 acres of State Trust land (administered by the 
Arizona State Land Department); and approximately 6,000 acres that are 
privately owned. The Proposed RMP/Final EIS affects only Federal lands 
and Federal interests located within the established boundary of the 
monument. The BLM's Tucson Field Office has the responsibility of 
planning for and management of Federal lands within the monument.
    Issues identified as part of the planning process and addressed in 
the Proposed RMP/Final EIS include air resources, biological resources, 
cultural resources, fire management, grazing management, hazardous 
materials, lands and realty, mineral and energy resources, Native 
American issues, recreation, social and economic conditions, soils, 
wilderness characteristics, transportation and access, visual 
resources, and water resources. The Proposed RMP/Final EIS includes 
strategies for protecting and preserving the biological, cultural, 
recreational, geological, educational, scientific, and scenic values 
for which the monument was established.
    Four alternatives were analyzed in the Proposed RMP/Final EIS. The 
``no action'' alternative represents current management of the Ironwood 
Forest National Monument. Three additional ``action'' alternatives 
present reasonable, yet varying, management scenarios. The alternatives 
range from emphasizing maintenance of the naturalness of the Ironwood 
Forest National Monument (by restricting some human uses) to 
emphasizing continued human uses, while still protecting the objects 
and resources for which the monument was established. The range of 
alternatives in the Proposed RMP/Final EIS evaluates planning decisions 
brought forward from current BLM planning documents, including the 
Phoenix Resource Management Plan (1989), Arizona Standards for 
Rangeland Health and Guidelines for Grazing Administration (1987), and 
the Arizona Statewide Land Use Plan Amendment for Fire, Fuels, and Air 
Quality Management (2003).
    Comments on the Draft RMP/EIS received from the public and internal 
BLM review were considered and incorporated as appropriate into the 
proposed plan. Public comments resulted in a variety of clarifications 
and modifications throughout the Proposed RMP/Final EIS, but did not 
significantly change the overall proposed land use plan. Revisions made 
between the Draft RMP/EIS and the Proposed RMP/Final EIS include: 
Identification of objects of the monument to be protected and more 
detailed analysis of the impacts on the objects of the monument; the 
addition of an alternative to allow recreational shooting in specific 
areas, and the inclusion of a shooting analysis of the planning area; 
deferral of the decision to classify two ephemeral grazing allotments 
as perennial; and quantification of some management goals and 
objectives, and modifications to implementation-level decisions to 
correctly categorize them as plan-level decisions or administrative 
actions. Other revisions of certain management actions consisted of the 
following: Under cultural resources, Cocoraque Butte will not be 
allocated to public use; also under cultural resources, cultural 
resource surveys were conducted along roads that would be open for 
motorized use, and survey findings have been added to the RMP as well 
as associated impacts for each alternative; under travel management, 
some minor changes have been made to the alternatives to close certain 
routes and open others to motorized use, resulting in minor changes to 
the overall number of miles of routes designated for various uses; also 
under travel management, mechanized use would now be allowed on all 
designated routes with the exception of routes designated as trails or 
where otherwise restricted; under vegetation management, the proposed 
plan has been revised and proposes that only native plants be used in 
restoration activities; under lands and realty, utility corridors have 
been shifted so that they are not centered on the existing right-of-way 
in order to increase maneuverability for additional utilities; also 
under lands and realty, the BLM will not acquire surface estate unless 
mineral estate can be acquired concurrently (or is already federally 
owned).
    Instructions for filing a protest with the Director of the BLM 
regarding the Proposed RMP/Final EIS may be found in the ``Dear Reader 
Letter'' of the Ironwood Forest National Monument Proposed RMP/Final 
EIS and at 43 CFR 1610.5-2. E-mail and faxed protests will not be 
accepted unless the protesting party also provides the original letter 
by either regular or overnight mail postmarked by the close of the 
protest period. Under these conditions, the BLM will consider the e-
mail or faxed protest as an advance copy and it will receive full 
consideration. If you wish to provide the BLM with such advance 
notification, please direct faxed protests to the attention of the BLM 
protest coordinator at 202-452-5112, and e-mail to [email protected].
    All protests, including the follow-up letter to e-mails or faxes, 
must be in writing and mailed to the appropriate address, as set forth 
in the ADDRESSES section above.
    Before including your phone number, e-mail address, or other 
personal identifying information in your protest, you should be aware 
that your entire protest--including your personal identifying 
information--may be made publicly available at any time.
    While you can ask us in your protest to withhold your personal 
identifying information from public review, we cannot guarantee that we 
will be able to do so.

    Authority:  40 CFR 1506.6, 40 CFR 1506.10, 43 CFR 1610.2, 43 CFR 
1610.5.

James G. Kenna,
Arizona State Director.
[FR Doc. 2011-24340 Filed 9-22-11; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4310-32-P