Notice2024-03766
Notice of Availability of the Record of Decision and Approved Resource Management Plan Amendment for the Southeastern Oregon Resource Management Plan, Vale District, Oregon
Primary source
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Published
February 26, 2024
Issuing agencies
Interior DepartmentLand Management Bureau
Abstract
The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) announces the availability of the Record of Decision (ROD) for the Approved Resource Management Plan (RMP) Amendment for the Southeastern Oregon RMP, located in the BLM's Vale District. The State Director, Oregon/Washington signed the ROD on February 16, 2024, which constitutes the decision of the BLM and makes the Approved RMP Amendment effective immediately.
Full Text
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<title>Federal Register, Volume 89 Issue 38 (Monday, February 26, 2024)</title>
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[Federal Register Volume 89, Number 38 (Monday, February 26, 2024)]
[Notices]
[Pages 14090-14091]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [<a href="http://www.gpo.gov">www.gpo.gov</a>]
[FR Doc No: 2024-03766]
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DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR
Bureau of Land Management
[BLM_OR_FRN_MO4500177642]
Notice of Availability of the Record of Decision and Approved
Resource Management Plan Amendment for the Southeastern Oregon Resource
Management Plan, Vale District, Oregon
AGENCY: Bureau of Land Management, Interior.
ACTION: Notice of availability.
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SUMMARY: The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) announces the availability
of the Record of Decision (ROD) for the Approved Resource Management
Plan (RMP) Amendment for the Southeastern Oregon RMP, located in the
BLM's Vale District. The State Director, Oregon/Washington signed the
ROD on February 16, 2024, which constitutes the decision of the BLM and
makes the Approved RMP Amendment effective immediately.
DATES: The State Director, Oregon/Washington signed the ROD/Approved
RMP Amendment on February 16, 2024.
ADDRESSES: The ROD/Approved RMP Amendment is available online at the
BLM National NEPA Register at <a href="https://eplanning.blm.gov/eplanning-ui/project/87435/510">https://eplanning.blm.gov/eplanning-ui/project/87435/510</a>. Printed copies of the ROD/Approved RMP Amendment are
available for public inspection at the BLM Vale District Office, 100
Oregon Street, Vale, Oregon 97918, telephone: (541) 473-3144.
A copy of the Protest Resolution Report is available at: <a href="https://www.blm.gov/programs/planning-and-nepa/public-participation/protest-resolution-reports">https://www.blm.gov/programs/planning-and-nepa/public-participation/protest-resolution-reports</a>.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Caryn Burri, Planning and
Environmental Coordinator, Vale District Office; telephone: (541) 473-
3144; email: <a href="/cdn-cgi/l/email-protection#3a59584f4848537a585657145d554c"><span class="__cf_email__" data-cfemail="5e3d3c2b2c2c371e3c323370393128">[email protected]</span></a>. Individuals in the United States who are
deaf, deafblind, hard of hearing, or have a speech disability may dial
711 (TTY, TDD, or TeleBraille) to access telecommunications relay
services for contacting Ms. Burri. Individuals outside the United
States should use the relay services offered within their country to
make international calls to the point-of-contact in the United States.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The Approved RMP Amendment amends the
existing 2002 Southeastern Oregon RMP. The Southeastern Oregon planning
area covers approximately 4.6 million acres of public lands in Malheur,
Grant, Harney, and Baker Counties. The Approved RMP Amendment provides
management direction for lands with wilderness characteristics; makes
planning-area-wide travel and transportation/off-highway vehicle (OHV)
allocations of open, limited, and closed; and provides management
direction for livestock grazing in areas that fail to meet the BLM's
Standards for Rangeland Health and for processing voluntary livestock
grazing permit relinquishments.
The Approved RMP Amendment prioritizes the protection of 33 of the
76 areas the BLM identifies as having wilderness characteristics. The
33 protected areas will be managed as: Visual Resource Management Class
II public lands, which only allows for low levels of change to the
landscapes' visual character; Land Tenure Zone 1, where the BLM retains
the lands in public ownership for the life of the RMP; OHV limited; and
exclusion areas for major rights-of-way and commercial renewable energy
projects. No surface occupancy for the development and extraction of
leasable and saleable minerals, including new mineral material sites,
within the protected areas is allowed. Where roads form the boundary of
a protected wilderness characteristic unit, a 250-foot management
setback is established. The setback areas total 9,247 acres.
Under the Approved RMP Amendment, two areas totaling 40,368 acres
near the city of Vale, Oregon, will be managed as open to OHV use;
319,501 acres currently classified as open will be designated as
limited to existing routes, resulting in a total 4.5 million acres of
limited OHV classification in the planning area; and 15,829 acres
closed to OHV use will remain closed.
The Approved RMP Amendment: (1) requires the BLM to consider taking
action in areas that are not meeting Standards for Rangeland Health
even if existing livestock grazing is not a causal factor for non-
attainment of the standard; (2) clarifies that the BLM will not permit
increases to animal unit months if analysis finds that doing so could
cause negative impacts to other resources in an area where there is
either no rangeland health assessment and evaluation or if the
evaluation no longer represents the existing resource conditions; and
(3) requires the BLM to review the suitability and compatibility of
livestock grazing use with other existing resources in the permitted
area when a voluntary permit relinquishment is received. If livestock
grazing is found to be unsuitable and/or incompatible, the area will
become unavailable to grazing and the forage allocation will be made to
another resource. If grazing is found to be suitable and/or compatible,
then the allocation of forage to livestock grazing use would remain in
place. The BLM could authorize grazing use for the area under a grazing
permit or designate the area as a reserve common allotment.
The BLM provided the Proposed RMP Amendment/Final Environmental
Impact Statement (PRMPA/FEIS) for a 30-day public protest period
starting on June 16, 2023, and received two valid protests. The BLM
Assistant Director for Resources and Planning resolved both protests.
Responses to protest issues were compiled and documented in a Protest
Resolution Report (see ADDRESSES). Minor clarifications to the language
in the Approved RMP Amendment related to the way BLM manages Wilderness
Study Areas that are released from consideration for Wilderness
designation by Congress were made in response to an issue raised on
this topic in one of the protests received.
The BLM provided the PRMPA/FEIS to the Governor of Oregon for a 60-
day Governor's consistency review on June 16, 2023. The Governor's
Office identified some concerns and potential inconsistencies between
the PRMPA and State and local plans, policies, and programs. The BLM
discussed the concerns with the Governor's Office and, in response,
made minor clarifications in the Approved RMP Amendment regarding how
lands with wilderness characteristics that are not prioritized for
protection will be managed and the way in which BLM manages Wilderness
Study Areas that are released from consideration for Wilderness
designation by Congress. The clarifications made to the Approved RMP
Amendment in response to both the issues raised in one of the protests
received and the Oregon Governor's consistency review were minor and
did not represent a change requiring the BLM to provide the public with
an opportunity to comment as discussed in 43 CFR 1610.2(f)(5) and
1610.5-1.
[[Page 14091]]
(Authority: 40 CFR 1506.6; 43 CFR 1610.5-1)
Barry R. Bushue,
State Director.
[FR Doc. 2024-03766 Filed 2-23-24; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4331-24-P
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