[Federal Register Volume 88, Number 116 (Friday, June 16, 2023)]
[Notices]
[Pages 39451-39452]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2023-12847]


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DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR

Bureau of Land Management

[BLM_OR_FRN_MO4500169742]


Notice of Availability of the Proposed Southeastern Oregon 
Resource Management Plan Amendment and Final Environmental Impact 
Statement

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 
Proposed Resource Management Plan (RMP) Amendment/Final Environmental 
Impact Statement (EIS) for the 2002 Southeastern Oregon RMP, and by 
this notice is announcing the start of a 30-day protest period of the 
Proposed RMP Amendment.

DATES: This notice announces the beginning of a 30-day protest period 
to the BLM on the Proposed RMP Amendment. Protests must be postmarked 
or electronically submitted on the BLM's ePlanning site within 30 days 
of the date that the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) publishes 
its Notice of Availability (NOA) in the Federal Register. The EPA 
usually publishes its NOAs on Fridays.

ADDRESSES: The Proposed RMP Amendment/Final EIS is available on the 
BLM's ePlanning page at https://eplanning.blm.gov/eplanning-ui/project/87435/510. On the project summary page, click on ``Documents'' on the 
left side of the screen to find the electronic version of the Proposed 
RMP Amendment/Final EIS. Hard copies of the Proposed RMP Amendment/
Final EIS are also available for public inspection at the BLM Vale 
District Office, 100 Oregon Street, Vale, Oregon 97918, telephone: 
(541) 473-3144.
    Instructions for filing a protest with the BLM for the Proposed RMP 
Amendment/Final EIS for the 2002 Southeastern Oregon RMP can be found 
at: https://www.blm.gov/programs/planning-and-nepa/public-participation/filing-a-plan-protest and at 43 CFR 1610.5-2.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Brent Grasty, Planning and 
Environmental Coordinator, Vale District Office; telephone: (541) 473-
3144; email: [email protected]. Individuals in the United States who are 
deaf, deafblind, hard of hearing, or have a speech disability may dial 
711 (TTY, TDD, or TeleBraille) to access telecommunications relay 
services for contacting Mr. Grasty. Individuals outside the United 
States should use the relay services offered within their country to 
make international calls to the point-of-contact in the United States.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The RMP amendment would change the existing 
2002 Southeastern Oregon RMP. The Southeastern Oregon planning area 
covers approximately 4.6 million acres of public lands in Malheur, 
Grant, Harney, and Baker counties. The area is characterized by a basin 
and range topography with remote canyons, desert, and mountain systems. 
The Final EIS evaluates six alternatives that address lands with 
wilderness characteristics; determine open, limited, and closed off-
highway vehicle area allocations; provide livestock grazing management 
practices related to areas that fail to meet the BLM's Standards for 
Rangeland Health; and address voluntary livestock grazing permit 
relinquishments. Resource uses not addressed by the alternatives in 
this focused amendment will continue to be managed under the direction 
of the 2002 Southeastern Oregon RMP and Record of Decision, as amended 
by the 2015 and 2019 Approved Oregon Greater Sage-Grouse RMP 
Amendments.
    The Proposed RMP Amendment/Final EIS responds to comments the BLM 
received on the Draft EIS during the 90-day public comment period that 
began on May 29, 2019. During the public comment period, the BLM held 
open houses in Ontario and Jordan Valley, Oregon, and McDermitt, 
Nevada. A summary of the comments received during the public comment 
period and responses to those comments can be found in Appendix P of 
the Proposed RMP Amendment/Final EIS.
    Under the Proposed RMP Amendment, the BLM would protect 33 of the 
76 areas the BLM identified as having wilderness characteristics. These 
33 areas, which total 417,190 acres, are the units that were 
prioritized for protection under Alternative D in the Draft RMP 
Amendment/Draft EIS. The 33 units were identified using criteria 
established by the BLM's Southeast Oregon Resource Advisory Council 
that emphasized vegetative conditions, hydrologic function, and the 
proximity to other protected areas. The Proposed RMP Amendment would 
also designate these 33 protected areas as: Visual Resource Management 
Class II public lands, which only allows for low levels of change to 
the landscapes' visual character; Land Tenure Zone 1, where the BLM 
would retain these lands in public ownership for the life of the RMP; 
exclusion areas for major rights-of-way and commercial renewable energy 
projects; and lands where no surface occupancy for the development and 
extraction of leasable and saleable minerals, including new mineral 
material sites, would be authorized. The Proposed RMP Amendment would 
establish a 250-foot setback area from the protected areas' boundaries 
to provide the BLM with management

[[Page 39452]]

flexibility to maintain the long-term sustainability of the public 
lands while still maintaining or enhancing the wilderness 
characteristics within the protected areas.
    The Proposed RMP Amendment would also change 319,501 acres of off-
highway vehicle (OHV) area allocations within the planning area from 
open to limited OHV areas, which would limit OHV travel to existing 
routes and prohibit cross-country travel. This would create a total of 
4.5 million acres within the planning area where OHV use would be 
limited to existing routes, and all of the protected lands with 
wilderness characteristics are within this limited OHV area category. 
The Proposed RMP Amendment would retain two open OHV areas totaling 
40,368 acres and maintain the current 15,829 acres of closed OHV areas.
    The Proposed RMP Amendment would provide additional guidance on the 
implementation of the BLM's Standards for Rangeland Health and the 
processing of voluntary grazing permit relinquishments. The Proposed 
RMP Amendment calls for the consideration of taking appropriate action 
in areas that are not meeting Standards for Rangeland Health even if 
existing livestock grazing is not a causal factor for non-attainment of 
the standard. The Proposed RMP Amendment also clarifies that the BLM 
would not permit increases to animal unit months if analysis finds that 
doing so could cause negative impacts to other resources in an area 
where there is either no rangeland health assessment and evaluation or 
if the evaluation no longer represents the existing resource 
conditions. The Proposed RMP Amendment calls for the BLM to review the 
compatibility of livestock grazing use with other existing resources in 
the permitted area when a voluntary permit relinquishment is received. 
If livestock grazing is found to be incompatible, the area could become 
unavailable to grazing and the forage allocation would be made to 
another resource. If grazing is found to be compatible with the other 
resource considerations, then the area would remain available to 
livestock grazing, and/or could be designated as a reserve common 
allotment.
    The other alternatives evaluated in the Final EIS are the No Action 
Alternative and Alternatives A, B, C, and D. These alternatives vary in 
the acreages of lands with wilderness characteristics identified for 
protection; the acreages of open, limited, and closed OHV area 
allocations; and various livestock grazing management approaches for 
implementing the Standards for Rangeland Health and processing 
voluntary permit relinquishments.

Protest of the Proposed RMP Amendment

    BLM planning regulations state that any person who participated in 
the preparation of the RMP and has an interest that will or might be 
adversely affected by approval of the Proposed RMP Amendment may 
protest its approval to the BLM. Protest on the Proposed RMP Amendment 
constitutes the final opportunity for administrative review of the 
proposed land use planning decisions prior to the BLM adopting an 
approved RMP Amendment. Instructions for filing a protest with the BLM 
regarding the Proposed RMP Amendment may be found online (see 
ADDRESSES). All protests must be in writing and mailed to the 
appropriate address or submitted electronically through the BLM 
ePlanning project website (see ADDRESSES). Protests submitted 
electronically by any means other than the ePlanning project website or 
by fax will be invalid unless a hard copy of the protest is also 
submitted. The BLM will render a written decision on each protest. The 
protest decision of the BLM shall be the final decision of the 
Department of the Interior. Responses to valid protest issues will be 
compiled and documented in a Protest Resolution Report made available 
following the protest resolution online at: https://www.blm.gov/programs/planning-and-nepa/public-participation/protest-resolution-reports. Upon resolution of protests, the BLM will issue a Record of 
Decision and Approved RMP Amendment.
    Before including your address, phone number, email 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 from public review your personal 
identifying information, 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)

Barry R. Bushue,
State Director, Oregon/Washington.
[FR Doc. 2023-12847 Filed 6-15-23; 8:45 am]
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