[Federal Register Volume 75, Number 122 (Friday, June 25, 2010)]
[Notices]
[Pages 36435-36436]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2010-15326]
=======================================================================
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR
Bureau of Land Management
[LLNVW00000 L16100000.DP0000 LXSS015F0000 241A; 10-08807;
MO4500012011; TAS:14X1109]
Notice of Availability of the Draft Winnemucca District Resource
Management Plan and Environmental Impact Statement, Nevada
AGENCY: Bureau of Land Management, Interior.
ACTION: Notice of Availability.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
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
Draft Resource Management Plan (RMP) and Draft Environmental Impact
Statement (EIS) for the Winnemucca District and by this notice is
announcing the opening of the comment period.
DATES: To ensure that comments will be considered, the BLM must receive
written comments on the Draft RMP/Draft EIS within 90 days following
the date the Environmental Protection Agency publishes its notice of
the Draft RMP/Draft EIS in the Federal Register. The BLM will announce
future meetings or hearings and any other public participation
activities at least 15 days in advance through public notices, media
releases, and/or mailings.
ADDRESSES: You may submit comments related to the Winnemucca District
Draft RMP/Draft EIS by any of the following methods:
Web site: http://www.blm.gov/nv/st/en/fo/wfo/blm_information/rmp
E-mail: [email protected].
Fax: (775) 623-1503
Mail: Bureau of Land Management, Winnemucca District Draft
RMP/EIS, 5100 East Winnemucca Boulevard, Winnemucca, Nevada 89445.
Copies of the Winnemucca District Draft RMP/Draft EIS are available
in the Winnemucca District Office at the above address or on the
following website: http://www.blm.gov/nv/st/en/fo/wfo/blm_information/rmp
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: For further information contact Bob
Edwards, RMP Team Lead, telephone (775) 623-1597; address 5100 E.
Winnemucca Boulevard, Winnemucca, Nevada 89445, e-mail: [email protected].
[[Page 36436]]
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The Winnemucca District Draft RMP/Draft EIS
was developed through a collaborative planning process. The Winnemucca
RMP decision area encompasses approximately 7.2 million acres of public
land administered by the BLM Winnemucca District, which are located in
Humboldt, Pershing, Lyon, Churchill and Washoe counties, Nevada. It
does not include private lands, State lands, Indian reservations,
Federal lands not administered by BLM or lands addressed in the Black
Rock Desert-High Rock Canyon, Emigrant Trails National Conservation
Area RMP EIS (July 2004).
The Draft RMP/Draft EIS includes strategies for protecting and
preserving the biological, wildlife, cultural, recreational,
geological, educational, scientific, and scenic values while managing
for sustainable development, energy and mineral development, and
livestock grazing. Current guidance is provided by the Sonoma-Gerlach
and Paradise-Denio Management Framework Plans (1982) and land use plan
amendments (1999). The key issues raised during the planning process
include landscape health, recreation, access, transportation routes,
wilderness characteristics, and visual resources. Five alternatives,
including a no-action alternative, were developed in response to these
key issues. The alternatives also address air resources, biological
resources, cultural resources, fire management, grazing management,
hazardous materials, lands and realty, mineral and energy resources,
Native American issues, social and economic conditions, soils, and
water resources. The no action alternative, Alternative A, represents
the current management of public lands within the Winnemucca District.
The four action alternatives, Alternatives B through D, present
reasonable, yet varying, management scenarios. The alternatives range
from emphasizing maintenance of the naturalness of the Winnemucca
District decision area, by restricting some human uses, to emphasizing
continued human uses. Comments collected during the scoping process in
2005, during which four public open houses were held, were instrumental
in determining the issues to be addressed. Through the Draft RMP/Draft
EIS, the BLM is seeking public input on the developed alternatives that
address these issues. The Winnemucca District's preferred alternative
is Alternative D which focuses on a balance between managing public
lands for economic and recreational growth while protecting valuable
resources. Alternative D also incorporates sustainable development
principles and techniques to achieve this balance.
The Osgood Mountains Milkvetch Area of Critical Environmental
Concern (ACEC) is the only special designation area currently within
the Winnemucca District. The use limitations in this area include:
closure to mineral material disposal (salable minerals); no surface
occupancy and stipulations to accompany fluid and solid mineral
leasing; locatable minerals withdrawn from entry; and Visual Resource
Management (VRM) Class II. Alternative B mirrors the Alternative A
management of the ACEC. Alternative C proposes to designate three new
ACECs: Pine Forest, Raised Bog and Stillwater Range. Management of all
four ACECs would be as follows: closed to mineral material disposal
(salable minerals), fluid mineral and solid mineral leasing; locatable
minerals withdrawn from entry; priority fire suppression areas; and VRM
Class II. Alternative D is almost identical to the proposal in
Alternative C and in addition the proposed ACECs would be closed to new
communication sites. The proposed Pine Forest, Raised Bog, and
Stillwater Range ACECs would be open for acquiring the rights to
locatable minerals with special mitigation on operations. Alternative D
proposes to manage the Osgood Mountains Milkvetch ACEC as a VRM Class
III.
Before including your address, phone number, e-mail 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.
Ron Wenker,
State Director, Nevada.
Authority: 40 CFR 1506.6, 1506.10, and 43 CFR 1610.2
[FR Doc. 2010-15326 Filed 6-24-10; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4310-HC-P