Notice of Availability of the San Juan Islands National Monument Proposed Resource Management Plan/Final Environmental Impact Statement, 64557-64559 [2019-25177]

Agencies

• DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR
• Bureau of Land Management

[Federal Register Volume 84, Number 226 (Friday, November 22, 2019)]
[Notices]
[Pages 64557-64559]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2019-25177]


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DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR

Bureau of Land Management

[LLOR932000.L16100000.DP0000.LXSSH0930000.19X.HAG 19-0118]


Notice of Availability of the San Juan Islands National Monument 
Proposed Resource Management Plan/Final Environmental Impact Statement

AGENCY: Bureau of Land Management, Interior.

ACTION: Notice of Availability.

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SUMMARY: In accordance with the National Environmental Policy Act of 
1969, as amended (NEPA), and the Federal Land Policy and Management Act 
of 1976, as amended, the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) has prepared 
the San Juan Islands National Monument Proposed Resource Management 
Plan (RMP) and Final Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) and by this 
notice is announcing its availability and the opening of a 30-day 
protest period concerning the Proposed RMP. In accordance with the John 
D. Dingell, Jr. Conservation, Management, and Recreation Act of 2019, 
this notice also announces the opening of a 60-day public comment 
period regarding the proposed closure of the Monument (which 
encompasses scattered parcels totaling approximately 1,000 acres) to 
recreational target shooting (referred to as ``discharge of firearms'' 
in the RMP).

DATES: The BLM planning regulations state that any person who meets the 
conditions as described in the regulations may protest the BLM's 
Proposed RMP and 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.
    To ensure that comments on the proposed target shooting closure 
will be considered, the BLM must receive written comments by January 
21, 2020.

ADDRESSES: The Proposed RMP and Final EIS is available on the BLM 
ePlanning project website at https://go.usa.gov/xRphc. Hard copies of 
the Proposed RMP/Final EIS are also available for public inspection at 
the BLM Lopez Island Office, 37 Washburn Place, Lopez Island, 
Washington 98261; BLM Spokane District Office, 1103 North Fancher Road, 
Spokane Valley, WA 99212; and BLM Oregon/Washington State Office, 1220 
SW 3rd Avenue, Portland, Oregon 97204.
    Instructions for filing a protest with the Director of the BLM 
regarding the Proposed RMP may be found online at www.blm.gov/programs/planning-and-nepa/public-participation/filing-a-plan-protest and at 43 
CFR 1610.5-2.
    You may submit comments on the proposed target shooting closure 
using either of the following methods:
    Email: [email protected].
    Mail: Target Shooting Closure Comments, Lopez Island BLM Office, 
P.O. Box 3, Lopez, WA 98261.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Lauren Pidot, Planner, 503-808-6297; 
Lopez Island BLM Office, P.O. Box 3, Lopez, Washington 98261; 
[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, 7 days a week, to leave a message or a 
question with the above individual. You will receive a reply during 
normal business hours.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The BLM has prepared the San Juan Islands 
National Monument Proposed RMP/Final EIS to evaluate and revise 
potential management strategies for the San Juan Islands National 
Monument. Presidential Proclamation 8947 designated the monument on 
March 25, 2013. The lands included in the monument are not now, and 
have never been, covered by an RMP. The BLM currently administers these 
lands using a custodial management approach focused on meeting legal 
mandates.
    The decision area for this planning process comprises the 
approximately 1,021 acres of lands administered by the BLM. The 
decision area does not include private lands, State lands, or Federal 
lands not administered by the BLM, with the exception of approximately 
189 acres of land currently withdrawn to the U.S. Coast

[[Page 64558]]

Guard. The U.S. Coast Guard is in the process of relinquishing these 
acres. The BLM anticipates that acres relinquished by the U.S. Coast 
Guard will come under BLM administration prior to the publication of 
the Record of Decision for this planning process. In the event that the 
relinquishment process is not complete prior to the publication of the 
Record of Decision, the approved RMP would only go into effect for 
those 189 acres once they are under BLM administration.
    The monument includes headlands, islands, and rocks scattered 
across the San Juan Islands. As a whole, the San Juan Islands are 
comprised of private lands and an array of Federal, State, and local 
public lands. Non-BLM public lands include the San Juan Island National 
Historical Park, the San Juan Islands National Wildlife Refuge (a 
portion of which is designated as the San Juan Wilderness), and a 
variety of State and county parks.
    Major issues considered in the Proposed RMP/Final EIS include the 
protection and restoration of the ecological and cultural resources 
identified in Presidential Proclamation 8947, as well as the management 
of recreation, transportation, visual resources, and wilderness 
characteristics.
    The San Juan Islands National Monument Draft RMP and EIS 90-day 
public comment period began on October 5, 2018. The BLM held five 
public meetings across the San Juan Islands and on the mainland during 
the public comment period. The BLM considered and incorporated in the 
Proposed RMP/Final EIS, as appropriate, comments received from the 
public, consulting Tribes, cooperating agencies, and internal BLM 
review. Public comments resulted in the addition of clarifying text, 
minor changes to the existing alternatives, and a Proposed RMP that is 
within the range of alternatives and effects analyzed in the Draft RMP 
and EIS. In addition to the Proposed RMP, the Final EIS analyzes the 
four action alternatives (Alternatives A, B, C, and D), one sub-
alternative (Sub-Alternative C), and the No Action Alternative analyzed 
in the Draft EIS.
    Under the Proposed RMP, the BLM would focus on promoting ecological 
resistance and resilience to threats including fire, drought, and other 
potential disturbances by restoring existing plant communities and 
enhancing the extent of grasslands and shrublands, which are relatively 
scarce within the San Juan Islands. The BLM would allow mechanical, 
manual, biological control, chemical, and fire treatments to achieve 
objectives. Recreational opportunities would include hiking, hunting, 
designated site camping, dispersed camping with a permit, trail-based 
equestrian use, and road-based equestrian and bicycling use. Current 
hunting opportunities (firearm and non-firearm based) will continue; 
discharge of firearms and use of bows would be allowed during state-
established hunting seasons, but otherwise prohibited within the 
Monument (see below for more information). Within maritime heritage 
areas, the BLM would restore historic structures and allow the 
rebuilding of previously existing structures and the building of new 
structures to support education and interpretation.
    Under the No Action Alternative, the BLM would continue to manage 
the monument using a custodial approach with no RMP. There would 
continue to be no plan-level objectives, direction, or allocations, 
except for the limited decisions made in the 1990 decision record 
creating the Iceberg Point and Point Colville Areas of Critical 
Environmental Concern (ACEC) (described below). Custodial management of 
the monument would continue to focus on meeting legal and policy 
mandates and preventing unnecessary and undue degradation. The BLM 
would make decisions about taking management actions on a case-by-case 
basis after completing the appropriate level of NEPA analysis and 
ensuring that actions are consistent with Presidential Proclamation 
8947 and FLPMA.
    Alternative A would undertake a generally passive approach to 
vegetation management and would prohibit recreation while facilitating 
scientific, educational, cultural, and spiritual uses of the monument. 
Under both alternatives B and C, the BLM would pursue ambitious 
vegetation restoration objectives. Under Alternative B, which was the 
preferred alternative in the Draft RMP and EIS, recreational 
opportunities would include hiking, hunting, designated site and 
dispersed camping, and opportunities for pursuing solitude and quiet, 
which would be provided by expanding the existing trail network, 
requiring permits to access 167 acres of the monument, and providing 
dispersed camping by permit. Under Alternative C, recreational 
opportunities would include hiking, equestrian use, and designated site 
camping; portions of the monument would be closed to the discharge of 
firearms except for half of the firearm-based hunting season. Sub-
Alternative C is identical to Alternative C, except the BLM would not 
allow the use of chemical treatments and would close the monument to 
the discharge of firearms. Under Alternative D, the BLM would maintain 
the current extent and condition of plant communities; recreational 
opportunities would include hunting and increased camping and hiking, 
biking, and equestrian use on an expanded trail network. The BLM is 
undertaking concurrent implementation-level travel and transportation 
planning.
    There has been no recent history of uses such as grazing, logging, 
or mining within the monument. The proclamation designating the 
monument withdrew it from entry, location, selection, sale, leasing, or 
other disposition under public land and mining laws other than by 
exchange that furthers the protective purposes of the proclamation. 
Except for emergencies, federal law enforcement use, or authorized 
administrative purposes, the proclamation also restricts motorized 
vehicle use to designated roads and mechanized vehicle use (e.g., 
bicycle use) to designated roads and trails.
    The 1990 Iceberg Point and Point Colville ACEC Decision Record 
designated the lands administered by the BLM at Iceberg Point and Point 
Colville as ACECs. These ACECs were later extended to Watmough Bay and 
Chadwick Hill after the BLM acquired those areas; they now apply to 
approximately 500 acres of land included in the monument. The 1990 
decision record and the 1988 draft planning analysis of the ACECs 
generally discuss protecting the areas' ``natural values'' but do not 
identify specific relevant and important values.
    The BLM technical specialists on the planning team considered 
whether the monument encompasses values that meet the relevance and 
importance criteria described in the BLM Manual 1613. They determined 
that the whole of the monument contains historic and cultural, fish and 
wildlife, and scenic values that meet the relevance and importance 
criteria for an ACEC. The planning team also determined that the 
Proposed RMP and the action alternatives, which meet the purpose and 
need of protecting the objects for which the monument was designated, 
would protect these relevant and important values. Since the values do 
not require special management to protect them from the potential 
effects of actions permitted by the alternatives, the action 
alternatives do not include ACECs.
    In the Proposed RMP, the BLM proposes that recreational target 
shooting (referred to as ``discharge of firearms'' in the RMP) shall 
not be allowed within the approximately 1,000

[[Page 64559]]

acres of scattered parcels that encompass the Monument. As proposed, 
target shooting would be prohibited within these areas--which vary from 
less than 0.1 acres to approximately 400 acres--and include developed 
campgrounds, small day use areas, small rocks and islands, structural 
cultural sites (including lighthouses), and sensitive archaeological 
sites. The proposed closure would help protect the cultural objects and 
values for which the Monument was designated, and provide for public 
safety at small, recreational sites. The proposed closure would ensure 
that irreplaceable archaeological resources and structural cultural 
sites would not inadvertently, or purposefully, be damaged by target 
shooting activities in the Monument. In addition, the proposed closure 
would enhance the safety of the public visiting sites in the Monument, 
which would improve their experience. In accordance with John D. 
Dingell, Jr. Conservation, Management, and Recreation Act of 2019 
(Dingell Act, Pub. L. 116-9, Section 4103), the BLM is announcing the 
opening of a 60-day public comment period on the proposed target 
shooting closure. During this time-period, the BLM is only accepting 
comments on the proposed target shooting closure. All comments must be 
received by January 21, 2020 and must be submitted using one of the 
methods listed in the ADDRESSES section, above.
    All protests must be in writing and submitted as set forth in the 
DATES and ADDRESSES sections, above. The BLM Director will render a 
written decision on each protest. The decision will be mailed to the 
protesting party. The decision of the BLM Director shall be the final 
decision of the Department of the Interior on each protest. Responses 
to protest issues will be compiled and formalized in a Director's 
Protest Resolution Report made available following issuance of the 
decisions. Upon resolution of all protests, the BLM will issue a Record 
of Decision and Approved RMP.
    Before including your address, phone number, email 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.

    Authority: 40 CFR 1506.6, 40 CFR 1506.10, 43 CFR 1610.2, 43 CFR 
1610.5.

Theresa M. Hanley,
Acting State Director, Oregon/Washington.
[FR Doc. 2019-25177 Filed 11-21-19; 8:45 am]
 BILLING CODE 4310-33-P