BLM Pinedale opens scoping for Big Mesa Fence Project
Comments accepted until May 11th
by Bureau of Land Management
April 9, 2015
The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) Pinedale Field Office is seeking public input on a proposal to build a fence in the Big Mesa pasture, approximately 10 miles northwest of LaBarge, Wyoming.
The project proposes to construct approximately 2.6 miles of fence to facilitate control of livestock in the Big Mesa pasture of the North LaBarge Common Allotment. In particular, the fence would aid the efforts of grazing permittees in controlling grazing use in Dry Piney Creek in the western portion of the Big Mesa pasture.
Portions of the fence would be "let-down" within one week before or after June 15 of each year and would stay down through May 15 of the following year to accommodate wildlife passage. The fence would skirt the western edge of the Big Mesa, and would be set back from the edge approximately two hundred feet to allow wildlife room for jumping the structure. The fence would consist of a three wire design and comply with BLM wildlife-friendly fence specifications.
Most of the proposed fence line construction would occur directly on the edge of existing road or pipeline right-of-way disturbances. The BLM would also install a cattle guard crossing intersecting an oil and gas road at the south end of the proposed fence. All facilities and supporting features would be constructed on BLM-administered surface lands in Sublette County, Wyo.
The BLM will accept public comments until May 11, 2015.
Written comments can be mailed or hand delivered directly to the BLM at:
BLM Pinedale Field Office
1625 W Pine St.
P.O. Box 768
Pinedale, WY 82941
Comments may also be submitted via email to blm_wy_pinedale_wymail@blm.gov. Please reference Big Mesa Fence in the subject line. The scoping notice is available at www.blm.gov/wy/st/en/info/NEPA/documents/pfo/BigMesaFence.html.
The BLM will use the input from any written comments received, its cooperators, as well as our existing monitoring and mapping information, to put together alternatives for the Environmental Assessment (EA) for the Big Mesa Fence.
The written comments received during the public scoping process may be published as part of the environmental analysis process. After May 4, all comment letters received, including names and addresses of respondents, will be available for public review at the BLM Pinedale Field Office during regular business hours (7:45 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.), Monday through Friday (except Federal holidays). Individual respondents may request confidentiality. If you wish to withhold your name or address from public review or from disclosure under the Freedom of Information Act, you must state this prominently at the beginning of your written comment. Such requests will be honored to the extent allowed by law. All submissions from organizations or businesses, and from individuals representing organizations or businesses, will be made available for public inspection in their entirety.
For more information, please contact Tony Howard, BLM Rangeland Management Specialist, at 307-367-5324.
|
