[Federal Register Volume 89, Number 38 (Monday, February 26, 2024)]
[Notices]
[Pages 14090-14091]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2024-03766]


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DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR

Bureau of Land Management

[BLM_OR_FRN_MO4500177642]


Notice of Availability of the Record of Decision and Approved 
Resource Management Plan Amendment for the Southeastern Oregon Resource 
Management Plan, Vale District, Oregon

AGENCY: Bureau of Land Management, Interior.

ACTION: Notice of availability.

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SUMMARY: The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) announces the availability 
of the Record of Decision (ROD) for the Approved Resource Management 
Plan (RMP) Amendment for the Southeastern Oregon RMP, located in the 
BLM's Vale District. The State Director, Oregon/Washington signed the 
ROD on February 16, 2024, which constitutes the decision of the BLM and 
makes the Approved RMP Amendment effective immediately.

DATES: The State Director, Oregon/Washington signed the ROD/Approved 
RMP Amendment on February 16, 2024.

ADDRESSES: The ROD/Approved RMP Amendment is available online at the 
BLM National NEPA Register at https://eplanning.blm.gov/eplanning-ui/project/87435/510. Printed copies of the ROD/Approved RMP Amendment are 
available for public inspection at the BLM Vale District Office, 100 
Oregon Street, Vale, Oregon 97918, telephone: (541) 473-3144.
    A copy of the Protest Resolution Report is available at: https://www.blm.gov/programs/planning-and-nepa/public-participation/protest-resolution-reports.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Caryn Burri, 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 Ms. Burri. 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 Approved RMP Amendment amends 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 Approved RMP Amendment provides 
management direction for lands with wilderness characteristics; makes 
planning-area-wide travel and transportation/off-highway vehicle (OHV) 
allocations of open, limited, and closed; and provides management 
direction for livestock grazing in areas that fail to meet the BLM's 
Standards for Rangeland Health and for processing voluntary livestock 
grazing permit relinquishments.
    The Approved RMP Amendment prioritizes the protection of 33 of the 
76 areas the BLM identifies as having wilderness characteristics. The 
33 protected areas will be managed 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 retains 
the lands in public ownership for the life of the RMP; OHV limited; and 
exclusion areas for major rights-of-way and commercial renewable energy 
projects. No surface occupancy for the development and extraction of 
leasable and saleable minerals, including new mineral material sites, 
within the protected areas is allowed. Where roads form the boundary of 
a protected wilderness characteristic unit, a 250-foot management 
setback is established. The setback areas total 9,247 acres.
    Under the Approved RMP Amendment, two areas totaling 40,368 acres 
near the city of Vale, Oregon, will be managed as open to OHV use; 
319,501 acres currently classified as open will be designated as 
limited to existing routes, resulting in a total 4.5 million acres of 
limited OHV classification in the planning area; and 15,829 acres 
closed to OHV use will remain closed.
    The Approved RMP Amendment: (1) requires the BLM to consider taking 
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; (2) clarifies that the BLM will 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; and 
(3) requires the BLM to review the suitability and 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 unsuitable and/or incompatible, the area will 
become unavailable to grazing and the forage allocation will be made to 
another resource. If grazing is found to be suitable and/or compatible, 
then the allocation of forage to livestock grazing use would remain in 
place. The BLM could authorize grazing use for the area under a grazing 
permit or designate the area as a reserve common allotment.
    The BLM provided the Proposed RMP Amendment/Final Environmental 
Impact Statement (PRMPA/FEIS) for a 30-day public protest period 
starting on June 16, 2023, and received two valid protests. The BLM 
Assistant Director for Resources and Planning resolved both protests. 
Responses to protest issues were compiled and documented in a Protest 
Resolution Report (see ADDRESSES). Minor clarifications to the language 
in the Approved RMP Amendment related to the way BLM manages Wilderness 
Study Areas that are released from consideration for Wilderness 
designation by Congress were made in response to an issue raised on 
this topic in one of the protests received.
    The BLM provided the PRMPA/FEIS to the Governor of Oregon for a 60-
day Governor's consistency review on June 16, 2023. The Governor's 
Office identified some concerns and potential inconsistencies between 
the PRMPA and State and local plans, policies, and programs. The BLM 
discussed the concerns with the Governor's Office and, in response, 
made minor clarifications in the Approved RMP Amendment regarding how 
lands with wilderness characteristics that are not prioritized for 
protection will be managed and the way in which BLM manages Wilderness 
Study Areas that are released from consideration for Wilderness 
designation by Congress. The clarifications made to the Approved RMP 
Amendment in response to both the issues raised in one of the protests 
received and the Oregon Governor's consistency review were minor and 
did not represent a change requiring the BLM to provide the public with 
an opportunity to comment as discussed in 43 CFR 1610.2(f)(5) and 
1610.5-1.


[[Page 14091]]


(Authority: 40 CFR 1506.6; 43 CFR 1610.5-1)

Barry R. Bushue,
State Director.
[FR Doc. 2024-03766 Filed 2-23-24; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4331-24-P