[Federal Register Volume 84, Number 81 (Friday, April 26, 2019)]
[Notices]
[Pages 17886-17888]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2019-08281]


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DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR

Bureau of Land Management

[LLCAD08000.L12200000.DT0000.19XL1109AF.LXSSB0010000 (MO#4500135579)]


Notice of Availability of the Final Supplemental Environmental 
Impact Statement and Proposed Land Use Plan Amendment to the California 
Desert Conservation Area Plan for the West Mojave Route Network 
Project, Inyo, Kern, Los Angeles, Riverside, and San Bernardino 
Counties, California

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 
Final Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) and Proposed

[[Page 17887]]

Land Use Plan Amendment to the California Desert Conservation Area 
(CDCA) Plan for the West Mojave Route Network Project (WMRNP), 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 Final 
Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement and Proposed Land Use Plan 
Amendment. A person who meets the conditions and files a protest must 
file the protest within 30 days of the date that the Environmental 
Protection Agency publishes its Notice of Availability in the Federal 
Register.

ADDRESSES: The Final Supplemental EIS and Proposed Land Use Plan 
Amendment is available electronically on the BLM ePlanning project 
website at https://go.usa.gov/xE6YH.
    Copies of the Final Supplemental EIS and Proposed Land Use Plan 
Amendment are available for public inspection at the BLM-Ridgecrest 
Field Office, 300 South Richmond Road, Ridgecrest, CA 93555; the BLM-
Barstow Field Office, 2601 Barstow Road, Barstow, CA 92311; and the 
BLM-California Desert District Office, 22835 Calle San Juan de Los 
Lagos, Moreno Valley, CA 92553.
    All protests must be in writing and filed with the BLM Director, 
either as a hard copy or electronically, via the BLM's ePlanning 
project website listed previously. To submit a protest electronically, 
go to the ePlanning project website and follow the protest instructions 
highlighted at the top of the home page. If submitting a protest in 
hard copy, it must be mailed to one of the following addresses:

Regular Mail: BLM Director (210), Attention: Protest Coordinator, P.O. 
Box 71383, Washington, DC 20024-1383
Overnight Delivery: BLM Director (210), Attention: Protest Coordinator, 
20 M Street SE, Room 2134LM, Washington, DC 20003

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Matt Toedtli, Planning and 
Environmental Coordinator, telephone: 760-252-6026; address: 2601 
Barstow Road, Barstow, CA 92311; email: [email protected]. Persons who 
use a telecommunications device for the deaf (TDD) may call the Federal 
Relay Service (FRS) at 1-800-877-8339 to contact Mr. Toedtli during 
normal business hours. The FRS is available 24 hours a day, 7 days a 
week, to leave a message or question. You will receive a reply during 
normal business hours.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The BLM prepared the WMRNP Proposed Land Use 
Plan Amendment and Final Supplemental EIS to comply with a U.S. 
District Court Order that partially remanded the 2006 West Mojave 
(WEMO) Plan Amendment Record of Decision (ROD) to the BLM and directed 
the BLM to reconsider route designations throughout the WEMO Planning 
Area, as well as other specified issues in the 2006 WEMO Plan. The 
Court held that the BLM failed to consider regulatory criteria when 
designating routes, that the WEMO Plan was inconsistent with language 
of the CDCA Plan, which limits routes to those existing in 1980, and 
that the EIS did not contain a reasonable range of alternatives and 
failed to adequately address the No-Action Alternative or analyze 
impacts to soils, cultural resources, biological resources, and air 
quality.
    The WMRNP involves both a land use plan amendment and 
implementation-level actions within the WEMO Planning Area. The land 
use plan amendment addresses specific regulation and policies, 
including travel management guidance for route designation, and amends 
language that limits the route network to routes that existed in 1980. 
Proposed changes to the land use plan include guidelines for stopping, 
parking, and camping adjacent to designated routes. Alternative 2 also 
considers changes to the livestock grazing program, which would re-
allocate forage from livestock use to wildlife use and ecosystem 
function in desert tortoise critical habitat. Other plan-level changes 
considered include identifying travel management areas, modifying off-
highway vehicle use on four lakebeds, modifying competitive event 
access, and eliminating the permit requirement for motorized access to 
the Rand Mountains-Fremont Valley Management Area. Implementation-level 
decisions considered include the adoption of travel management plans 
and a designated route network based on the designation criteria of 43 
CFR 8342.1.
    The WEMO planning area covers 9.4 million acres of the CDCA in the 
western portion of the Mojave Desert in southern California, including 
parts of San Bernardino, Los Angeles, Riverside, Kern, and Inyo 
counties. The WMRNP applies to the 3.1 million acres of public lands 
within the WEMO planning area. The 9.4 million-acre WEMO planning area 
includes several large Department of Defense facilities covering almost 
3 million acres, a portion of one National Park, 3 million acres of 
private lands, and approximately 100,000 acres of State lands, 
including Red Rock Canyon State Park. Much of the planning area is 
managed as part of the BLM's National Landscape Conservation System, 
including portions of the Pacific Crest Trail and the Old Spanish 
National Historic Trail. The planning area includes 63 Areas of 
Critical Environmental Concern, 5 California Desert National 
Conservation Lands, 7 National Register Archaeological and 6 National 
Register Historic Districts, 4 Critical Habitat Units for the federally 
listed desert tortoise, and 8 Off-Highway Vehicle Open Areas.
    On March 16, 2018, the BLM issued a Draft Land Use Plan Amendment 
and Supplemental EIS. The Draft Supplemental EIS evaluated four 
alternatives, including a No-Action Alternative. During the 90-day 
public comment period, the BLM held four public meetings. The BLM 
received more than 9,000 public comments of which more than 7,900 were 
route-specific comments.
    Public comments on the Draft Land Use Plan Amendment and 
Supplemental EIS were considered and incorporated as appropriate into 
the WMRNP Proposed Land Use Plan Amendment and Final Supplemental EIS. 
Public comments resulted in changes to the route designation 
alternatives, including addition of one alternative, additional 
environmental analysis for several resources, addition of clarifying 
text, re-organization of text including appendices, and removal of 
duplicative text. Comments that were not route-specific were organized 
into categories and responses were developed to each group of comments. 
The response-to-comment document is provided in Appendix I of the Final 
Supplemental EIS. The BLM has added and selected Alternative 5 as the 
Agency Proposed Action in the Proposed Land Use Plan Amendment and 
Final Supplemental EIS.
    Instructions for filing a protest with the Director of the BLM 
regarding the Proposed Land Use Plan Amendment and Final Supplemental 
EIS may be found online at https://go.usa.gov/xE6gN, and at 43 CFR 
1610.5-2. All protests must be in writing and mailed to the appropriate 
address, as set forth in the ADDRESSES section, or submitted 
electronically through the BLM ePlanning project website as described 
earlier. Protests submitted electronically by any means other than the 
ePlanning project website protest section will be invalid unless a 
protest is also submitted in hard copy. Protests submitted by fax will 
also be invalid unless also submitted either through the ePlanning 
project website protest section or in hard copy.

[[Page 17888]]

    Unlike land use planning decisions, implementation decisions 
included in this Proposed Land Use Plan Amendment and Final 
Supplemental EIS are not subject to protest under the BLM planning 
regulations, but are subject to an administrative review process 
through appeals to the Office of Hearings and Appeals, Interior Board 
of Land Appeals pursuant to 43 CFR part 4 subpart E. Implementation 
decisions generally constitute the BLM's final approval allowing on-
the-ground actions to proceed. Where implementation decisions are made 
as part of the land use planning process, they are still subject to the 
appeals process or other administrative review as prescribed by 
specific resource program regulations once the BLM resolves the 
protests to land use planning decisions and issues a Record of 
Decision.
    Before including your address, phone number, email address, or 
other personal identifying information in your protest, please be aware 
that your entire protest--including your personal identifying 
information--may be made publically 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.

(Authority: 40 CFR 1506.6, 40 CFR 1506.10, 43 CFR 1610.2, 43 CFR 
1610.5, 43 CFR 1610.6)

Danielle Chi,
Deputy State Director, Fire and Resources.
[FR Doc. 2019-08281 Filed 4-25-19; 8:45 am]
 BILLING CODE 4310-40-P