Department of the Interior July 1, 2011 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

As required by 43 CFR 2650.7(d), notice is hereby given that the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) will issue an appealable decision to Bristol Bay Native Corporation. The decision approves conveyance of the surface and subsurface estates in the lands described below pursuant to the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act. The lands are in the vicinity of Port Heiden, Alaska, and are located in:

The National Park Service (NPS) is terminating preparation of an environmental impact statement (EIS) for the General Management Plan, Tumacacori National Historical Park, Arizona. A notice of intent to prepare the EIS for the Tumacacori National Historical Park General Management Plan was published in the January 9, 2009, Federal Register (Volume 74, Number 6). The National Park Service has since determined that an environmental assessment (EA) rather than an EIS is the appropriate level of environmental documentation for the plan.

In accordance with the Federal Land Policy and Management Act of 1976 (FLPMA), the U.S. Department of the Interior, Bureau of Land Management (BLM) will hold a public meeting regarding the proposed Fort Carson and Pinon-Canyon Maneuver Site withdrawal extension. The U.S. Army will be present. The proposed withdrawal extension was published in the Federal Register (FR Doc. 2011-14151 Filed 6-7-11; 8:45 am).

BOEMRE has prepared a Draft SEIS on an oil and gas lease sale tentatively scheduled in mid-2012 for CPA consolidated Lease Sale 216/ 222, which is the final CPA lease sale in the 2007-2012 5-Year OCS Program. The proposed sale is in the Gulf of Mexico's CPA off the States of Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama. This Draft SEIS updates the environmental and socioeconomic analyses for the CPA Lease Sale 216/222, originally evaluated in the Gulf of Mexico OCS Oil and Gas Lease Sales: 2007-2012; WPA Sales 204, 207, 210, 215, and 218; Central Planning Area (CPA) Sales 205, 206, 208, 213, 216, and 222, Final EIS (OCS EIS/EA MMS 2007-018) (Multisale EIS), completed in April 2007. This Draft SEIS also updates the environmental and socioeconomic analyses for the CPA Lease Sale 216/222 in the GOM OCS Oil and Gas Lease Sales: 2009-2012; CPA Sales 208, 213, 216, and 222; WPA Sales 210, 215, and 218; Final Supplemental EIS (OCS EIS/EA MMS 2008-041) (2009-2012 SEIS), completed in September 2008.

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 (FLPMA), the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) has prepared a Draft California Desert Conservation Area (CDCA) Plan Amendment, and a Draft Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) for the West Chocolate Mountains Renewable Energy Evaluation Area. By this notice, the BLM is announcing the opening of the comment period.

Members of the public are hereby invited to participate with Blue Mountain Energy, Inc. on a pro rata cost-sharing basis in a program for the exploration of coal deposits owned by the United States of America in lands located in Moffat and Rio Blanco Counties, Colorado.

We, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, announce the availability of the Revised Recovery Plan for the Northern Spotted Owl (Strix occidentalis caurina), a northwestern U.S. species listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act (Act). The Act requires the development of recovery plans for listed species, unless such a plan would not promote the conservation of a particular species. Recovery plans help guide conservation efforts by describing actions considered necessary for the recovery of the species, establishing criteria for downlisting or delisting listed species, and estimating time and cost for implementing the measures needed for recovery.