[Federal Register Volume 87, Number 61 (Wednesday, March 30, 2022)]
[Notices]
[Pages 18388-18390]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2022-06680]


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DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR

Bureau of Land Management

[LLMTC01000-L10600000-MC0000MO# 4500155770]


Notice of Intent To Amend the Billings Field Office 2015 Resource 
Management Plan and To Prepare an Associated Environmental Assessment, 
Montana

AGENCY: Bureau of Land Management, Interior.

ACTION: Notice of intent.

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SUMMARY: In compliance with the National Environmental Policy Act of 
1969, as amended (NEPA), and the Federal Land Policy and Management Act 
of 1976, as amended (FLPMA), the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) 
Billings Field Office, Billings, Montana, intends to prepare an 
amendment to the Billings Field Office Resource Management Plan (RMP) 
and an associated Environmental Assessment (EA). The EA will analyze a 
proposed change to the RMP's Management Decision Wild Horse (MD WH-7) 
with respect to managing genetic diversity in the Pryor Mountain Wild 
Horse herd. This notice initiates the EA scoping process for the RMP 
amendment to solicit public comments and identify issues and announces 
the opportunity for public review of the planning criteria.

DATES: In order to be included in the analysis, all comments must be 
received electronically or in writing no later than April 29, 2022. The 
BLM does not plan to hold any scoping meetings for this RMP amendment. 
We will provide additional opportunities for public participation as 
appropriate.

ADDRESSES: Comments may be submitted electronically through the BLM e-
planning website at https://eplanning.blm.gov/eplanning-ui/project/1502632/510, or written comments may be sent to Wild Horse & Burro 
Coordinator, Billings Field Office, Bureau of Land Management, 5001 
Southgate Drive, Billings, MT 59101.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Dave LeFevre, telephone 406-896-5349, 
or 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. LeFevre 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. Normal 
business hours are 8:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., Monday through Friday, 
except for Federal holidays.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: This document provides notice that the BLM 
Billings Field Office, Billings, MT, intends to amend the Billings 
Field Office RMP and prepare an associated EA, announces the proposed 
plan amendment scoping process, and seeks public input on issues and 
planning criteria. Planning criteria help define decision space and are 
based upon applicable laws, Director and State Director guidance, and 
the results of public and governmental participation (43 CFR 1610.4-2). 
The draft planning criteria considered in the development of the 
proposed amendment include:
    (1) The proposed amendment will be completed in compliance with 
NEPA, FLPMA, the Wild Free-Roaming Horses and Burro Act, as amended, 
and the implementing regulations in 43 CFR 1700, BLM Wild Horses and 
Burros Management Handbook H-1700-1, and other applicable laws, 
regulations, and policy.
    (2) The proposed amendment is limited to MD WH-7 and would not 
change any other existing planning decisions in the Billings Field 
Office RMP.
    (3) The proposed amendment would only apply to lands and resources 
managed by the BLM as described in the 2015 Billings Field Office RMP; 
it would not change management direction for other agencies.
    (4) Decisions are compatible with existing plans and policies of 
adjacent local, State, Federal, and Tribal agencies, so long as the 
decisions are consistent with the purposes, policies, and programs of 
Federal law and regulations applicable to public lands.
    The Pryor Mountain Wild Horse Range is located in the Pryor 
Mountains in southeastern Carbon County, Montana, and northern Big Horn 
County, Wyoming, and encompasses approximately 38,000 acres of land.
    In 2009, the BLM approved the Pryor Mountain Wild Horse Range/
Territory Herd Management Area Plan (HMAP) that identified management 
objectives for the Pryor Mountain wild horses and horse range. The 2009 
HMAP managed the Pryor Mountain wild horses for a

[[Page 18389]]

phenotype animal reminiscent of a ``Colonial Spanish Mustang'' as 
described by ``Sponenberg North American Colonial Spanish Horses'' 
while balancing colors, sex ratios, and age structures.
    In 2015, the BLM approved a new RMP for the Billings Field Office. 
That RMP at MD WH-2 provides direction for the BLM to ``Maintain a wild 
horse herd that exhibits a diverse age structure, genetic diversity, 
and any characteristics unique to the Pryor horses.'' Additionally, MD 
WH-7 states that ``Within an HMAP, herd structure will be managed for 
all representations in the herd, not allowing specific colors or 
bloodlines to dominate from management manipulation.'' However, the 
2015 RMP does not define ``all representations'' in the herd, and the 
wording is ambiguous.
    In the 2015 RMP, it is evident that the intent of MD WH-7 was to 
limit the loss of genetic diversity, consistent with Goal WH-2 
(``Maintain a wild horse herd that exhibits a diverse age structure, 
genetic diversity, and any characteristics unique to the Pryor 
horses.''). However, maximizing genetic diversity at the expense of 
ecosystem sustainability is not a management goal or directive for the 
herd.
    An interpretation that every possible crossing of any given mare 
and any given stallion should leave a surviving foal (i.e., a 
``representation'' of the bloodline from that particular crossing) is 
not practical to implement for several reasons. If foals from every 
possible pairing of any stallion and any mare are interpreted to be a 
``representation,'' then that precludes removal of any animal unless it 
has full siblings. However, because individual stallions sire offspring 
with multiple mares, and individual mares may mate with multiple 
stallions, there would be an ever-increasing number of 
``representations'' in the herd. Because the population recruitment 
rate far exceeds the death rate, not removing ``representations'' 
without full siblings would result in unsustainable population growth. 
Under this scenario, Appropriate Management Level would be 
mathematically impossible to achieve.
    Other impracticalities exist as well. The BLM cannot cause all 
patrilineal or matrilineal lines to be propagated. When considering 
patrilineal lines, not all stallions get to reproduce; breeding is 
often limited to the band stallion, and some horses may forever remain 
a bachelor stallion. There are also practical matters related to the 
well-being of animals that are removed from the wild. Wild horse 
adoption programs tend to place animals into homes more readily with 
younger horses as they are more adoptable and transition more readily 
to domestic life compared to an older horse. However, when young horses 
are gathered and removed from the range, many of them will not have 
reached maturity and produced an offspring.
    The BLM proposes to amend MD WH-7 to make it consistent with RMP 
Goal WH2 to maintain genetic diversity and to align with management 
guidance in the BLM Wild Horse and Burro Handbook H-4700-1 for 
maintaining desirable genetic diversity (avoiding inbreeding 
depression). Specifically, the BLM proposes to amend the RMP to modify 
MD WH-7 as stated below:
    ``MD WH-7 (Proposed Amendment): Maintain desirable levels of 
genetic diversity, as measured by Observed Heterozygosity (Ho). 
Observed heterozygosity is a measure of how much diversity is found, on 
average, within individual animals in the Herd Management Area (HMA). 
If Ho drops below thresholds identified in the BLM Wild Horse and Burro 
Handbook H-4700-1, then BLM would take one or any combination of the 
following actions to reduce the possible risks associated with 
inbreeding depression:
    (1) Maximize the number of fertile, breeding age wild horses (6-10 
years) within the herd;
    (2) adjust the sex ratio in favor of males (but with not more than 
approximately 60 percent males); or
    (3) introduce mares or stallions from other wild horse HMAs. 
Prioritize introductions from herds with characteristics similar to the 
Pryor Mountain horses, such as the Sulfur herd in Utah, the Cerbat 
Mountain herd in Arizona, or others.''
    BLM Handbook H-4700-1 guidance notes that herds with observed 
heterozygosity values that are one standard deviation below the mean 
are considered at critical risk. Hair samples last collected from the 
Pryor Mountain herd in February 2013 indicated that values for observed 
heterozygosity were above the mean for feral horse herds at that time. 
The BLM would continue to collect genetic samples to monitor genetic 
diversity. The results of current and future genetic monitoring 
efforts, along with previous monitoring results, would indicate if loss 
of genetic diversity is a concern and if any of the management actions 
as noted in the proposed amendment would need to be taken.
    Maintaining desirable levels of genetic diversity would also assure 
a variety of colors are maintained in the Pryor Mountain horse herd. 
Pryor Mountain horses exhibit a variety of colors, with common colors 
including dun, grulla, bay, black, and roan. Less common colors that 
appear in the herd include red or apricot dun, chestnut, sorrel, 
palomino, and buckskin. Color is a phenotypic representation of 
dominant or recessive genes passed through generations. A horse that is 
a rare color may not produce offspring that are also a rare color. BLM 
is proposing to revise MD WH-7 to address genetic diversity in a manner 
that is consistent with the Wild Horse and Burro Handbook, but 
consideration of color would be addressed through MD WH-2 
(characteristics unique to the Pryors) and Selective Removal Criteria.
    Supplemental information on the proposed plan amendment is 
available on BLM's e-Planning website at the project link noted earlier 
in the ADDRESSES section. The BLM will prepare an EA to consider the 
proposed plan amendment as well as revisions to the 2009 HMAP including 
objectives for fertility control, gather criteria, and rangeland and 
riparian management (the public comment period for scoping the HMAP 
revisions is closed, and previously submitted comments regarding the 
HMAP revisions do not need to be re-submitted). The proposed plan 
amendment is limited to proposed changes to MD WH-7 that would replace 
direction to manage for ``all representations in the herd'' with 
direction to maintain desirable levels of genetic diversity to reduce 
the possible risks associated with inbreeding depression.
    You may submit comments electronically or in writing on the 
proposed amendment to the BLM as shown in the ADDRESSES section 
earlier. If you already submitted scoping comments on proposed 
revisions to the HMAP EA, including any comments related to the 
Appropriate Management Level, management objectives for the wild horse 
population, including fertility control and gather criteria, and 
management objectives for the Pryor Horse Range, during the comment 
period that ran from April 9, 2020, through May 15, 2020, you do not 
need to re-submit your comments.
    Before including your address, phone number, email 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.

[[Page 18390]]

    The BLM will work collaboratively with interested parties to 
identify the management decisions that are best suited to local, 
regional, and national needs and concerns.

(Authority: 40 CFR 1501.7 and 43 CFR 1610.2)

Theresa M. Hanley,
Acting BLM Montana/Dakotas State Director.
[FR Doc. 2022-06680 Filed 3-29-22; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4310-DN-P