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Show Henry Mountain Area Management Planning The Bureau of Land Management's Manage-ment's Henry Mountain Resource Area staff is continuing the process pro-cess of updating their Resource Management Plan (RMP) which addresses the many facets of multiple mul-tiple use of resource areas. Such updates were mandated by Congress in The Federal Land Management Act of 1976 which directs most BLM activities. This mandate addresses the changing needs of the resources and makes changes in the old plan to fit the resource management and public needs. One plan will be prepared for the entire resource area and will replace the older plans for the Henry Mountain and Parker Mountain Areas. Sheldon Wimmer, Area Manager Mana-ger for the Henry Mountain Resource Re-source Area, describes the planning area as being bordered on the west and north by the Wayne county line, on the east by the Colorado River and Lake Powell, while the south boundary follows the Wayne county line, the Water-pocket Water-pocket Fold and Lake Powell. The Glen Canyon National Recreation Area, Capitol Reef and Canyon-land Canyon-land National Parks, Fishlake and Dixie National Forests, the State of Utah, Wayne and Garfield Counties, as well as many private individuals and companies, also administer lands in the planning area. In total there are about 2,187,000 acres in this area. There are 1424,000 acres of public lands, 206,000 acres of state lands, 59,000 acres of private, and 399,000 acres of national park lands in the planning plan-ning area. While the planning is designed for BLM lands only, some cooperative cooper-ative efforts and interrelationships will be involved. The planning area traverses some of the most diverse di-verse public land is federal ownership. owner-ship. It rises from warm, desert slick rock country to the Henry Mountains in the eastern area. while the terrain west of the park develops into high, cold desert. Wimmer indicates the RMP is used by BLM managers to allocate resources and select appropriate uses for the public lands. Five documents are completed during preparation of the RMP to record the planning process: the preplanning preplan-ning analysis; the Management Situation Analysis (MSA); the draft RMPEIS; the proposed RMP and final EIS; and the record of decision (ROD), the final RMP. Each document serves as a foundation founda-tion for the one following. This recent planning effort was started in 1989 with the collection of data and discussion with agencies agen-cies and the public. There has been consultation with the public, various vari-ous interest groups and state and federal agencies. Planning is described des-cribed as issue-driven, meaning that planning is undertaken to answer questions about specific land management man-agement opportunities or problems. prob-lems. Input from the public is an important part of the process and occurs continually. Jerry Goodman, District Manager Man-ager out of Richfield, believes the Henry Mountain Plan will provide pro-vide an excellent opportunity to incorporate local government as a partner in the process. Both the Wayne and Garfield County Commissions were contacted during dur-ing the summer of 1990 and have agreed to participate in the project. This will allow local counties to share automated land and resource data generated as the plan proceeds. In addition it gives local government govern-ment an opportunity to incorporate incorpor-ate their needs and desires as they relate to public land, early in the process. Goodman stressed it should be understood that the plan does not apply to private lands located lo-cated in he planning area. BLM has asked those interested in the planning to let their concerns con-cerns for the area be known, to nominate areas of Critical Environmental Envi-ronmental Concern (ACEC's) and to provide mailing addresses if they want to be included in receiving receiv-ing copies of planning documents and status reports. See Henry Mountain Page 5-a. Henry Mountain Area Management From Page 4A Presently the resource specialists special-ists are pulling the information together and arc preparing the management situation analysis which will lead to the preparation of various alternatives. At this point no new management decisions deci-sions have been made and the current cur-rent Management Framework Plan continues to provide direction. Nominations for Areas of Critical Crit-ical Environmental Concern can be made by members of the public at any time. However to be considered consid-ered in the current planning documents, docu-ments, nominations must be received re-ceived while the data is being organized. or-ganized. Other nominations can be received at any time and if they are determined to have merit, they can be added to the plan as an amendment. amend-ment. The nomination must provide pro-vide a map describing the public lands along with evidence as to the relevance and importance of the area being nominated. ACEA nominations nom-inations are then evaluated by members of the District Office staff with the final decision made by management. Other special designations des-ignations to be evaluated include the Wild and Scenic River regulations. regula-tions. Time frames for completion of the various steps of the on going projects are: . - The preplanning analysis has been completed which contain preliminary pre-liminary issues, concerns and planning plan-ning criteria. Those will be revised following public review. - The Management Situation Analysis along with alternatives will be finished this year. - The draft RMPEIS will be completed in 1992. - The proposed RMPfinal EIS and the record of decision will be completed in 1993. |