[Federal Register Volume 85, Number 21 (Friday, January 31, 2020)]
[Notices]
[Pages 5695-5696]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2020-01979]


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DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR

Bureau of Land Management

[LLWYD04000.L16100000.DP0000.19X]


Notice of Availability of the Draft Resource Management Plan 
Amendment and Draft Environmental Impact Statement for Wild Horse 
Management in the Bureau of Land Management Rock Springs and Rawlins 
Field Offices, Wyoming

AGENCY: Bureau of Land Management, Interior.

ACTION: Notice of availability.

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SUMMARY: The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) Rock Springs Field Office 
has prepared a Draft Resource Management Plan (RMP) Amendment and Draft 
Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) for Wild Horse Management within 
the BLM Wyoming Rock Springs and Rawlins field offices. By this notice, 
the BLM is announcing the opening of a 90-day public comment period.

DATES: To ensure the BLM is able to consider your feedback, please 
submit written comments by April 30, 2020. BLM Wyoming will host two 
public meetings during the public comment period and will announce the 
specific dates, times, and locations through public notices, media news 
releases, and mailings at least 15 days prior to the meetings.

ADDRESSES: You may review the Draft EIS and RMP Amendment and submit 
comments online via the BLM's ePlanning website: https://go.usa.gov/xPUWj.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Kimberlee Foster, Field Manager, BLM 
Rock Springs Field Office at 307-352-0256 or [email protected]. People 
who use a telecommunications device for the deaf may call the Federal 
Relay Service (FRS) at 1-800-877-8339 to contact the above individual 
during normal business hours. The FRS is available 24 hours a day, 
seven 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 BLM manages wild horses under the 
authority of the Wild Free-Roaming Horses and Burros Act of 1971, as

[[Page 5696]]

amended, to ensure healthy wild horse herds thrive on healthy 
rangelands in balance with other resources. The Act requires the BLM to 
manage wild horses at appropriate management levels (AMLs) to achieve a 
thriving natural ecological balance. It also requires the BLM to remove 
wild horses that have strayed onto private lands if the landowner 
requests their removal.
    In June 2010, the Rock Springs Grazing Association (RSGA) filed a 
lawsuit (Rock Springs Grazing Association v. Salazar, No. 11-CV-00263-
NDF) in the U.S. District Court for the District of Wyoming contending 
the BLM violated Section 4 of the Wild Free-Roaming Horses and Burros 
Act (16 U.S.C. 1334) by failing to remove strayed animals from private 
lands controlled by the RSGA in southern Wyoming's checkerboard pattern 
of alternating public and private lands. In April 2013, the court 
approved a Consent Decree and Joint Stipulation for Dismissal that 
resolved the lawsuit and required the BLM to evaluate potential changes 
to its management of wild horses on checkerboard lands by considering 
an RMP amendment for the Rock Springs and Rawlins field offices. The 
BLM initiated this planning effort to meet the terms of the Consent 
Decree, which directs the BLM to analyze the following actions:
     Change the Salt Wells Creek Herd Management Area (HMA) to 
a herd area, which would be managed for zero wild horses, and re-gather 
the herd area to zero wild horses if its wild horse population exceeds 
200;
     Change the Great Divide Basin HMA to a herd area, which 
would be managed for zero wild horses, and re-gather the herd area to 
zero wild horses if its wild horse population exceeds 100;
     Change the Adobe Town HMA's AML to 225-450 wild horses or 
lower, and do not relocate horses gathered from Adobe Town to Salt 
Wells Creek; and
     Manage the White Mountain HMA as a non-reproducing herd 
with a population of 205 wild horses by utilizing fertility control and 
sterilization methods, and initiate gathers if the HMA's population 
exceeds 205 wild horses.
    The BLM is developing an EIS to analyze the impacts of these wild 
horse management actions. If approved, management actions analyzed in 
this Draft EIS would amend the 1997 Green River RMP and the 2008 
Rawlins RMP.
    The planning area for this Draft EIS/RMP Amendment covers the four 
HMAs that include checkerboard land and are addressed in the Consent 
Decree, encompassing approximately 2,811,401 acres in the Rock Springs 
and Rawlins field offices. The BLM manages approximately 1,920,314 
acres of surface estate in the planning area. Private land in the 
planning area totals approximately 814,086 acres.
    Before including your address, phone number, email address, or 
other personally identifying information in your comment, you should be 
aware that your entire comment--including your personally identifying 
information--may be made publicly available at any time. While you can 
ask the BLM in your comment to withhold your personally identifying 
information from public review, we cannot guarantee that we will be 
able to do so.

    Authority: 43 CFR 1610.2; 40 CFR 1506.6(b).

Lori A. Armstrong,
Acting State Director, Wyoming.
[FR Doc. 2020-01979 Filed 1-30-20; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4310-22-P