Bureau of Land Management May 16, 2008 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

On June 13, 2007, the Department of the Interior, Bureau of Land Management (BLM), and the United States Department of Agriculture, Forest Service (FS), published in the Federal Register [72FR32679] a Notice of Intent (NOI) to prepare a joint Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement (PEIS) to analyze the leasing of BLM- and FS- administered lands with potential for geothermal resources in 11 western states and Alaska. The Federal Land Policy and Management Act (FLPMA) requires the BLM to develop land use plans, also known as Resource Management Plans (RMPs), to guide the BLM's management of the public lands. The BLM's land use planning regulations, which implement FLPMA, require the BLM to publish, and provide for public review of, the proposed planning criteria that will guide the BLM's land use planning process. The purpose of this Information Notice is to identify the RMPs that the BLM may amend and set out the proposed planning criteria that would guide the BLM's planning amendment process. Please note that while the preparation of the PEIS is a joint project with the FS, this Notice applies only to public lands that the BLM manages and does not apply in any way to lands that the FS administers. The FS manages lands that are under its jurisdiction under a separate statutory and regulatory framework.