[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