BLM plans new herbicide treatments on public lands in 17 states
Public scoping meetings in January
by Bureau of Land Management
December 21, 2012
The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) today announced opportunities for the public to share ideas on the potential utilization of three new vegetation treatments to be evaluated in the national, programmatic Environmental Impact Study (EIS) to Evaluate the Use of New Herbicides on Public Lands in 17 Western States.
The public may submit comments for the EIS via fax to (206)-623-3793, email to VegEIS@blm.gov, or attend any of three public scoping meetings between January 7 and 10, 2013 at locations detailed at the bottom of this release. The public comment period for the scoping process extends 60 days from today.
The BLM is undertaking this EIS to augment the existing list of approved treatments to include herbicides that will grant greater flexibility to vegetation management in the field. In association with the 2007 Vegetation Treatments EIS which provides a full review and analysis of herbicide use and impacts on human and natural environments, the proposed new herbicides programmatic EIS will evaluate only aminopyralid, fluroxypyr, and rimsulfuron as potentially viable treatments.
The treatments are designed to help the BLM manage vegetation on more than 6 million acres of public land by providing options for controlling noxious weeds and other invasive species, and conserving and restoring native vegetation, watersheds, and fish and wildlife habitat. The EIS will cover a range of issues including the effects of the herbicides and its inert ingredients on human, vegetation, fish and wildlife, livestock, and wild horse and burro health; water quality, Native American Resources and resource use; and the cumulative use of these and other herbicides by the BLM and other landowners in the Western U.S.
The analysis area will include all surface estate public lands administered by the BLM in Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Idaho, Kansas, Montana, Nevada, North and South Dakota, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Oregon, Texas, Utah, Washington, and Wyoming.
The BLM welcomes identification of additional issues and concerns by the public. A reasonable range of alternatives will be developed to respond to the issues identified at the outset of the NEPA (National Environmental Policy Act) process. Each alternative will outline solutions to the issues and concerns brought out through public scoping to develop reasonable approaches for using these new treatment options.
To check the status of the EIS, or access associated documents and updates, visit http://blm.gov/3vkd.
Dates and locations for the BLM public scoping meetings are listed below.
January 7, 2013, 7 pm local:
Worland Community Center Complex
1200 Culbertson Avenue
Worland, WY
(307)-347-8616
January 9, 2013, 7 pm local
Hyatt Place Reno Airport
1790 East Plumb Lane
Reno, NV
(775)-826-2500
January 10, 2013, 7 pm local
Albuquerque District Office
435 Montano Road NE
Albuquerque, NM
(505)-761-8700
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