Notice of Availability of the Proposed Resource Management Plan/Final Environmental Impact Statement for the Lower Sonoran and Sonoran Desert National Monument, Arizona, 35999-36000 [2012-14564]
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Federal Register / Vol. 77, No. 116 / Friday, June 15, 2012 / Notices
Secs. 3 and 10.
Containing 509 acres.
T. 32 N., R. 79 W.,
Secs. 14 and 15.
Containing 40 acres.
Aggregating 552 acres.
DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR
Any party claiming a property
interest in the lands affected by the
decision may appeal the decision within
the following time limits:
1. Unknown parties, parties unable to
be located after reasonable efforts have
been expended to locate, parties who
fail or refuse to sign their return receipt,
and parties who receive a copy of the
decision by regular mail which is not
certified, return receipt requested, shall
have until July 16, 2012 to file an
appeal.
2. Parties receiving service of the
decision by certified mail shall have 30
days from the date of receipt to file an
appeal.
3. Notices of appeal transmitted by
electronic means, such as facsimile or
email, will not be accepted as timely
filed.
Parties who do not file an appeal in
accordance with the requirements of
43 CFR part 4, subpart E, shall be
deemed to have waived their rights.
A copy of the decision may
be obtained from: Bureau of Land
Management, Alaska State Office, 222
West Seventh Avenue, #13, Anchorage,
Alaska 99513–7504.
ADDRESSES:
The
BLM by phone at 907–271–5960 or by
email at ak.blm.conveyance@blm.gov.
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
BLM during normal business hours. In
addition, the FIRS is available 24 hours
a day, 7 days a week, to leave a message
or question with the BLM. The BLM
will reply during normal business
hours.
srobinson on DSK4SPTVN1PROD with NOTICES
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:
Judy A. Kelley,
Land Law Examiner, Land Transfer
Adjudication II Branch.
[FR Doc. 2012–14687 Filed 6–14–12; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4310–JA–P
Jkt 226001
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:
[LLAZP02000.L16100000.DQ0000.
LXSS089A0000.241A]
DATES:
17:05 Jun 14, 2012
Street SE., Room 2134LM,
Washington, DC 20003
Bureau of Land Management
Notice of the decision will also be
published four times in the Anchorage
Daily News.
VerDate Mar<15>2010
35999
Chris Horyza, RMP Project Manager,
telephone: 623–580–5639; address: BLM
Phoenix District Office, 21605 North 7th
Avenue, Phoenix, Arizona 85027; email:
blm_az_ls_sdnm_plan@blm.gov.
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 individual 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
individual. You will receive a reply
during normal business hours.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Compact
disks of the LS–SDNM were sent to the
following locations to be made available
for public access:
• https://www.blm.gov/az/st/en/prog/
planning/son_des/reports.html.
• BLM Arizona State Office, One
North Central Avenue, Suite 800,
Phoenix, Arizona 85004.
• Apache Junction Public Library,
1177 North Idaho Road, Apache
Junction, Arizona 85219.
• Buckeye Public Library, 310 North
6th Street, Buckeye, Arizona 85326.
• Casa Grande Public Library, 449
North Dry Lake, Casa Grande, Arizona
85222.
• Gila Bend Public Library, 202 North
Euclid Avenue, Gila Bend, Arizona
85337.
• Salazar-Ajo Branch Library, 33
Plaza, Ajo, Arizona 85321.
The LS–SDNM Planning Area
includes approximately 8.9 million
acres of public and private lands,
approximately 1.4 million surface acres,
and 3.9 million subsurface/mineral-split
estate acres administered by the BLM.
These include about 930,200 surface
acres in the Lower Sonoran Field Office,
referred to as the LS Decision Area, as
well as 486,400 surface acres within the
Monument, referred to as the SDNM
Decision Area.
The BLM released the Lower Sonoran
and Sonoran Desert National Monument
Draft RMP/Draft EIS for public review
and comment on August 26, 2011. The
release initiated a 90-day public
comment period, which concluded on
November 25, 2011. The BLM made the
Draft RMP/Draft EIS available to the
public on the BLM Web site, as well as
hard copies for review at several local
libraries. The document was also
available upon request from the BLM
Phoenix District in hard copy and on
CD. During the public comment period,
the BLM held seven public meetings
and received over 4,800 comment
Notice of Availability of the Proposed
Resource Management Plan/Final
Environmental Impact Statement for
the Lower Sonoran and Sonoran
Desert National Monument, Arizona
Bureau of Land Management,
Interior.
ACTION: Notice of Availability.
AGENCY:
In accordance with the
National Environmental Policy Act of
1969 (NEPA), 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)/Final Environmental Impact
Statement (EIS) for the Lower Sonoran
(LS) and Sonoran Desert National
Monument (SDNM), Arizona, and by
this notice is announcing its
availability.
SUMMARY:
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
in the Federal Register.
ADDRESSES: The Lower Sonoran and
Sonoran Desert National Monument
Proposed RMP/Final EIS is only
available in electronic format on
compact disk (CD) or accessible on the
Internet. CDs containing the Lower
Sonoran and Sonoran Desert National
Monument Proposed RMP/Final EIS
have been sent to affected Federal, State,
and local government agencies, tribal
governments, and to other stakeholders.
One hard copy of the Proposed RMP/
Final EIS is available for public
inspection at the BLM Phoenix District
Office, 21605 North 7th Avenue,
Phoenix, Arizona 85027. People
interested in receiving a CD should
contact the BLM Phoenix District. The
Proposed RMP/Final EIS may also be
reviewed at the following Web site:
https://www.blm.gov/az/st/en/prog/
planning/son_des.html. All protests
must be in writing and mailed to one of
the following addresses:
Regular Mail: BLM Director (210),
Attention: Brenda Williams, P.O. Box
71383, Washington, DC 20024–1383
Overnight Mail: BLM Director (210),
Attention: Brenda Williams, 20 M
DATES:
PO 00000
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srobinson on DSK4SPTVN1PROD with NOTICES
36000
Federal Register / Vol. 77, No. 116 / Friday, June 15, 2012 / Notices
submissions via email, mail, meetings,
and fax. Each submission was carefully
reviewed to identify substantive
comments and substantive comments
were considered and incorporated as
appropriate in the Proposed RMP/Final
EIS. The focus of public comment on
the Draft RMP/Draft EIS reinforced the
issues discovered during scoping.
Five alternatives are analyzed in the
Proposed RMP/Final EIS. The ‘‘no
action’’ alternative, Alternative A,
represents the current management
situation for both the LS and the SDNM
decision areas and serves as a baseline
for most resource and land-use
allocations.
Alternative B identifies the greatest
amount of public lands suitable for
appropriate multiple uses, emphasizing
opportunities for motorized and
developed recreational uses while
reducing opportunities for experiencing
remote settings and non-motorized
recreation.
Alternative C attempts to balance
resource protection with human use and
influence providing for a variety of uses
that emphasize resource protection and
conservation and propose a mix of
natural processes and techniques for
resource stabilization and restoration.
Alternative D places the greatest
emphasis on minimizing human use/
influence and maintaining primitive
landscapes by focusing on natural
processes and other unobtrusive
methods for resource stabilization and
restoration.
Alternative E, the Proposed
Alternative, attempts to balance human
use and influence with resource
protection by incorporating elements
from each of the other action
alternatives. It provides long-term
protection and conservation of
resources.
Comments on the Draft RMP/Draft EIS
pertained to a number of issues,
including but not limited to the scope
of the document, NEPA adequacy of the
baseline data and impact analysis,
information related to consultation and
coordination on the action, and policies
and guidance the BLM needed to follow.
Comments were also received for the
following resources and resource uses:
Air quality, cultural resources, wildlife,
livestock grazing, land use and special
designations, minerals and energy,
noise, national historic trails, recreation,
socioeconomics, special status species,
tribal interests, vegetation, visual
resources, wilderness characteristics,
and water resources. Due to review of
public comments, coordination with
cooperating agencies, and internal
reviews of the Draft RMP/Draft EIS,
several revisions have been made to this
VerDate Mar<15>2010
17:05 Jun 14, 2012
Jkt 226001
Proposed RMP/Final EIS. The BLM
reviewed all new information and
changes and determined it was not
necessary to issue a supplemental EIS.
The following is a summary of
substantive changes made to the
Proposed RMP/Final EIS.
There were several comments that the
BLM had not complied with BLM
Washington Office (WO) Instruction
Memorandum (IM) No. 2011–154,
Requirement to Conduct and Maintain
Inventory Information for Wilderness
Characteristics and to Consider Lands
with Wilderness Characteristics in Land
Use Plans. Commenters noted several
geographic areas that were not
addressed in the Draft EIS, including
Sentinel Plain. In response, the BLM
completed its inventory for wilderness
characteristics on all BLM lands in the
planning area and has included this
new information in the Final EIS.
Commenters also noted that the BLM
did not comply with the BLM WO IM
No. 2011–004, Revised Recreation and
Visitor Services Land Use Planning
Guidance, Updated Checklist, and Three
Land Use Planning Templates. In
response, the BLM revised the
recreation allocations to comply with
the new guidance.
BLM received many comments
regarding recreational target shooting
that were both opposed to, and in favor
of closure of the Monument to target
shooting. Alternative E (the Proposed
Plan) was revised to allow the
Monument to remain open to
recreational target shooting consistent
with the No Action alternative, subject
to restrictions, monitoring, and input
from local stakeholders and the public
to address the impacts of recreational
shooting.
The document was also edited to
correct minor inconsistencies (e.g.,
incorrect table references or titles),
typos, and other technical issues.
The BLM responses to the comments
are presented in the Proposed RMP/
Final EIS in Chapter 6, Response to
Comments on the Draft RMP/Draft EIS.
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 LS
and SDNM Proposed RMP/Final EIS
and at 43 CFR 1610.5–2. Emailed and
faxed protests will not be accepted as
valid protests unless the protesting
party also provides the original letter by
either regular or overnight mail
postmarked by the close of the protest
period. Under these conditions, the
BLM will consider the emailed or faxed
protest as an advance copy and it will
receive full consideration. If you wish to
provide the BLM with such advance
PO 00000
Frm 00063
Fmt 4703
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notification, please direct faxed protests
to the attention of the BLM protest
coordinator at 202–912–7212, and
emails to Brenda_HudgensWilliams@blm.gov.
All protests, including the follow-up
letter to emails or faxes, must be in
writing and mailed to the appropriate
address, as set forth in the ADDRESSES
section above.
Before including your 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 your personal identifying
information from public review, we
cannot guarantee that we will be able to
do so.
Authority: 40 CFR 1506.6 and 1506.10, 43
CFR 1610.2 and 1610.5.
Raymond Suazo,
Arizona State Director.
[FR Doc. 2012–14564 Filed 6–14–12; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4310–32–P
DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR
Bureau of Land Management
[LLAZ956000.L14200000.BJ0000.241A]
Notice of Filing of Plats of Survey;
Arizona
Bureau of Land Management,
Interior.
ACTION: Notice of Filing of Plats of
Survey; Arizona.
AGENCY:
The plats of survey of the
described lands were officially filed in
the Arizona State Office, Bureau of Land
Management, Phoenix, Arizona, on
dates indicated.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
SUMMARY:
The Gila and Salt River Meridian, Arizona
The supplemental plat representing the
amended lottings in the SE 1/4 of section 36,
Township 6 North, Range 6 West, accepted
June 1, 2012, and officially filed June 4, 2012,
for Group 9106, Arizona.
This plat was prepared at the request of the
Bureau of Land Management.
A person or party who wishes to
protest against any of these surveys
must file a written protest with the
Arizona State Director, Bureau of Land
Management, stating that they wish to
protest.
A statement of reasons for a protest
may be filed with the notice of protest
to the State Director, or the statement of
reasons must be filed with the State
E:\FR\FM\15JNN1.SGM
15JNN1
]]>Agencies
[Federal Register Volume 77, Number 116 (Friday, June 15, 2012)]
[Notices]
[Pages 35999-36000]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2012-14564]
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR
Bureau of Land Management
[LLAZP02000.L16100000.DQ0000.LXSS089A0000.241A]
Notice of Availability of the Proposed Resource Management Plan/
Final Environmental Impact Statement for the Lower Sonoran and Sonoran
Desert National Monument, Arizona
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, as amended, the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) has prepared a
Proposed Resource Management Plan (RMP)/Final Environmental Impact
Statement (EIS) for the Lower Sonoran (LS) and Sonoran Desert National
Monument (SDNM), Arizona, and by this notice is announcing its
availability.
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 in the Federal
Register.
ADDRESSES: The Lower Sonoran and Sonoran Desert National Monument
Proposed RMP/Final EIS is only available in electronic format on
compact disk (CD) or accessible on the Internet. CDs containing the
Lower Sonoran and Sonoran Desert National Monument Proposed RMP/Final
EIS have been sent to affected Federal, State, and local government
agencies, tribal governments, and to other stakeholders. One hard copy
of the Proposed RMP/Final EIS is available for public inspection at the
BLM Phoenix District Office, 21605 North 7th Avenue, Phoenix, Arizona
85027. People interested in receiving a CD should contact the BLM
Phoenix District. The Proposed RMP/Final EIS may also be reviewed at
the following Web site: https://www.blm.gov/az/st/en/prog/planning/son_des.html. All protests must be in writing and mailed to one of the
following addresses:
Regular Mail: BLM Director (210), Attention: Brenda Williams, P.O. Box
71383, Washington, DC 20024-1383
Overnight Mail: BLM Director (210), Attention: Brenda Williams, 20 M
Street SE., Room 2134LM, Washington, DC 20003
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Chris Horyza, RMP Project Manager,
telephone: 623-580-5639; address: BLM Phoenix District Office, 21605
North 7th Avenue, Phoenix, Arizona 85027; email: blm_az_ls_sdnm_plan@blm.gov. 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 individual 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 individual. You will receive a reply during
normal business hours.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Compact disks of the LS-SDNM were sent to
the following locations to be made available for public access:
https://www.blm.gov/az/st/en/prog/planning/son_des/reports.html.
BLM Arizona State Office, One North Central Avenue, Suite
800, Phoenix, Arizona 85004.
Apache Junction Public Library, 1177 North Idaho Road,
Apache Junction, Arizona 85219.
Buckeye Public Library, 310 North 6th Street, Buckeye,
Arizona 85326.
Casa Grande Public Library, 449 North Dry Lake, Casa
Grande, Arizona 85222.
Gila Bend Public Library, 202 North Euclid Avenue, Gila
Bend, Arizona 85337.
Salazar-Ajo Branch Library, 33 Plaza, Ajo, Arizona 85321.
The LS-SDNM Planning Area includes approximately 8.9 million acres
of public and private lands, approximately 1.4 million surface acres,
and 3.9 million subsurface/mineral-split estate acres administered by
the BLM. These include about 930,200 surface acres in the Lower Sonoran
Field Office, referred to as the LS Decision Area, as well as 486,400
surface acres within the Monument, referred to as the SDNM Decision
Area.
The BLM released the Lower Sonoran and Sonoran Desert National
Monument Draft RMP/Draft EIS for public review and comment on August
26, 2011. The release initiated a 90-day public comment period, which
concluded on November 25, 2011. The BLM made the Draft RMP/Draft EIS
available to the public on the BLM Web site, as well as hard copies for
review at several local libraries. The document was also available upon
request from the BLM Phoenix District in hard copy and on CD. During
the public comment period, the BLM held seven public meetings and
received over 4,800 comment
[[Page 36000]]
submissions via email, mail, meetings, and fax. Each submission was
carefully reviewed to identify substantive comments and substantive
comments were considered and incorporated as appropriate in the
Proposed RMP/Final EIS. The focus of public comment on the Draft RMP/
Draft EIS reinforced the issues discovered during scoping.
Five alternatives are analyzed in the Proposed RMP/Final EIS. The
``no action'' alternative, Alternative A, represents the current
management situation for both the LS and the SDNM decision areas and
serves as a baseline for most resource and land-use allocations.
Alternative B identifies the greatest amount of public lands
suitable for appropriate multiple uses, emphasizing opportunities for
motorized and developed recreational uses while reducing opportunities
for experiencing remote settings and non-motorized recreation.
Alternative C attempts to balance resource protection with human
use and influence providing for a variety of uses that emphasize
resource protection and conservation and propose a mix of natural
processes and techniques for resource stabilization and restoration.
Alternative D places the greatest emphasis on minimizing human use/
influence and maintaining primitive landscapes by focusing on natural
processes and other unobtrusive methods for resource stabilization and
restoration.
Alternative E, the Proposed Alternative, attempts to balance human
use and influence with resource protection by incorporating elements
from each of the other action alternatives. It provides long-term
protection and conservation of resources.
Comments on the Draft RMP/Draft EIS pertained to a number of
issues, including but not limited to the scope of the document, NEPA
adequacy of the baseline data and impact analysis, information related
to consultation and coordination on the action, and policies and
guidance the BLM needed to follow. Comments were also received for the
following resources and resource uses: Air quality, cultural resources,
wildlife, livestock grazing, land use and special designations,
minerals and energy, noise, national historic trails, recreation,
socioeconomics, special status species, tribal interests, vegetation,
visual resources, wilderness characteristics, and water resources. Due
to review of public comments, coordination with cooperating agencies,
and internal reviews of the Draft RMP/Draft EIS, several revisions have
been made to this Proposed RMP/Final EIS. The BLM reviewed all new
information and changes and determined it was not necessary to issue a
supplemental EIS. The following is a summary of substantive changes
made to the Proposed RMP/Final EIS.
There were several comments that the BLM had not complied with BLM
Washington Office (WO) Instruction Memorandum (IM) No. 2011-154,
Requirement to Conduct and Maintain Inventory Information for
Wilderness Characteristics and to Consider Lands with Wilderness
Characteristics in Land Use Plans. Commenters noted several geographic
areas that were not addressed in the Draft EIS, including Sentinel
Plain. In response, the BLM completed its inventory for wilderness
characteristics on all BLM lands in the planning area and has included
this new information in the Final EIS.
Commenters also noted that the BLM did not comply with the BLM WO
IM No. 2011-004, Revised Recreation and Visitor Services Land Use
Planning Guidance, Updated Checklist, and Three Land Use Planning
Templates. In response, the BLM revised the recreation allocations to
comply with the new guidance.
BLM received many comments regarding recreational target shooting
that were both opposed to, and in favor of closure of the Monument to
target shooting. Alternative E (the Proposed Plan) was revised to allow
the Monument to remain open to recreational target shooting consistent
with the No Action alternative, subject to restrictions, monitoring,
and input from local stakeholders and the public to address the impacts
of recreational shooting.
The document was also edited to correct minor inconsistencies
(e.g., incorrect table references or titles), typos, and other
technical issues.
The BLM responses to the comments are presented in the Proposed
RMP/Final EIS in Chapter 6, Response to Comments on the Draft RMP/Draft
EIS.
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 LS and SDNM Proposed RMP/Final EIS and at 43 CFR
1610.5-2. Emailed and faxed protests will not be accepted as valid
protests unless the protesting party also provides the original letter
by either regular or overnight mail postmarked by the close of the
protest period. Under these conditions, the BLM will consider the
emailed or faxed protest as an advance copy and it will receive full
consideration. If you wish to provide the BLM with such advance
notification, please direct faxed protests to the attention of the BLM
protest coordinator at 202-912-7212, and emails to Brenda_Hudgens-Williams@blm.gov.
All protests, including the follow-up letter to emails or faxes,
must be in writing and mailed to the appropriate address, as set forth
in the ADDRESSES section above.
Before including your 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 your personal identifying
information from public review, we cannot guarantee that we will be
able to do so.
Authority: 40 CFR 1506.6 and 1506.10, 43 CFR 1610.2 and 1610.5.
Raymond Suazo,
Arizona State Director.
[FR Doc. 2012-14564 Filed 6-14-12; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4310-32-P
