Draft Resource Management Plan and Environmental Impact Statement for the Lander Field Office Planning Area

Book excerpt: This Draft Resource Management Plan (RMP) and Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) describes and analyzes alternatives for the planning and management of public lands and resources administered by the BLM, Lander Field Office. The planning area is located in west-central Wyoming, and comprises approximately 6.6 million acres of land in Fremont, Natrona, Carbon, Sweetwater, Hot Springs, and Teton counties. Although Teton County is in the administrative boundary for the Lander Field Office, no BLM-administered surface or mineral estate occurs in Teton County. BLM is revising the existing plan (the 1987 Lander Field Office RMP) to address the availability of new data and policies, emerging issues, and changing circumstances that have occurred during the approximately 25 years since the Record of Decision (ROD) for the existing plan was signed. As part of the RMP revision process, the BLM conducted scoping to solicit input from the public and interested agencies on the nature and extent of issues. Planning issues identified for this RMP revision focus on watershed and air resources management, energy and minerals management, fire and fuels management, invasive species, wildlife and special status species habitat, wild horses, cultural and paleontological resources, visual resources management, land ownership adjustments, access to public lands and travel, recreation and visitor use, livestock grazing, special designations, and socioeconomic conditions.