[Federal Register: August 25, 2000 (Volume 65, Number 166)]
[Notices]
[Page 51793-51794]
From the Federal Register Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]
[DOCID:fr25au00-22]
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[[Page 51793]]
DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE
Forest Service
Bridger-Teton National Forest Oil and Gas Leasing EIS Authorizing
BLM To Offer Oil and Gas Leases in Management Areas 21,45,71,72.
Bridger-Teton National Forest, Teton, Sublette and Fremont Counties, WY
AGENCY: Forest Service, USDA--Lead Agency; Bureau of Land Management
(BLM) Cooperating Agency.
ACTION: Revised and updated Notice of Intent to Prepare an
Environmental Impact Statement.
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SUMMARY: This Federal Register notice revises the Notice of Intent
published in the January 15, 1998 Federal Register Volume 63, Number
10. The Bridger-Teton National Forest expects to file the draft EIS
with the Environmental Protection Agency and make it available for
public comment in October 2000. In addition to making the leasing
decision for these four management areas as stated in the January 1998
Notice of Intent, the Bridger-Teton National Forest will now also re-
visit the availability decision of these management areas that was made
in the 1990 Land and Resource Management Plan (Forest Plan). The
Bridger-Teton National Forest will consider and analyze the
environmental effects of leasing and of amending the 1990 Forest Plan
to remove all or portions of these management areas from availability.
The analysis will also consider adding restrictions (stipulations) or
changing current stipulations in the Forest Plan which would require a
Forest Plan amendment.
The 1990 Bridger-Teton National Forest and Resource Management Plan
identified all of Management Areas 21, 45, 71, and 72 as available for
oil and gas leasing. The Forest Plan did not make the site-specific
leasing decision for these lands, therefore, the Forest Plan did not
make an irreversible commitment of resources. The next step in the
leasing process is to complete a site-specific analysis of the
Management Areas. The current oil and gas leasing analysis is tiered to
the oil and gas analysis contained within the Bridger-Teton National
Forest and Resource Management Plan Final Environmental Impact
Statement and analyzes resource issues at a smaller scale and
incorporates any new resource information. The purpose of offering
Management Areas 21, 45, 71, and 72 is to provide opportunities for
exploration and development of leasable minerals. A specific objective
of the 1990 Forest Plan is to ``Provide leasable, locatable, and
salable mineral exploration and development opportunities'' (see
Objective 1.1(d), page 113, Bridger-Teton National Forest and Resource
Management Plan). Additionally, the Federal government's policy for
minerals resource management is expressed in the Mining and Minerals
Policy Act of 1970. The Act directs the Forest Service to ``foster and
encourage private enterprise in the development of economically sound
and stable industries and in the orderly and economic development of
domestic resources * * *''
The Responsible Official is Carole `Kniffy' Hamilton, Forest
Supervisor, Bridger-Teton National Forest, Jackson, Wyoming. The
decision to be made is whether or not to authorize the BLM to offer
specific lands for lease, subject to the Forest Service ensuring that
correct stipulations are attached to the leases issued by the BLM
(36CFR228.102(e)) and to consider amending the Bridger-Teton National
Forest and Resource Management Plan by adding additional stipulations
and/or changing the availability decision made in the Plan for these
four management areas or parts thereof. The draft EIS is expected to be
available for public review in October 2000, with a final EIS estimated
to be completed in March 2001. The comment period on the draft EIS will
be 60 days from the date the Environmental Protection Agency publishes
the notice of availability in the Federal Register.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Questions concering the proposed
action and EIS should be directed to Rick Anderson at the Forest
Supervisor's Office, Bridger-Teton National Forest, P.O. Box 1888,
Jackson, WY 83001, phone (307) 739-5558.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: When the Bridger-Teton National Forest and
Resource Management Plan was approved in 1990, it identified, at a
programmatic level, the lands available for oil and gas leasing. The
next step in the leasing process is for the Forest Service to perform a
site-specific leasing analysis tiered to the Forest Plan. The purpose
of this analysis is to implement the authority granted to the Forest
Service by the Federal Onshore Oil and Gas Leasing Reform Act of 1987
and the implementing regulations (36 CFR 228 E), and to make the
leasing decision for the specific lands for which interest in leasing
has been expressed.
Conducting this analysis and making the necessary determinations
will include the following steps or determinations:
(a) Verify that the leasing of these lands is consistent with the
Forest Plan.
(b) Determine that the leasing has been adequately addressed in a
National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) document.
(c) Determine if further analysis is needed resulting from new
circumstances or new information.
(d) Determine which specific lands and under what conditions the
Forest Service will consent to authorize the Bureau of Land Management
(BLM) to offer for lease.
Conducting an environmental analysis on a proposed leasing action
is triggered when the BLM receives an Expression of Interest in leasing
a specific area. This Expression of Interest means an entity has
identified a block of land that it wants to be offered for leasing. In
cases where no site-specific analysis has been completed, this action
requires the Forest Service to complete an analysis of the area to
determine which of the nominated lands it will consent to be leased and
to identify under what conditions the oil and gas activities will be
permitted. The Bridger-Teton National Forest will analyze the entire
management area for each of the 3 management areas where the nominated
lands are located (MAs 21, 45, and 72), plus one additional, contiguous
management area (MA 71).
[[Page 51794]]
Dated: August 14, 2000.
Carole `Kniffy' Hamilton,
Forest Supervisor, Bridger-Teton National Forest, USDA Forest Service.
[FR Doc. 00-21161 Filed 8-24-00; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 3410-11-M
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