[Federal Register Volume 88, Number 249 (Friday, December 29, 2023)]
[Notices]
[Pages 90199-90200]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2023-28673]


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DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR

Bureau of Land Management

[BLM_HQ_FRN_MO4500176406]


Notice of Availability of the Final Programmatic Environmental 
Impact Statement for Approval of Herbicide Active Ingredients for Use 
on Public Lands

AGENCY: Bureau of Land Management, Interior.

ACTION: Notice of availability.

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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) 
announces the availability of the final Environmental Impact Statement 
(EIS) for the Approval of Herbicide Active Ingredients for Use on 
Public Lands.

DATES: The BLM will not issue a decision on the proposal for a minimum 
of 30 days after the date that the Environmental Protection Agency 
(EPA) publishes its Notice of Availability

[[Page 90200]]

(NOA) in the Federal Register. The EPA usually publishes its NOAs on 
Fridays.

ADDRESSES: The final EIS and documents pertinent to this proposal are 
available for review on the BLM ePlanning project website at https://go.usa.gov/xtk6a.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Seth Flanigan, Project Manager, 
telephone: 208-373-4094; 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. Flanigan. 
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: This document provides notice that the BLM 
has prepared a final programmatic EIS for a review of active 
ingredients that may be approved for use in vegetation treatments on 
BLM-managed public lands.

Purpose and Need for the Proposed Action

    The BLM's purpose and need is to improve the effectiveness of its 
invasive plant management efforts by allowing the use of EPA-registered 
active ingredients not currently authorized for use on BLM public 
lands. Approving additional active ingredients would diversify the 
BLM's herbicide treatment options and help meet the purposes that were 
first identified in the 2007 and 2016 programmatic EISs related to 
vegetation treatments, which are to make herbicides available for 
vegetation treatment on public lands and to describe the stipulations 
that apply to their use.

Proposed Action and Alternatives

    The proposed action is to approve the following herbicide active 
ingredients for use in vegetation treatments on public lands: 
aminocyclopyrachlor, clethodim, fluozifop-p-butyl, flumioxazin, 
imazamox, indaziflam, and oryzalin. These active ingredients are 
registered by the EPA. As part of the process for evaluating whether to 
approve these active ingredients, the BLM will adopt and depend on 
Human Health and Ecological Risk Assessments prepared by the U.S. 
Forest Service.

Schedule for the Decision-Making Process

    The BLM anticipates releasing a Record of Decision in January 2024.

Responsible Official

    Assistant Director for Resources and Planning.

Nature of Decision To Be Made

    Through this process, the BLM will decide whether to approve the 
seven additional herbicide active ingredients identified earlier for 
use on BLM-managed public lands. This decision will be based on the 
best available science and current needs for vegetation management. Any 
authorization to apply any of these active ingredients at a particular 
site will be made through a separate, site-specific decision and so is 
not within the scope of the programmatic EIS or potential decision 
described in this notice.

Public Participation

    In addition to making the draft programmatic EIS available for 
public comment and review, the BLM hosted a virtual public meeting 
during the public comment period. The agency received 46 comments, 
which were incorporated in the final programmatic EIS as appropriate. 
In coordination with comments received from Native American Tribes, the 
BLM emphasizes, in the EIS, the need to coordinate with local Tribes 
during implementation-level analyses and authorizations to reduce and 
avoid impacts to Tribes that may gather and use native plant materials 
for cultural or subsistence purposes.
    Comments on the draft EIS received from the public and from 
internal BLM review were considered and incorporated as appropriate 
into the final EIS. These comments resulted in the addition of 
clarifying text but did not significantly change the impact analysis.

(Authority: 40 CFR 1506.6, 40 CFR 1506.10)

Brian St George,
Acting Assistant Director for Resources and Planning.
[FR Doc. 2023-28673 Filed 12-28-23; 8:45 am]
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