SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

The BLM has prepared this final Supplemental EIS to review its previous NEPA analysis and clarify and augment it where necessary. This final Supplemental EIS addressed four specific issues: The range of alternatives, the need to take a hard look at environmental impacts, cumulative effects analysis, and the BLM's approach to compensatory mitigation. The final Supplemental EIS will help the BLM determine whether its 2015 and 2019 land use planning and NEPA processes have sufficiently addressed Greater Sage-Grouse habitat conservation or whether the BLM should initiate a new land use planning process to consider additional alternatives or new information.

Comments on the draft Supplemental EIS (85 FR 10185) received from the public and internal BLM review were considered and incorporated as appropriate into the final Supplemental EIS. To address public comments raised during this supplemental analysis, the BLM convened a team of biologists and land use planners to evaluate scientific literature provided to the agency. Upon review, the BLM found that the most up-to-date Greater Sage-Grouse science and other information has incrementally increased, and built upon, the knowledgebase of Greater Sage-Grouse management evaluated by the BLM most recently in its 2019 land use plan amendments, but does not change the scope or direction of the BLM's management; however, new science does suggest adaptations to management may be warranted at site-specific scales.

After reviewing public comments and completing the new science evaluation, the BLM determined that the most recent scientific information relating to Greater Sage-Grouse is consistent with the BLM's environmental analysis in supporting its 2019 Greater Sage-Grouse land use plan amendments.

(Authority: 40 CFR 1506.6, 40 CFR 1506.10)

85 FR 74378