is an open public comment period that initiates the BLM's planning process.  This stage of the planning process influences the scope or range of issues that the resource management plan (RMP) will seek to address.  Public input during this phase of planning ensures that the BLM understands all of the issues that the public would like the RMP to address.  The BLM began the public scoping period for the Dominguez-Escalante NCA through the publication of a Notice of Intent in the Federal Register on August 3, 2010.  The public scoping period officially ended on October 1, 2010.  In total, the BLM received 66 unique emails, letters and comments during the public scoping period.  Over 2,000 identical form letters were also received, which were treated as one letter.  Also included were letters that had been received during scoping for the Grand Junction Field Office and Uncompahgre Field Office RMP revisions and that specifically addressed the area that became the Dominguez-Escalante NCA. Individual comments were then identified within each submission. Comments about issues that could be addressed during this planning effort were further categorized, coded, entered into a database, and analyzed.  This yielded a total of 264 "planning issue" comments.  See the actual scoping report and the graphs below for more detail on who submitted comments and what these comments were about.

Overview of resource management plan development (click on the chart for a larger version)

Fact sheets used during the public scoping process:
Recreation Wild and Scenic Rivers Wilderness Travel Management Visual Resource Management	NOTE: These are older fact sheets and not the same as the current fact sheets found elsewhere on this website.
Results of the public scoping process:
Click here to see the final Dominguez-Escalante NCA scoping report

Pie chart graphs of scoping results:

		Of the 264 "planning issue" comments from public scoping that the BLM analyzed, over one-half were from organizations.  These organizations included environmental nonprofits, off-highway-vehicle citizen's groups, mountain bike citizen's groups, wilderness advocacy groups, and a gold prospecting citizen's group.  A large proportion of the comments were also sent in by unaffiliated individuals (95 of the 264).  Public agencies (local, state or federal) were responsible for 14 scoping comments, and business/commercial interests were responsible for 13.  Nine comments were received on form letters that did not list an affiliation, and these were categorized separately.
		BLM staff sorted comments into 20 different issue categories.  When interpreting this chart, please note that the numbers do not reflect the opinions of the commentator.  For example, one should not assume from this chart that a comment regarding wildlife represents a comment that supported or opposed additional wildlife protections, but rather that it addressed the issue of wildlife.  One should also note that scoping is not interpreted by the BLM as a public vote.  The BLM uses scoping comments to identify themes or issues that require consideration in the planning process.  Therefore, an issue that was addressed in only one comment is given the same weight as an issue that was addressed in several comments.