[Federal Register Volume 76, Number 200 (Monday, October 17, 2011)]
[Notices]
[Pages 64100-64101]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2011-26737]


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DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR

Bureau of Land Management

[LLCON01000 L16100000.DP0000]


Notice of Availability of Record of Decision for the Little Snake 
Resource Management Plan/Environmental Impact Statement

AGENCY: Bureau of Land Management, Interior.

ACTION: Notice of availability.

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SUMMARY: The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) announces the availability 
of the Record of Decision (ROD)/Approved Resource Management Plan (RMP) 
for the Little Snake Field Office located in northwest Colorado. The 
Colorado State Director signed the ROD in October 2011, which 
constitutes the final decision of the BLM and makes the Approved RMP 
effective immediately.

ADDRESSES: Copies of the ROD/Approved RMP are available upon request 
from the Little Snake Field Office, Bureau of Land Management, 455 
Emerson St., Craig, Colorado 81625 or at the following Web site: http://www.blm.gov/co/st/en/fo/lsfo/plans/rmp_revision.html. Copies of the 
ROD are also available for public inspection at the following location: 
Bureau of Land Management, Colorado State Office, 2850 Youngfield 
Street, Lakewood, Colorado 80215.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: For further information contact Matt 
Anderson, Associate Field Manager/RMP Project Manager, Little Snake 
Field Office, telephone (970) 826-5000, at the address above, or e-
mail: [email protected]. Persons who use a telecommunications device for 
the deaf (TDD) may call the Federal Information Relay Service (FIRS) at 
(800) 877-8339 to contact the above individual during 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 planning area is located in northwest 
Colorado in Moffat, Routt, and Rio Blanco counties. The plan provides 
management decisions on approximately 1.3 million acres of BLM-
administered public lands and 1.1 million acres of BLM-administered 
subsurface mineral estate.
    The Little Snake Field Office has worked extensively with 
interested and affected groups, individuals and cooperating agencies to 
develop the ROD/RMP. Cooperating agencies

[[Page 64101]]

include: Moffat County, Colorado Department of Natural Resources; U.S. 
Fish and Wildlife Service, Division of Ecological Services, the City of 
Steamboat Springs; and the Juniper Water Conservancy District. An 
independent stewardship group called the Northwest Colorado Stewardship 
participated in the Draft RMP/Draft Environmental Impact Statement 
(EIS) collaborative process.
    The management actions in the ROD/RMP seek a balance of resource 
protection and resource use. Some of the key decisions in the ROD are:
     Seven Special Recreation Management Areas are designated 
in the ROD.
     Irish Canyon is designated as an Area of Critical 
Environmental Concern (ACEC). The ACEC objective would be to protect 
sensitive plants, remnant plant communities, cultural and geologic 
values, and scenic quality. Several areas formerly managed as ACECs are 
not designated as ACECs in the ROD because they were deemed as not 
warranting special management attention. These areas are: Lookout 
Mountain, Limestone Ridge, and Cross Mountain Canyon ACECs. Management 
prescriptions would still be in place to protect relevant and important 
values in these areas.
     The ROD outlines management actions to protect wilderness 
characteristics in 4 areas of the planning area: Cold Springs Mountain, 
Vermillion Basin, Dinosaur North, and Little Yampa Canyon. The 
management objectives for these areas would be to protect naturalness, 
opportunities for semi-primitive recreation and solitude. Cold Spring 
Mountain, Dinosaur North and Vermillion Basin are closed to oil and gas 
leasing and development. Little Yampa Canyon is subject to no surface 
occupancy stipulations.
     The majority of lands (86 percent) within the Little Snake 
Field Office will be Limited to Existing Routes or Limited to 
Designated Routes in the ROD. Seven percent will be open to cross 
country travel, and 6 percent will be closed to motorized vehicle use.
     Many wildlife populations are protected by timing 
limitation stipulations and no surface occupancy buffers around nests.
     The majority (more than 90 percent) of recoverable fluid 
minerals can be developed within the constraints of the ROD.
     Disturbance limits are placed in areas of important 
wildlife habitat, especially sagebrush ecosystems.
     The ROD lays out a framework that would allow the BLM to 
use ``adaptive management'' at the implementation stage, giving the BLM 
greater flexibility and promoting proactive management.
    The Approved RMP was prepared under the authorities of the Federal 
Land Policy and Management Act of 1976 and the National Environmental 
Policy Act of 1969. The BLM released the Draft RMP/Draft EIS for a 90-
day public review period in February 2007. The BLM released the 
Proposed RMP/Final EIS in August 2010. The Approved RMP is nearly 
identical to the Proposed Plan (Alternative C) presented in the 2010 
Proposed RMP/Final EIS. No inconsistencies were identified during the 
Governor's consistency review of the Proposed RMP/Final EIS. Decisions 
in the ROD are land use planning decisions that are protestable under 
BLM planning regulations (43 CFR subpart 1610.5). The BLM received 8 
valid protest letters during the 30-day protest period after publishing 
the Proposed RMP/Final EIS. The BLM Director addressed all the protests 
without making significant changes to the Proposed RMP; minor 
corrections and clarifications are included in the ``Clarifications'' 
section of the ROD. There are no appealable decisions included in the 
ROD, as the ROD did not include any implementation-level decisions.

Anna Marie Burden,
Acting Colorado State Director.

    Authority: 40 CFR 1506.6; 43 CFR 1610.2(g), 1610.5-1(b).
[FR Doc. 2011-26737 Filed 10-14-11; 8:45 am]
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