Notice of Availability of the Proposed Resource Management Plan and Final Environmental Impact Statement for the Uncompahgre Field Office, Colorado, 31089-31090 [2019-13857]
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Federal Register / Vol. 84, No. 125 / Friday, June 28, 2019 / Notices
DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR
Bureau of Land Management
[LLCOS05000.L16100000.
DQ0000.LXSS053C0000.19X]
Notice of Availability of the Proposed
Resource Management Plan and Final
Environmental Impact Statement for
the Uncompahgre Field Office,
Colorado
Bureau of Land Management.
Notice of availability.
AGENCY:
ACTION:
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) prepared a
Proposed Resource Management Plan
(RMP) and Final Environmental Impact
Statement (EIS) for the Uncompahgre
Planning Area 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. 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: The Proposed RMP/Final
EIS is available on the BLM ePlanning
project website at https://go.usa.gov/
xnpgD. Click on the Documents and
Reports link on the left side of the
screen to find the electronic version of
this material. Hard copies of the
Proposed RMP/Final EIS are also
available for public inspection at the
Uncompahgre Field Office, 2505 South
Townsend Avenue, Montrose, CO
81401. All protests must be in writing
and filed with the BLM Director, either
as a hard copy or electronically via the
BLMS’s ePlanning project website listed
previously. To submit a protest
electronically, go to the ePlanning
project website and follow the protest
instructions highlighted at the top of the
home page. If submitting a protest in
hard copy, it must be 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:
Matthew Loscalzo, Planning and
Environmental Coordinator; telephone
khammond on DSKBBV9HB2PROD with NOTICES
SUMMARY:
VerDate Sep<11>2014
17:41 Jun 27, 2019
Jkt 247001
970–240–5300; address 2465 South
Townsend Avenue, Montrose, CO
81401; email uformp@blm.gov. Persons
who use a telecommunications device
for the deaf (TDD) may call the Federal
Relay Service (FRS) at 1–800–877–8339
to contact the above individual during
normal business hours. The FRS is
available 24 hours a day, seven days a
week, to leave a message or question
with the above individual. You will
receive a reply during normal business
hours.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The BLM
prepared the Uncompahgre Proposed
RMP/Final EIS to evaluate and revise
the management strategy for resources,
resource uses, and special designations
within the Uncompahgre Planning Area.
The Uncompahgre Planning Area
includes approximately 3.1 million
acres of public land managed by the
BLM Uncompahgre Field Office, U.S.
Forest Service (portions of the Grand
Mesa, Uncompahgre and Gunnison
National Forest), National Park Service
(Black Canyon of the Gunnison National
Park, and portions of Curecanti National
Recreation Area), U.S. Bureau of
Reclamation, State of Colorado
(including Ridgway, Crawford, and
Paonia State Parks), and local and
private lands—all of which are located
in southwestern Colorado, in Montrose,
Delta, Gunnison, Ouray, San Miguel and
Mesa counties. While the Gunnison
Gorge National Conservation Area
(NCA) and the Dominguez-Escalante
NCA are geographically within the
Uncompahgre Planning Area, they are
not part of this planning effort as they
are managed under separate RMPs. The
Uncompahgre RMP will determine
management for approximately 675,800
acres of BLM-administered surface
lands and 971,220 acres of Federal
mineral estate. When approved, the
Uncompahgre RMP will replace the
1985 San Juan/San Miguel RMP, as
amended; and the 1989 Uncompahgre
Basin RMP, as amended.
The Proposed RMP/Final EIS
describes and analyzes five management
alternatives (Alternatives A, B, C, D, E)
and one sub-alternative (Alternative
B.1). Each includes goals, objectives,
allowable uses and management actions
to address new management challenges,
issues, and changes in BLM regulations,
guidance and policy.
Alternative A is the No Action
Alternative and retains the current
goals, objectives, and direction specified
in the existing 1985 San Juan/San
Miguel RMP and 1989 Uncompahgre
Basin RMP.
Alternative B emphasizes improving,
rehabilitating and restoring resources;
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31089
sustaining the ecological integrity of
habitats for all priority plant, wildlife
and fish species; and allowing
appropriate development scenarios for
allowable uses (such as mineral leasing,
locatable mineral development,
recreation, communication sites and
livestock grazing).
Alternative B.1 is a subset of
Alternative B, and specifically addresses
oil and gas leasing and development in
the North Fork and Smith Fork
drainages of the Gunnison River. This
sub-alternative would close certain
areas to oil and gas leasing and would
impose development setbacks with
strict surface use restrictions in places
where leasing may be allowed.
Alternative C emphasizes a mix of
uses that maximize utilization of
resources, while mitigating impacts on
land health. The appropriate
development scenarios for allowable
uses emphasize maximizing resource
production in an environmentally
responsible manner, while maintaining
the basic protection needed to sustain
resources.
Alternative D is the Agency-Preferred
Alternative from the Draft RMP/Draft
EIS and emphasizes balancing resource
protection and resource use among
competing human interests, land uses,
and the conservation of natural and
cultural resource values, while
sustaining and enhancing ecological
integrity across the landscape, including
plant, wildlife and fish habitat.
Alternative E is the Agency’s
Proposed RMP and is a reasonable
combination of goals, objectives,
allowable uses and management actions
from the alternatives presented in the
Draft RMP/Draft EIS. The Proposed RMP
would provide comprehensive, longrange decisions for the use and
management of resources in the
Uncompahgre Planning Area
administered by the BLM, focusing on
the principles of multiple use and
sustained yield.
The Uncompahgre Draft RMP/Draft
EIS public comment period began on
June 3, 2016, and was extended for an
additional 60 days, at the request of
local governments and interest groups,
to November 1, 2016. The total
comment period encompassed 152 days.
The BLM held six public open house
meetings across the Uncompahgre
Planning Area during the public
comment period. The BLM considered
and incorporated in the Proposed RMP/
Final EIS, as appropriate, comments
received from the public, cooperating
agencies, and internal BLM review.
Public comments resulted in the
addition of clarifying text, but did not
E:\FR\FM\28JNN1.SGM
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31090
Federal Register / Vol. 84, No. 125 / Friday, June 28, 2019 / Notices
significantly change proposed land use
plan decisions.
Instructions for filing a protest with
the Director of the BLM regarding the
Proposed RMP may be found online at
https://www.blm.gov/programs/
planning-and-nepa/publicparticipation/filing-a-plan-protest and
at 43 CFR 1610.5–2. All protests must be
in writing and mailed to the appropriate
address, as set forth in the ADDRESSES
section above or submitted
electronically through the BLM
ePlanning project website as described
above. Protests submitted electronically
by any means other than the ePlanning
project website protest section will be
invalid unless a protest is also
submitted in hard copy. Protests
submitted by fax will also be invalid
unless also submitted either through the
ePlanning project website protest
section or in hard copy.
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 letter 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, 40 CFR 1506.10,
43 CFR 1610.2, 43 CFR 1610.5.
Jamie E. Connell,
BLM Colorado State Director.
[FR Doc. 2019–13857 Filed 6–27–19; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4310–JB–P
DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR
National Park Service
[NPS–WASO–NAGPRA–NPS0028125;
PPWOCRADN0–PCU00RP14.R50000]
Notice of Inventory Completion: Carter
County Museum, Ekalaka, MT
National Park Service, Interior.
Notice.
AGENCY:
ACTION:
The Carter County Museum
has completed an inventory of human
remains and associated funerary objects,
in consultation with the appropriate
Indian Tribes or Native Hawaiian
organizations, and has determined that
there is no cultural affiliation between
the human remains and associated
funerary objects and any present-day
Indian Tribes or Native Hawaiian
organizations. Representatives of any
Indian Tribe or Native Hawaiian
organization not identified in this notice
khammond on DSKBBV9HB2PROD with NOTICES
SUMMARY:
VerDate Sep<11>2014
17:41 Jun 27, 2019
Jkt 247001
that wish to request transfer of control
of these human remains and associated
funerary objects should submit a written
request to the Carter County Museum. If
no additional requestors come forward,
transfer of control of the human remains
and associated funerary objects to the
Indian Tribes or Native Hawaiian
organizations stated in this notice may
proceed.
DATES: Representatives of any Indian
tribe or Native Hawaiian organization
not identified in this notice that wish to
request transfer of control of these
human remains and associated funerary
objects should submit a written request
with information in support of the
request to the Carter County Museum at
the address in this notice by July 29,
2019.
ADDRESSES: Sabre Moore, Carter County
Museum, 306 North Main Street,
Ekalaka, MT 59324, telephone (406)
775–6886, email smoore@
cartercountymuseum.org.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Notice is
here given in accordance with the
Native American Graves Protection and
Repatriation Act (NAGPRA), 25 U.S.C.
3003, of the completion of an inventory
of human remains and associated
funerary objects under the control of the
Carter County Museum, Ekalaka, MT.
The human remains and associated
funerary objects were removed from the
Arthur Walker, Beach, Jardee,
Turbiville, WPA Crew, Medicine Rocks,
and Chalk Buttes Sites in Carter County,
MT, and the Frank Sparks Site in Fallon
County, MT.
This notice is published as part of the
National Park Service’s administrative
responsibilities under NAGPRA, 25
U.S.C. 3003(d)(3) and 43 CFR 10.11(d).
The determinations in this notice are
the sole responsibility of the museum,
institution, or Federal agency that has
control of the Native American human
remains and associated funerary objects.
The National Park Service is not
responsible for the determinations in
this notice.
Consultation
A detailed assessment of the human
remains was made by the Carter County
Museum professional staff in
consultation with representatives of the
Arapaho Tribe of the Wind River
Reservation, Wyoming; Assiniboine and
Sioux Tribes of the Fort Peck Indian
Reservation, Montana; Cheyenne River
Sioux Tribe of the Cheyenne River
Reservation, South Dakota; Crow Creek
Sioux Tribe of the Crow Creek
Reservation, South Dakota; Flandreau
Santee Sioux Tribe of South Dakota;
Fort Belknap Indian Community of the
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Fmt 4703
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Fort Belknap Reservation of Montana;
Lower Brule Sioux Tribe of the Lower
Brule Reservation, South Dakota; Lower
Sioux Indian Community in the State of
Minnesota; Oglala Sioux Tribe
(previously listed as the Oglala Sioux
Tribe of the Pine Ridge Reservation,
South Dakota); Prairie Island Indian
Community in the State of Minnesota;
Rosebud Sioux Tribe of the Rosebud
Indian Reservation, South Dakota;
Santee Sioux Nation, Nebraska;
Shakopee Mdewakanton Sioux
Community of Minnesota; SissetonWahpeton Oyate of the Lake Traverse
Reservation, South Dakota; Spirit Lake
Tribe, North Dakota; Standing Rock
Sioux Tribe of North & South Dakota;
Three Affiliated Tribes of the Fort
Berthold Reservation, North Dakota;
Upper Sioux Community, Minnesota;
and the Yankton Sioux Tribe of South
Dakota, hereafter referred to as ‘‘The
Tribes.’’
History and Description of the Remains
In 1948, human remains representing,
at minimum, one individual were
removed from the Arthur Walker Site,
nine miles northwest of Albion, in
Carter County, MT. A skull and partial
skeleton were exposed 2.3 meters below
the surface in a bentonite bank on
Blacktail Creek. The exposure was about
1.2 meters above the water level and
immediately over the water due to
undercutting. The bones were
completely encased in bentonite clay
that had washed down from a steep
slope several yards to the north. The
human remains entered the Carter
County Museum collection in 1948, and
consist of the skull, portions of all 24
ribs, left and right clavicles, left and
right scapula, vertebra, sacrum, coccyx,
left and right humerus, left ulna, left
femur, left tibia, right and left pelvis,
right and left calcaneus, hands, and feet.
They show signs of severe, chronic
periodontal disease and arthritis. Based
on molar wear, the individual, a male,
was 35–45 years old at the time of
death. No known individuals were
identified. The six associated funerary
objects are three Dentalium shells and
three broken or cut gastropod shells.
In June 1985, human remains
representing, at minimum, one
individual were removed by a rancher’s
son from the Beach Site, located on the
slope of a steep hillside below a
sandstone cliff in Carter County, MT.
The human remains consist of a skull.
One month later, a burial site in a cleft
of sandstone outcrop approximately 50
yards upslope from the skull was
located and the human remains of a
second individual were removed. The
osteological material from this second
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]]>Agencies
[Federal Register Volume 84, Number 125 (Friday, June 28, 2019)]
[Notices]
[Pages 31089-31090]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2019-13857]
[[Page 31089]]
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DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR
Bureau of Land Management
[LLCOS05000.L16100000.DQ0000.LXSS053C0000.19X]
Notice of Availability of the Proposed Resource Management Plan
and Final Environmental Impact Statement for the Uncompahgre Field
Office, Colorado
AGENCY: Bureau of Land Management.
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) prepared a
Proposed Resource Management Plan (RMP) and Final Environmental Impact
Statement (EIS) for the Uncompahgre Planning Area 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. 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: The Proposed RMP/Final EIS is available on the BLM ePlanning
project website at https://go.usa.gov/xnpgD. Click on the Documents and
Reports link on the left side of the screen to find the electronic
version of this material. Hard copies of the Proposed RMP/Final EIS are
also available for public inspection at the Uncompahgre Field Office,
2505 South Townsend Avenue, Montrose, CO 81401. All protests must be in
writing and filed with the BLM Director, either as a hard copy or
electronically via the BLMS's ePlanning project website listed
previously. To submit a protest electronically, go to the ePlanning
project website and follow the protest instructions highlighted at the
top of the home page. If submitting a protest in hard copy, it must be
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: Matthew Loscalzo, Planning and
Environmental Coordinator; telephone 970-240-5300; address 2465 South
Townsend Avenue, Montrose, CO 81401; email [email protected]. Persons who
use a telecommunications device for the deaf (TDD) may call the Federal
Relay Service (FRS) at 1-800-877-8339 to contact the above individual
during normal business hours. The FRS is available 24 hours a day,
seven days a week, to leave a message or question with the above
individual. You will receive a reply during normal business hours.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The BLM prepared the Uncompahgre Proposed
RMP/Final EIS to evaluate and revise the management strategy for
resources, resource uses, and special designations within the
Uncompahgre Planning Area. The Uncompahgre Planning Area includes
approximately 3.1 million acres of public land managed by the BLM
Uncompahgre Field Office, U.S. Forest Service (portions of the Grand
Mesa, Uncompahgre and Gunnison National Forest), National Park Service
(Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park, and portions of Curecanti
National Recreation Area), U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, State of
Colorado (including Ridgway, Crawford, and Paonia State Parks), and
local and private lands--all of which are located in southwestern
Colorado, in Montrose, Delta, Gunnison, Ouray, San Miguel and Mesa
counties. While the Gunnison Gorge National Conservation Area (NCA) and
the Dominguez-Escalante NCA are geographically within the Uncompahgre
Planning Area, they are not part of this planning effort as they are
managed under separate RMPs. The Uncompahgre RMP will determine
management for approximately 675,800 acres of BLM-administered surface
lands and 971,220 acres of Federal mineral estate. When approved, the
Uncompahgre RMP will replace the 1985 San Juan/San Miguel RMP, as
amended; and the 1989 Uncompahgre Basin RMP, as amended.
The Proposed RMP/Final EIS describes and analyzes five management
alternatives (Alternatives A, B, C, D, E) and one sub-alternative
(Alternative B.1). Each includes goals, objectives, allowable uses and
management actions to address new management challenges, issues, and
changes in BLM regulations, guidance and policy.
Alternative A is the No Action Alternative and retains the current
goals, objectives, and direction specified in the existing 1985 San
Juan/San Miguel RMP and 1989 Uncompahgre Basin RMP.
Alternative B emphasizes improving, rehabilitating and restoring
resources; sustaining the ecological integrity of habitats for all
priority plant, wildlife and fish species; and allowing appropriate
development scenarios for allowable uses (such as mineral leasing,
locatable mineral development, recreation, communication sites and
livestock grazing).
Alternative B.1 is a subset of Alternative B, and specifically
addresses oil and gas leasing and development in the North Fork and
Smith Fork drainages of the Gunnison River. This sub-alternative would
close certain areas to oil and gas leasing and would impose development
setbacks with strict surface use restrictions in places where leasing
may be allowed.
Alternative C emphasizes a mix of uses that maximize utilization of
resources, while mitigating impacts on land health. The appropriate
development scenarios for allowable uses emphasize maximizing resource
production in an environmentally responsible manner, while maintaining
the basic protection needed to sustain resources.
Alternative D is the Agency-Preferred Alternative from the Draft
RMP/Draft EIS and emphasizes balancing resource protection and resource
use among competing human interests, land uses, and the conservation of
natural and cultural resource values, while sustaining and enhancing
ecological integrity across the landscape, including plant, wildlife
and fish habitat.
Alternative E is the Agency's Proposed RMP and is a reasonable
combination of goals, objectives, allowable uses and management actions
from the alternatives presented in the Draft RMP/Draft EIS. The
Proposed RMP would provide comprehensive, long-range decisions for the
use and management of resources in the Uncompahgre Planning Area
administered by the BLM, focusing on the principles of multiple use and
sustained yield.
The Uncompahgre Draft RMP/Draft EIS public comment period began on
June 3, 2016, and was extended for an additional 60 days, at the
request of local governments and interest groups, to November 1, 2016.
The total comment period encompassed 152 days. The BLM held six public
open house meetings across the Uncompahgre Planning Area during the
public comment period. The BLM considered and incorporated in the
Proposed RMP/Final EIS, as appropriate, comments received from the
public, cooperating agencies, and internal BLM review. Public comments
resulted in the addition of clarifying text, but did not
[[Page 31090]]
significantly change proposed land use plan decisions.
Instructions for filing a protest with the Director of the BLM
regarding the Proposed RMP may be found online at https://www.blm.gov/programs/planning-and-nepa/public-participation/filing-a-plan-protest
and at 43 CFR 1610.5-2. All protests must be in writing and mailed to
the appropriate address, as set forth in the ADDRESSES section above or
submitted electronically through the BLM ePlanning project website as
described above. Protests submitted electronically by any means other
than the ePlanning project website protest section will be invalid
unless a protest is also submitted in hard copy. Protests submitted by
fax will also be invalid unless also submitted either through the
ePlanning project website protest section or in hard copy.
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 letter 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, 40 CFR 1506.10, 43 CFR 1610.2, 43 CFR
1610.5.
Jamie E. Connell,
BLM Colorado State Director.
[FR Doc. 2019-13857 Filed 6-27-19; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4310-JB-P
