[Federal Register Volume 80, Number 103 (Friday, May 29, 2015)]
[Notices]
[Pages 30707-30709]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2015-12926]
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR
Bureau of Land Management
[LLMTC040000.L16100000.DP0000.LXSS059E0000 MO# 4500079352]
Notice of Availability of the South Dakota Field Office Proposed
Resource Management Plan and Final Environmental Impact Statement,
South Dakota Field Office, Montana
AGENCY: Bureau of Land Management, Interior.
ACTION: Notice of Availability.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
SUMMARY: In accordance with the National Environmental Policy Act of
1969 (NEPA), as amended, and the Federal Land Policy and Management Act
of 1976 (FLPMA), as amended, the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) has
prepared a Proposed Resource Management Plan (RMP) and Final
Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) for the South Dakota Field Office
and by this notice is announcing its availability.
[[Page 30708]]
DATES: BLM planning regulations state that any person who meets the
conditions as described in the regulations may protest the BLM's
Proposed RMP/Final EIS. A person who meets the conditions and files a
protest must file the protest within 30 days of the date that the
Environmental Protection Agency publishes its notice of availability in
the Federal Register.
ADDRESSES: Copies of the South Dakota Field Office Proposed RMP/Final
EIS have been sent to affected Federal, State, and local government
agencies, tribal governments and to other stakeholders and members of
the public. Copies of the Proposed RMP/Final EIS are available for
public inspection at the following locations:
BLM, South Dakota Field Office, 310 Roundup Street, Belle
Fourche, SD 57717.
BLM, Montana/Dakota BLM State Office, 5001 Southgate
Drive, Billings, Montana 59101.
BLM, Meade County Courthouse, 1300 Sherman Street,
Sturgis, SD 57785.
USFS, Fort Pierre National Grasslands, 1020 N. Deadwood
Street, Pierre, SD 57532.
USFS, Wall Ranger District, 708 Main Street, Wall, SD
57790.
Copies of the Proposed RMP/EIS may also be viewed on the internet
at http://www.blm.gov/mt/st/en/fo/south_dakota_field/rmp.html.
All protests must be in writing and mailed to one of the following
addresses:
Regular Mail: BLM Director (210), Attention: Protest Coordinator,
P.O. Box 71383, Washington, DC 20024-1383.
Overnight Delivery: BLM Director (210), Attention: Protest
Coordinator, 20 M Street SE., Room 2134LM, Washington, DC 20003.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Mitch Iverson, RMP Project Manager,
telephone: 605-892-7008; or Lori (Chip) Kimball, BLM South Dakota Field
Manager, telephone: 605-892-7000; address: 310 Roundup Street, Belle
Fourche, SD 57717; email: [email protected]. Persons who
use a telecommunications device for the deaf (TDD), may call the
Federal Information Relay Service (FIRS), at 1-800-877-8339, to contact
the above individuals during normal business hours. The FIRS is
available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, to leave a message or question
with the above individuals. You will receive a reply during normal
business hours.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The planning area includes lands within the
BLM South Dakota Field Office administrative boundaries which includes
all lands, regardless of jurisdiction, in the State of South Dakota,
however, the BLM will only make decisions on lands that fall under the
BLM's jurisdiction. The BLM administers 274,239 acres of public land
surface and approximately 1.72 million acres of federal mineral estate.
Over 98 percent of the BLM-administered surface and Federal mineral
estate in the decision area is located in western South Dakota.
Counties with substantial amounts of BLM-administered surface or
mineral estate (over 1 percent of the county land base), include Butte,
Custer, Fall River, Haakon, Harding, Lawrence, Meade, Pennington,
Perkins, and Stanley counties in western South Dakota. Other counties
with small amounts of BLM-administered surface or federal minerals
(less than 1 percent of the county land base), include Bennett, Bon
Homme, Brule, Campbell, Charles Mix, Clark, Clay, Corson, Dewey,
Edmunds, Faulk, Gregory, Hand, Hughes, Hyde, Jackson, Jones, Lyman,
Marshall, McPherson, Mellette, Potter, Sully, Tripp, Walworth, Yankton,
and Ziebach counties in South Dakota. An updated inventory of lands
with wilderness characteristics was completed for the planning area and
data from the inventory was analyzed in the Draft RMP/EIS. The revised
RMP will replace the South Dakota RMP of 1986, as amended, and provide
the South Dakota Field Office with an updated framework in which to
administer the BLM-managed public lands in the planning area.
The formal scoping period began with the publication of the Notice
of Intent (NOI) in the Federal Register on July 19, 2007 (72 FR 39638).
From August through October 2007, nine scoping meetings were held
across the planning area. In addition to the nine scoping meetings,
four open house meetings were held to address the concerns of Native
American tribes. During scoping, the BLM requested public input to
identify resource issues and concerns, management alternatives, or
other ideas to help in determining future land use decisions for the
planning area. The Draft RMP/EIS was made available for public review
for a 90-day period on June 14, 2013 (78 FR 35959). Initially, the
Federal Register NOI announced scoping for both North Dakota and South
Dakota RMP revisions; however, based on the diverse planning issues and
other management considerations, the South Dakota RMP revision
continued ahead, and an RMP revision specific to North Dakota BLM will
be addressed at a later date.
The issues raised during scoping included energy development,
vegetation management, wildlife habitat, special status species
management, Greater Sage-Grouse, travel, access, commercial uses, land
tenure adjustments, visual resource management, and climate change. The
BLM invited local, State, Federal, and tribal representatives to
participate as cooperating agencies on the South Dakota RMP/EIS.
The Proposed RMP/Final EIS includes a range of management actions
within four management alternatives, including the No-Action
Alternative. These alternatives address the goals, management
challenges, and issues raised during scoping.
The four alternatives analyzed are:
1. Alternative A: Continues existing management practices (No-
Action Alternative).
2. Alternative B: Emphasizes commercial resource development and
use while providing adequate levels of resource protection.
3. Alternative C: Emphasizes conservation of natural resources
while providing for compatible development and use.
4. Alternative D (Proposed): Provides development opportunities and
conserves high value and sensitive resources.
The South Dakota Field Office has identified Alternative D as the
Proposed RMP. Alternative D supports management of greater sage-grouse
seasonal habitats and maintaining habitat connectivity to achieve
population objectives.
Two ACECs are currently designated in the existing South Dakota RMP
and were re-evaluated and addressed in this Proposed RMP/Final EIS. All
alternatives (including the Proposed Plan) would propose to maintain
the two existing ACECs, as summarized below:
Fort Meade Recreation Area ACEC (6,574 acres):
Relevant and Important Values: Historical and
archeological.
Limitations on the Following Uses: Closed to leasable and
salable minerals, closed to geophysical exploration, recommended for
withdrawal from appropriation under the mining laws.
Other Restrictions: Right-of-way (ROW) exclusion area
except in designated ROW corridors, motorized vehicle use limited to
designated roads and trails, snowmobiles or machines specifically
equipped to travel over snow prohibited, closed to construction of new
roads except rerouting of existing roads to address resource impacts or
safety, and the continued designation as a back country byway of
[[Page 30709]]
the route that traverses the southern portion of the ACEC.
Fossil Cycad ACEC (320 acres):
Relevant and Important Values: Paleontological.
Proposed Use Limitations: Closed to fluid minerals within
the ACEC, closed to salable Federal minerals, sale of forest products
not be allowed, collection of fossils without a BLM permit not allowed,
and locatable Federal minerals recommended for withdrawal from
appropriation under the mining laws.
Other Restrictions: ROW exclusion area.
The South Dakota Field Office Proposed RMP/Final EIS is one of a
total of 15 separate EISs that make up the BLM and Forest Service
National Greater Sage-Grouse Planning Strategy. Greater-Sage Grouse
habitat within the planning area consists of:
Priority Habitat Management Area (PHMA)--Areas identified
as having the highest conservation value for maintaining sustainable
greater sage-grouse populations; include breeding, late brood-rearing,
and winter concentration areas.
General Habitat Management Area (GHMA)--Areas of seasonal
or year-round habitat outside of PHMA.
Alternative D supports management of greater sage-grouse seasonal
habitats and maintaining habitat connectivity to achieve population
objectives. Alternative D would limit or eliminate new surface
disturbance in PHMA, while minimizing disturbance in GHMA.
The Proposed Plan provides for 127,735 acres of Greater Sage-Grouse
PHMAs.
The BLM and Forest Service, via the Western Association of Fish and
Wildlife Agencies (WAFWA) Management Zone Greater Sage-Grouse
Conservation Team, will develop a Regional Mitigation Strategy to guide
the application of the mitigation hierarchy to address impacts within
that Zone. The Regional Mitigation Strategy should consider any State-
level greater sage-grouse mitigation guidance that is consistent with
the requirements. The Regional Mitigation Strategy will be developed in
a transparent manner, based on the best science available and
standardized metrics. Development of additional regional mitigation
strategies for other resource programs may occur for implementation
level decisions.
Instructions for filing a protest with the Director of the BLM
regarding the Proposed RMP/Final EIS may be found in the ``Dear
Reader'' Letter of the South Dakota Proposed RMP/Final EIS and at 43
CFR 1610.5-2. All protests must be in writing and be mailed to the
appropriate address, as set forth in the ADDRESSES section above.
Emailed protests will not be accepted as valid protests unless the
protesting party also provides the original printed email by either
regular or overnight mail, postmarked by the close of the protest
period. Under these conditions, the BLM will consider the emailed
protest as an advance copy and it will receive full consideration. If
you wish to provide the BLM with such advance notification, please
direct emails to [email protected].
Before including your address, phone number, email address, or
other personal identifying information in your comment, be advised 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 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
Jamie E. Connell,
State Director, Montana/Dakotas.
[FR Doc. 2015-12926 Filed 5-28-15; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4310-DN-P