Cedar City—The Cedar City Field Office of the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) is seeking public input as it begins to prepare an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) for a new Resource Management Plan (RMP) on public lands they manage in Iron and Beaver counties, Utah.

 

The RMP will be the basic document that will guide management of natural resources, activities and uses on the public lands during the next 15-20 years.  The BLM recognizes the importance and value of the public’s input during the planning process and encourages citizens who have an interest in the public lands in Iron and Beaver counties to submit their issues, concerns, and information.

 

Public scoping meetings will be scheduled in Cedar City, Beaver and Salt Lake City in October or November of 2010. Specific dates, times, and places of the scoping meetings will be announced on the RMP website www.blm.gov/ut/st/en/fo/cedar_city.htmland in the local media. The public may provide information on the issues that should be considered in the EIS through December 9, 2010.

 

The new RMP will address issues and concerns identified by the public as well as other government agencies. Preliminary issues identified for consideration in the new RMP include the management of air quality, cultural and paleontological resources, fire, woodland resources, vegetation, hazardous sites, lands and realty, rangeland, minerals, off-highway vehicle use, recreation, riparian resources, socio-economics, vegetation, visual resources, watersheds and water quality, special management areas, wildlife, livestock grazing, and wild horses and burros. As part of the planning process, the BLM will also consider nominations for potential Areas of Critical Environmental Concern (ACECs) and nominations of river segments for potential inclusion in the National Wild and Scenic Rivers System.

 

Using information from the public and BLM resource specialists, a reasonable range of alternatives will be developed and analyzed in a Draft RMP/EIS that will be published and made available for public review in the next two years.

 

The Cedar City Field Office is responsible for administering about 2.1 million acres of public lands located in Iron and Beaver counties in southwestern Utah. Geographically, the field office boundary is bordered by Millard County on the north, the Nevada state line on the west, Washington County on the south, and Kane County on the east.

 

Existing land use plans for the Cedar City Field Office are the Pinyon Management Framework Plan, approved in 1983, and the Cedar/Beaver/Garfield/ Antimony RMP, approved in 1986.  Since these plans were implemented, considerable changes have occurred in the area.  There has been substantial population growth resulting in an increased use of public lands for recreational activities such as mountain biking, hunting and off-road vehicle use. There has been an increase in renewable energy proposals, such as wind and geothermal projects.  In addition, there is new information for many resources of interest to the public, including threatened and endangered species, wild horses and other resources.

 

The Federal Register notice formally announcing the BLM’s intention to prepare an EIS for a new RMP process was published on Friday, September 10, 2010.

 

For more information about becoming involved with this RMP/EIS or to submit comments, please use the following contact information:  BLM Cedar City Field Office, 176 East DL Sargent Drive, Cedar City, UT 84721, ATTN: Gina Ginouves; phone (435) 865-3011; or e-mail utccrmp@blm.gov.