St. George, Utah-The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) Arizona Strip District Office (ASDO) is announcing a public review and comment period for the Uinkaret Mountains Landscape Restoration Project (UMLRP) Environmental Assessment. The public comment period begins October 7, 2016 and ends Nov. 10, 2016.
On Aug. 2, 2016, the BLM announced the termination of an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) for the Uinkaret Mountains Landscape Restoration Project (UMLRP). The initial project proposal included a variety of potential manual, mechanical, and chemical vegetative treatments, wildfire management for resource benefit, prescribed fire, and seeding.
The UMLRP area is approximately 128,535 acres, located on lands managed by the Arizona Strip Field Office and Grand Canyon Parashant National Monument, within the Arizona Strip District. The BLM’s initial assessment of the complexity of the project indicated that preparation of an EIS was warranted. A Notice of Intent for the EIS was published in the Federal Register in 2014 and announced a public scoping period, which ran from October 21 through Dec. 18, 2014.
After careful consideration of the public scoping comments received and field-verification of existing resource conditions by the BLM, it has been determined that the project lacks the complexity that would require analysis through an EIS. Instead, the BLM has determined that it is appropriate to terminate the UMLRP EIS and prepare an Environmental Assessment (EA). The EA is a more concise process and provides the BLM the opportunity to determine whether the UMLRP will have significant effects on the environment.
Members of the public can review and comment on the draft EA online at:
https://eplanning.blm.gov/epl-front-office/projects/nepa/54543/84784/101507/UMLRP_Environmental_Assessment_for_public_review.pdf
Printed copies of the EA will also be available in the public room for review at the Interagency Center at 345 East Riverside Drive, St. George, Utah 84790.
All input received during the 2014 scoping period were carried forward and used in preparing this EA.
For more information, contact Richard Spotts at (435) 688-3207 or rspotts@blm.gov
-BLM-
Source: U.S. Department of the Interior, Bureau of Land Management
