83 FR 50402 - Notice of Availability of the Draft Resource Management Plan/Environmental Impact Statement for the San Juan Islands National Monument, Washington

DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR
Bureau of Land Management

Federal Register Volume 83, Issue 194 (October 5, 2018)

In accordance with the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969, as amended, and the Federal Land Policy and Management Act of 1976 (FLPMA), as amended, the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) has prepared a Draft Resource Management Plan (RMP) and Draft Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) for the San Juan Islands National Monument, and, by this notice, is announcing the opening of the comment period.

[Federal Register Volume 83, Number 194 (Friday, October 5, 2018)]
[Notices]
[Pages 50402-50404]
From the Federal Register Online  [www.thefederalregister.org]
[FR Doc No: 2018-21629]


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DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR

Bureau of Land Management

[LLOR932000.L16100000. DP0000.LXSSH0930000.18X.HAG 18-0143]


Notice of Availability of the Draft Resource Management Plan/
Environmental Impact Statement for the San Juan Islands National 
Monument, Washington

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, and the Federal Land Policy and Management Act of 
1976 (FLPMA), as amended, the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) has 
prepared a Draft Resource Management Plan (RMP) and Draft Environmental 
Impact Statement (EIS) for the San Juan Islands National Monument, and, 
by this notice, is announcing the opening of the comment period.

DATES: To ensure that comments will be considered, the BLM must receive 
written comments on the Draft RMP and Draft EIS within 90 days 
following the date the Environmental Protection Agency publishes its 
Notice of Availability of the Draft RMP and Draft EIS in the Federal 
Register. The BLM will announce future meetings or hearings and any 
other public participation activities at least 15 days in advance 
through public notices, media releases, and/or mailings.

ADDRESSES: You may submit comments related to the San Juan Islands 
National Monument Draft RMP and Draft EIS by any of the following 
methods:
     Website: https://go.usa.gov/xRphc.
     Email: [email protected].
     Fax: 509-536-1275.
     Mail: San Juan Islands National Monument Comments, Lopez 
Island BLM Office, PO Box 3, Lopez, WA 98261.
    Copies of the San Juan Islands National Monument Draft RMP and 
Draft EIS are available at the BLM Lopez Island Office (37 Washburn 
Place, Lopez Island, WA 98261), the BLM Spokane District Office (1103 N 
Fancher Rd, Spokane Valley, WA 99212), and the BLM Oregon/Washington 
State Office (1220 SW 3rd Avenue, Portland, OR 97204). The document is 
also available on the following website: https://go.usa.gov/xRphc.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Lauren Pidot, Planner, 503-808-6297; 
Lopez Island BLM Office, PO Box 3, Lopez, WA 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. 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 Draft RMP/EIS to evaluate potential management 
strategies for the San Juan Islands

[[Page 50403]]

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 public land that compose the monument. The 
decision area does not include private lands or local, State, or non-
BLM-administered Federal public lands, with the exception of 
approximately 179 acres of land currently withdrawn to the U.S. Coast 
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 will only go into effect for those 
179 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 encompass 
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.
    The BLM prepared the Draft RMP/EIS with input from 13 cooperating 
agencies, 12 consulting tribes, the Monument Advisory Committee, and 
the public. The formal public scoping process began on March 2, 2015, 
when the Federal Register published the Notice of Intent to prepare the 
RMP/EIS (80 FR 11220). During the scoping period, the BLM held five 
open house meetings attended by more than 90 members of the public. The 
BLM used scoping comments to help identify planning issues that led to 
the formulation of alternatives and framed the scope of analysis in the 
Draft RMP/EIS. In the winter and spring of 2016, the BLM solicited 
additional public comments on recreation management in the monument. 
During this time, the BLM held four workshops at which members of the 
public used large-scale maps of monument locations to provide 
information on recreational uses the public would like to see 
facilitated, limited, or prohibited. The BLM used these comments to 
develop recreation management area frameworks and alternatives for an 
implementation-level travel and transportation plan.
    Presidential Proclamation 8947 required that the BLM ``establish an 
advisory committee under the Federal Advisory Committee Act (5 U.S.C. 
App.) to provide information and advice regarding the development [of 
an RMP].'' The Monument Advisory Committee is composed of twelve 
members representing a variety of interests. The Secretary of the 
Interior appoints committee members for two-year terms. The BLM met 
with the San Juan Islands National Monument Advisory Committee 11 times 
during the development of the Draft RMP/EIS.
    Major issues considered in the Draft RMP/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 document describes the direct, indirect, and 
cumulative environmental impacts of a range of alternatives to address 
these issues.
    The Draft RMP/EIS evaluates four action alternatives (Alternatives 
A, B, C, and D) along with one sub-alternative and the No Action 
Alternative. The BLM identified Alternative B as the preferred 
alternative. The BLM is required by regulation (43 CFR 1610) to 
identify a preferred alternative in the Draft RMP/EIS. It is simply the 
BLM's starting point for gaining public feedback to use in developing 
the Proposed RMP. The preferred alternative does not represent the 
final agency direction. In developing a Proposed RMP/Final EIS, the BLM 
will consider making modifications to the preferred alternative in 
response to public comments; advice from consulting tribes, cooperating 
agencies, and the Monument Advisory Committee; and BLM priorities. The 
Proposed RMP may be a modification of the design of Alternative B, a 
modification of the design of a different alternative analyzed in the 
Draft RMP/EIS, a new alternative developed from within the spectrum of 
alternatives analyzed in the Draft RMP/EIS, or an alternative analyzed 
in the Draft RMP/EIS as written.
    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 (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 National Environmental Policy Act 
analysis and ensuring that actions are consistent with Proclamation 
8947 and the 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, 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.

[[Page 50404]]

    Pursuant to 43 CFR 1610.7-2(b), this notice announces a concurrent 
public comment period on the areas of critical environmental concern 
(ACEC). The 1990 Iceberg Point and Point Colville Areas of Critical 
Environmental Concern Decision Record designated the BLM-administered 
lands at Iceberg Point and Point Colville as ACECs. These ACECs were 
later extended to Watmough Bay and Chadwick Hill after the BLM's 
acquisition of these areas and now apply to approximately 500 acres of 
land included in the monument. The 1990 decision record and the 1988 
draft planning analysis for these ACECs generally discuss protecting 
the areas' ``natural values'' but do not identify specific relevant and 
important values. These decisions prohibit fires, trail construction, 
overnight camping, fuel woodcutting and commercial timber sales, 
certain types of rights-of-way, and livestock grazing. They also 
require members of the public to obtain permits for any collection of 
vegetation and for organized groups of 10 or more.
    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's ACEC Manual. 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 
alternatives considered in the Draft RMP, 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.
    The public is encouraged to comment on any and all portions of the 
document. The BLM asks that those submitting comments make them as 
specific as possible with reference to chapters, page numbers, and line 
numbers in the Draft RMP/EIS. Following the public comment period, the 
BLM will prepare the Proposed RMP and Final EIS. The BLM will respond 
to substantive comments by making appropriate revisions to the document 
or by explaining why a comment did not warrant a change. Comments that 
contain only opinions or preferences will not receive a formal 
response; however, they will be considered and included as part of the 
BLM's decision-making process.
    Please note that public comments and information submitted, 
including names, street addresses, and email addresses of persons who 
submit comments, will be available for public review and disclosure at 
the BLM Lopez Island Office (37 Washburn Place, Lopez Island, WA 98261) 
during regular business hours (8 a.m. to 4 p.m.), Monday through 
Friday, except holidays.
    Before including your address, phone number, email address, or 
other personally identifiable information in your comment, you should 
be aware that your entire comment--including your personally 
identifiable information--may be made publicly available at any time. 
While you can ask the BLM in your comment to withhold your personally 
identifiable 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.

Jamie E. Connell,
State Director, Oregon/Washington, Bureau of Land Management.
[FR Doc. 2018-21629 Filed 10-4-18; 8:45 am]
 BILLING CODE 4310-33-P