Visual Resource Management (VRM) for Fluid Minerals\
Best Management Practices-

Better Ways for Achieving Better Results

**A Telecast Originating**

**from the**

**BLM National Training Center in Phoenix, Arizona**

**April 29, 2004**

This transcript is from the closed-captioning file produced during the
telecast.

It may contain errors and omissions in transcription.

Announcer: The Bureau of Land Management satellite network presents live
from the BLM national training center in Phoenix, Arizona\... Visual
resource management for fluid minerals: BMPs, better ways for achieving
better results.\
\
D. Simpson: Good morning. I\'m Don Simpson, deputy State Director for
resources in Wyoming. Welcome to our satellite training session on
visual resource management or VRM for fluid minerals. Here\'s what
we\'re going to cover today. After a basic introduction our first unit
will provide a big picture look at visual resource management for fluid
minerals. Then we\'re going to look at the relationship between the
fluid minerals planning and development processes and VRM. Next we\'re
going to provide an overview of the basic principles and philosophy used
in Visual Resource Management. We will then provide actual examples of
Best Management Practices or BMPs that you can use and improve upon in
the field. Finally we will look at how you can incorporate BMPs into
your daily work. We will wrap up with a general question and answer
question. There will be a brief break midway through the broad Kay.

Everyone who has preregistered for this course should have received the
participant notebook and field reference guide that looks like this. If
you don\'t have a copy, you can download one from the NTC website at
www.ntc.blm.gov. It\'s a large file and it will take some time to
download. If you would like a color copy, please call Catherine book at
the NTC for a copy. If you have not registered for this course you can
also do than through the NTC website. We will hope you will actively
participate in this training so you can evaluate appropriate VRM
practices in the field and apply these techniques when working with
operators in your area. During this satellite training we will encourage
you to follow along in your notebook and take notes on how you can apply
what you\'ll learn today in the field. This participant notebook also
serves as a Field Guide. Carry it to the field when you meet with
operators, when you monitor sites and as you evaluate the results every
your practices. We\'d like to mention that during this training we\'ll
take your questions using the push-to-talk system. We\'ll let you know
when we have the system on by putting on a green light up in the corner
like this. When asking a question, just push the button on the
microphone, give us your name and location first, release the button,
and we\'ll call on you. If more than one person speaks at a time, I\'ll
use a time-out signal to ask everyone to release their mics. Then I\'ll
call on you one at a time 37 remember, please stay about a
foot-and-a-half away from the mic when speaking. You can also call with
a question or a comment on\...We have a great instructional team with us
here today beginning with Brad Cownover. He\'s the chief landscape
architect and visual resource management lead for the BLM in the
Washington office. Good morning, Brad.\
\
B. Cownover: good morning. I\'m excited to be here in that broadcast is
a long teem in the making. I hope to provide a national perspective of
the program and how it plays on this side of the fluid minerals arena as
well as give an overview of the Visual Resource Management system.\
\
D. Simpson: Here to help with us the national direction on the oil and
gas side of things is Jim Perry. Jim is an environmental scientist
working out of the Washington office in fluid minerals.\
\
J. Perry: Good morning. It is great to have you all with us today.
Sustainability of the oil and gas program is absolutely critical and
this broadcast is a key component introducing to you the Best Management
Practices.

D. Simpson: We\'re also pleased to have with us Rob Sweeten. Rob is a
landscape architect from the Moab field office. He spent most of his
career helping BLM Utah deal with these issues.\
\
R. Sweeten: I\'m also thankful to be here. I\'m excited for the next
couple of hours and look forward to interacting with you in this
training.\
\
D. Simpson: Good. Completing our training team and providing more where
the rubber meets the road perspective is Walt George. Walt is the land
use planning program lead from BLM\'s Wyoming state office. Hello,
Walt.\
\
W. George: Hi, Don. I\'m looking forward to sharing with our audience
some ideas and techniques that will improve our treatment of visual
resources and fluid minerals in our planning at NEPA documents.\
\
D. Simpson: Welcome to the panel. Now let\'s begin with unit 1 and the
big picture which starts on page 5 of your notebook. The course
objective today is to identify and apply Best Management Practices to
reduce the visual and related resource impacts on public lands during
the exploration, development and production every fluid mineral
resources. BLM Director Kathleen Clarke is going to share her
perspective on the role of Visual Resource Management and fluid mineral
development.\
\
Dir. Clarke: Today we\'re proud to present a brief satellite broadcast
on Visual Resource Management for fluid minerals. This training is very
timely given the bureau\'s role in helping our country meet its present
and future energy needs while protecting the environment and other
important resources and values. As you know, providing balanced
stewardship under our multiple use mandate is more challenging and more
complex than ever before. The west is growing and changing. More people
are living closer to the public lands and using them than ever before,
and for more diverse activities. In addition to traditional activities
such as grazing, energy and mineral development and timber harvesting,
more and more people appreciate the public lands for their scenic beauty
and for the recreational opportunities they offer. It has become more
critical than ever that we manage the lands so that multiple use
activities are in harmony with the landscape. As part of this broadcast,
we\'ll be showing the best practices in visual resource management. As
you watch, you may be thinking, \"these practices aren\'t new,\" and
you\'re right. They are not necessarily new. They are being implemented
successfully already in many BLM offices and in some cases have been
around for a long while. But if these techniques are not being used in
your office today, we hope this broadcast will reinforce why they should
be.

Nearly all of the examples and techniques you\'ll see highlighted today
are, in fact, derived from the good work practices found in many of our
field offices. That is a testament to the dedication and ingenuity of
our workforce. Later in the broadcast you will be hearing more about how
these BMPs are vital to meeting our mission. Encourage each of you to
take the implementation of these Best Management Practices to heart.
Again, thank you for participating in this broadcast. But thank you most
of all for your dedication to your work and for helping us to protect
the character of these magnificent landscapes that the American people
have entrust to do our care.\
\
D. Simpson: Thanks, Kathleen. We appreciate the Director taking the time
to prepare those remarks for us. Kathleen\'s point about the public\'s
concern for scenery is certainly evident across the west where many
visitors experience the variety of scenic beauty on public lands. Our
challenge \-- it\'s called the Visual Resource Management system. BLM is
leading the way in Best Management Practices or BMPs for fluid minerals
that help protect the unique characteristics of the landscape. That\'s
why we\'re here today, to demonstrate specific techniques on how these
visual resource Best Management Practices can help us reduce visual and
other resource impacts during oil and gas exploration and development.
Now, Jim and Brad are going to give us a big picture look at how VRM
issues are being approached from national perspective in the oil and gas
and VRM programs. First I\'ll turn to Jim.\
\
J. Perry: Thank you, Don. The Washington office is strongly promoting
the use of Best Management Practices for fluid minerals. Fluid minerals
being oil, gas, geothermal and helium. BMPs apply throughout the
process, exploration, drilling, production, reclamation. So what are
BMPs? I like to think of BMPs as better way for achieving better
results. So why are BMPs so important? We have a goal in the fluid
minerals program. That is, the sustain bill tea of the fluid minerals
program. In order to have a sustainable program, we must have the
public\'s trust. We must be seen as doing things right. Public policy is
influenced by public opinion. Public opinion is shaped by what the
public sees. Whether they\'re driving along a highway, hiking along a
trail, maybe looking at an interest group website or getting a mass
mailing from an interest group, or in the news media. If our activities
contrast, if we have large barren pads, soil erosion, improper color
selection for our facilities, what will the public\'s impression of our
program be? Will they come and say, hey, let\'s go out and drill some
more wells? I don\'t think so. Development done poorly reflects poorly
on the BLM and the industry. It makes it more difficult to permit future
projects. There are consequences to both BLM and industry and the land
from not using Best Management Practices. Longer NEPA documents. We\'re
all familiar with how NEPA documents are getting longer and longer. If
we do not use Best Management Practices, we will have increased
controversy, resulting in those longer NEPA documents. Increased
comments, appeals, protests and litigation. And what will be the result?
More delays, higher costs for the operator, more detailed, more costly
mitigation, and fewer wells drilled. The most important consequence, of
course, is not fulfilling the requirements of our job as stewards of the
land. Our job is to manage the public lands with environmental
responsibility, to produce our nation\'s energy needs. Bottom line, VRM
BMPs are critical tools for maintaining public acceptance of the
program. Good VRM BMPs can save dollars in the short-term and the long
term. Our vision is to be leaders in environmentally sound development.
We want people to say, hey, you want to see how oil and gas development
is done right? You go over to public lands. Go over to the BLM lands.
Brad? What do you have from a VRM perspective?\
\
B. Cownover: Those are excellent points. The nice thing is that
attention to the visible appearance of our oil and gas and fluid
minerals developments buys us more than just a better public image. Good
visual resource mitigations are based on good sound environmental design
techniques. These techniques usually bring with them a lot of other
environmental been fiddle as well, soil, cultural, watershed, wildlife
as well as recreational benefits in which the appearance of the
landscape is so important to that experience. An example of that would
be a full-bladed crown ditch road versus a two-track to an exploratory
drilling site. If we use the two-track instead ole full road, not only
are we minimizing that visual intrusion across the landscape but we\'re
also helping to minimize habitat fragmentation in this case maybe sage
grouse, as well as minimizing potential for soil erosion, not to mention
minimizing cultural artifact disturbance potential.

What we\'re talking about is a better bang for our buck. This is not
something that\'s new. This is not a new policy for the BLM. This is not
a new concern for the BLM. Protection every visual resources is not
something that\'s discretionary. Lights rooted in law. It\'s rooted in
regulation. It\'s found on our standard lease. Some of the places where
we have direction for visual resource management include our National
Environmental Policy Act, the federal lands policy \-- excuse me federal
lands policy act, the FLPMA, visual resource management handbooks and
policies themselves, the Oil and Gas Planning handbook 1624-1. As well
as the surface mining and control reclamation act, standard section 6
\-- section 6 on the standard oil and gas leases as we mentioned, as
well as newsroom and other CFRs and regulations that deal with
rights-of-way and other mineral applications on public lands. Basically
the VRM policy is a helpful dual at both activity and planning levels to
manage scenery but also to facilitate our mandate in an environmentally
responsible manner.

The tools we are going through today have been refined into these Best
Management Practices, specifically targeted towards the fluid minerals
development arena. It\'s important to note this is not something that\'s
just our opinion. These BMPs are part of the bureau\'s goals for
environmental mitigations. Use them together, use them selectively, use
them as they fit into your application and your specific place in the
country and what happens in your area. The main thing is use them, use
them, use them. Once you use them, we\'re confident you\'ll build
confidence in the successes that you\'ll see that these different
techniques can provide you that will help to get support with your
managers and your other staff to embrace the philosophy of them.
Basically what this comes down to for us I think is just good land
stewardship. I think from my job and everyone sitting up here, good land
stewardship is an aspect of why we came to the BLM and why we\'re proud
to work for the bureau and I know that\'s the same case for you in the
field. So I\'m excited, we look forward to it, and on that note I think
I\'ll turn it back to Don.\
\
D. Simpson: Thanks for the overview. Let\'s move to unit 2. From land
use planning to final reclamation monitoring. This unit begins in your
workbook on page 7. Since most of you work in or with the oil and gas
program we\'re now going to focus on day-to-day tasks which can include
land use planning, leasing, preparation of NEPA documents, APD
processing, inspection and enforcement and final reclamation. The point
is to show you how VRM BMPs can easily fit into your daily work routine.
Let\'s go now to Walt George who with the help of Rob Sweeten will
discuss the entire process.\
\
W. George: In our next unit we want to cover an overview of how the
visual resource management and oil and gas programs interrelate. They
interrelate in land use planning, in NEPA analysis and in fluid mineral
actions that involve exploration, development and reclamation. Now f you
want more details than we provide in this quick overview, please refer
to your notebook. Specifically we want to provide you within overview of
the fluid mineral development process from creating leasing decisions in
the land use plan to monitoring final reclamation success and we\'
provide you with some examples from the visual resources program. So
you\'re about to receive an APD in your office. But what information is
already available to you from the land use planning process? For the
fluid minerals program, land use plan decisions identify desired
outcomes and those consist of objectives and goals.

For example, we might have a goal of allowing oil and gas development
while conforming with VRM management classifications and the
requirements of those classifications. Another example might be to allow
oil and gas development while minimizing surface disturbance by
following Best Management Practices for well pad construction and
reclamation. Land use plan decisions also identify allowable uses. These
are allocations such as areas open and closed to leasing, and also
restrictions on use, such as our controlled use stipulations or timing
limitations. Finally, land use plans identify management actions, which
are those things that should help us achieve our objectives and goals.
For visual resource management, or visual resources, objectives in the
land use plan are established by first inventorying the scenic resources
and then analyzing a range of alternatives in the RMP NEPA document.
These various mixes of VRM management classifications are considered in
the alternatives for the \-- in the RMP. You know, Rob, it seems many
people often get confused between VRM inventory classes and management
classes. Would you care to clarify that for us?\
\
R. Sweeten: Certainly, Walt. That\'s a very common question that I
receive in the field, what\'s difference between an inventory class and
a management class. Before we can manage for visuals we need to first
understand what visual resources we have within our offices. We do this
by conducting an inventory and an inventory class is just that, it\'s
information. It\'s informational nature only. We arrive at that
inventory class by conducting account of different various things we
have in our office. The first is the sensitivity level people have
towards changes in the landscape. Is it a high sensitivity, a moderate
sensitivity or a low sensitivity? We apply that. We look at different
areas and we use the knowledge we have of the area to come up with those
decisions or to identify those areas. The second is distance zones. We
need to identify foreground, middle ground, background. Or there is a
seldom seen zone as well. We also have the quality of the visual
resource. We look at seven different key environmental factors, color,
land form, scarcity. We combine all that information to come up with a
quality rating of A, B or C. Once we have that information, we put it
into a matrix that can be found in the handbook, in the workbook, and we
come up with a management or an inventory class, 1 through 4. Once
again, this is informal \-- informational in nature only. We apply it in
the planning process, come one a preferred alternative and once the
record of decision is signed, the decision that is made that has been
adjusted up or down for the multiple use decisions that were made in the
plan becomes the management class. This management class is no longer
informational in nature only, it is the objective of our plan.

It is what all use allocations and decisions that are made in the plan
must meet. Those objectives are found in your handbook as well, and we
can go ahead and go over those quickly. In VRM we have VRM I, you will
see it\'s to preserve the character of the landscape. Tide that better,
it would be something that \-- you can\'t see it. Basically we\'re
trying to make sure that changes in the landscape aren\'t seen by the
casual observer. In VRM II we\'re trying to retain the character of the
landscape. In this particular instance, if it was a viewer, they may be
able to seat particular action that takes place but it shouldn\'t draw
the attention of the casual observer. In VRM III, it\'s a little more of
a mix. We\'re still trying to preserve the scenery, we have some nice
things here, but it can be seen by the casual observer, but it
shouldn\'t dominate. In VRM IV, basically it can be seen, we\'re
intending to do some things with that landscape, visual is not the most
prominent in this area but it shouldn\'t dominate. Once again, I would
like to emphasize that we have those objectives. It\'s why we\'re here
to discuss BMPs because we have objectives in our plan. It\'s what those
BMPs are trying to get us towards and to reach, and I would just like to
emphasize also that we want to do a good job regardless of where we are
or what the objective is. So, Walt, that\'s a little bit on the
inventory class versus management class.\
\
W. George: Thanks, rob. As you work on land use plans in your field
office, be sure to factor in these highly valued resources. During the
RMP process, areas of high oil and gas potential, high visual values and
other resource considerations are weighed. Here conflicts are resolved
and decisions are made that minimize conflicts during the implementation
of our resource management plan decisions. The bureau is three years
into its land use plan initiative. New plans are being prepared and we
have many revisions and amendment processes under way. One common issue
that typically arises at this point is the question, do new land use
plan constraints and requirements apply to existing oil and gas leases?
The planning guidance found in our 1624 manual for oil and gas require
that all land use plans address how new constraints will be applied to
existing leases. But simply stating that the plan is subject to valid
existing rights is insufficient. In the RMP we must first make
assumptions about the degree that oil and gas operations on existing
leases will be affected by the new land use planning decisions, and then
second, explain how, the valid existing rights may limit the full
application of these new decisions on existing leases. Recognize that if
you feel to address this issue in the land use plan, at some point you
will have to determine appropriate measures that are subject to valid
existing rights. This will most likely occur at an implementation action
such as a field development analysis or an individual APD analysis. Now
that the plan is completed, the first action implementing an oil and gas
decision usually a lease sale. Rob, would you care to discuss some
things that happen at this point?\
\
R. Sweeten: Thank you, Walt. Obviously if we have received interest from
industry that they would like to purchase an oil and gas lease, then we
need to act upon that. So that comes down from the state office as a
lease sale and we review it and we take a look and see, is this in
keeping with the objectives of our plan? Do we need to attach any
stipulations? Those stipulations are derived through our RMP process.
But we also may identify that there are certain objectives within our
plan that weren\'t included as stipulations. This may be appropriate at
this point, then, to write up a lease notification, to identify to the
applicant that there may be some certain objectives that need to be
addressed, that may be attached as conditions of approval to this lease.
Once that happens, we would like to sit down with the operator and
discuss things that are important, what our goals are, what it is we\'re
trying to achieve and maybe get a big picture of the future plans that
this operator has and say, if we know what you want to do on state land,
on private land, then we can work with you and make this product a
better product.

We need to know what their plans are and they need to know what our
plans are. We then need to encourage a notice of staking process. We
want to go out with the applicant prior to the APD and see if we can
work out things that we can let them know what our VRM objectives are,
what our planning objectives are so that they understand where we\'re
coming from. We need to understand where they\'re coming from and what
it is that they\'re trying to do, what their target is, where they need
to be to reach this resource. We also need to take this chance to
implement this training. This is a very important time in the process
where we sit down and meet with them and see we have these Best
Management Practices and we would really like to have these Best
Management Practices implemented into the project description, into the
proposed action. At that point we hopefully have worked out a lot of the
bugs early on in the process so we don\'t have to resolve them through
the APD process. But the next step that comes is the APD. Walt, would
you like to take the APD process from here?\
\
W. George: Thanks, rob. The APD is complete and properly filed in your
office. And you\'re ready to begin or participate in the NEPA process.
Here we evaluate the operator\'s proposal and balance it against BLM\'s
mandate to manage multiple resources in conformance with land use plan
decisions, laws, regulations and, of course, considering public input.
NEPA documents disclose the information that you consider in making
decisions. Visual resource management considerations for NEPA documents
include the visual resource management classifications that were
designated in the RMP. Any new information that may have come to your
light or come about since the RMP was completed. This might include the
designation of a scenic byway or the expansion of an urban interface
area or perhaps the cumulative development in an oil and gas field.
Secondly, any \-- the levels \-- thirdly, the levels of analysis that
you need to consider for visual resource management. These are the
levels of analysis that are need to do adequately address visual
resources, and they include an appropriate description of the visual
resource management classes and the visual setting, and this would occur
in the affected environment section of the NEPA document. And also, an
adequate treatment of the impacts. Now, this might include using the
visual rating contrast form or it could be an adequate description of
cumulative impacts. NEPA analyses disclose the alternatives that you
consider, the mitigation measures that you evaluated, and the rationale
that you used for selecting the mitigation measures and other decisions.
For APDs these decisions are documented in the finding of no significant
impact and decision record which we commonly called the FONSI/DR.

Mitigation measures that are developed through the mitigation process
become conditions of approval which are attached to an approved APD. At
this point in the process, two typical questions are sometimes
encountered. One of them might be, you know, since the land use plan was
completed, things have changed. There\'s new information, like oil and
gas development as expanded beyond the range that was analyzed or
considered in the RMP. Or, we\'ve had a new threatened and endangered
species designated in our planning area. Or perhaps the question might
be framed, I have lots of older leases out there and they don\'t contain
any current stipulations that we require from the new land use plan.
I\'m going to need to make substantial additions to the conditions of
approval in EAs. Specifically you\'re asking, can we move a location
more than 200 meters? Can we delay drilling more than 60 days? Or
require other measures to minimize adverse impacts? The answer to these
questions is a qualified yes. First, work with the operators and other
staff to identify the necessary mitigation. This is a negotiation
process. See if the operator is willing to add some things that aren\'t
specifically required in their lease. Seek the operator\'s buy-in.
However, if this is unsuccessful, then consider two things\... first,
those requirements that are subject to law, such as compliance with the
endangered species act, the national historic preservation act, the
clean water act.

These are requirements that the bureau can and must impose upon lease
operations. And then, second, consider those mitigation measures or
actions that are not subject to law. This might be something such as
meeting requirements that are consistent with VRM designations in the
resource management plan. BLM can impose greater restrictions to
minimize adverse impacts when less stringent measures would be
ineffective and these new measures would not render the recovery of oil
and gas infeasible or uneconomic. In both cases, you\'ll have to analyze
these options in a NEPA document. Now let\'s move on to the exploration
and production phase. Here\'s where the rubber really hits the road.
It\'s where we execute compliance with the terms and conditions in the
approved APD. Did the operator do what we asked? For example, if we
require that the facilities be painted juniper green, were they? Or did
they paint them some other color such as desert tan? In order to conduct
a proper inspection, the inspector has to be familiar with both the
contents of the APD and the resources that are in the field. Both their
occurrence and their sensitivity. The inspector has to have reasoned
judgment. They need to be able to negotiate changes with the operator or
deal with actions that are unexpected. And, they may have to enforce
some conditions that the operator fails to undertake. Finally,
compliance includes monitoring. Did it work? Was it effective? And if it
wasn\'t, be ready to make changes at the next action that will improve
on what we\'ve previously done.

Finally, abandonment and reclamation. Here is the most critical step or
phase in the whole process. Because how a site is treated during this
phase will determine how it will look for many years to come. A damaged
land form or mismatched vegetation will attract attention for many, many
years. BLM must approval all abandonment actions. For newer wells, the
reclamation plan has been included in an approved APD, and the operator
simply needs to follow those requirements. For older wells that lacked a
reclamation plan, the operator will have to prepare one and submit it to
BLM for review and approval. The goal of final reclamation is to restore
the land form to its natural shape, to stabilize the site and to
reestablish native vegetation. Visual resource management best
management practice techniques can guide us in reclamation, and this
includes activities such as recontouring the well location, restoring
and reclaiming linear facilities such as roads and pipelines and
reestablishing native vegetation. Now, don\'t forget, all through this
process and afterwards, we always continue to monitor for compliance and
for mitigation effectiveness. So there you have it, from top to bottom,
we\'ve gone through the whole planning and NEPA process. I\'m exhausted.
Don?\
\
D. Simpson: Take a break, Walt. Thanks. Thanks, rob. We\'ve now talked
about the day-to-day parts of most of your jobs and how to visual
resource concerns factor in. The point is to remind us that there are
basic practices that we should be integrating into our APD and planning
processes which address these concerns. Now it\'s time to move onto unit
3, our overview of basic VRM concepts which start on page 17 of your
notebook. Before getting into the details of site specific BMPs we want
to take moment to highlight fundamental visual resource management
principles. Brad is going to walk us through those fundamentals. Brad?\
\
B. Cownover: Thanks. The objective for this unit is to really provide an
overview of the Visual Resource Management system. Rob spent some time
in unit 2 in talking about the planning aspect in terms of establishing
the management classes from the inventory. So we\'re going to focus on
this particular unit on the activity side where we\'re trying to look at
designing our activities to meet those management classes. There\'s a
lot of detail in the notebook that covers more of the overview of the
VRM process that you can take with you and use for reference. As Don and
the Director have mentioned, BLM lands are becoming more and more value
for the scenic aspects they provide. We hear a lot about people that
used to drive right through and across BLM lands in order to get to the
Forest Service or park service site that are turning around and coming
back to BLM land because they find that that\'s the only place they can
get that sense of solitude and the vast open landscapes. But we also
have a multiple land use mandate as part of the BLM and because much
that we have potential for land disturbance activities that take place
to have adverse negative visual impacts. These consequences of not
addressing visual resources in these activities can have obvious effects
that last many, many, many years. Equally so, if we pay attention and
have good conscious design focused in on the design of our facilities
and the developments we can leave a positive legacy of land stewardship
as we talked about for generations to come. To help us assess the
potential visual impacts of our development, the BLM has its Visual
Resource Management System. The system is a fulfillment of the legal
obligations found in NEPA and FLPMA and other documents we\'ve talked
about. The policy is outlined in the manual 8400, the VRM policy manual
8400. That really sets the direction for the bureau\'s responsibilities.
Several other handbooks are tied to that, handbook 10-1, provides the
background on how to do the inventory and how to do the management
classes, establish management classes. Handbook 8431-1 is a focus on the
activity side and analyzing and evaluating our activities to make sure
they meet the. The system for the bureau\'s VRM can really be broken
into three categories. The inventory for scenic values is the first
step. Those aspects of scenic quality and the public sensitivity and
distance zones factor into that. Then he would assign the management
classes through the RMP planning process.

Once those are decided upon those become the standards for which we need
to design. That brings us to the third part which is designing and
evaluating the activities. That\'s where we\'re centered on today and
that is all about the fundamental principle of the VRM system and this
aspect which is about reducing contrast in the landscape. If we don\'t
reduce contrast in the landscape then we end up having obvious visible
long lasting scars as these two examples show, whether it be from color
of the tanks in the upper case or in the lower picture the visual scarf
a pipeline that was not reclaimed. Conversely, if we actually have
activities that are designed to meet and blend in with the landscape,
then those are thought to harmonize or be in harmony with the
characteristic landscape. This is a good example of a pipeline
reclamation which in the bottom case not only did they reclaim back to
the contour and do the vegetative seeding with native species but also
paid attention to careful placement of boulders and such that helps to
replicate the natural appearing landscape. This is where the VRM system
helps us out.

It\'s designed to provide BLM staff whether it be recreation specialists
or landscape architects or the oil and gas or fluid minerals staff with
the tools to do a few things. The first would be describing the
character of the landscape. That\'s where we have to start. The second
would be analyzing the projects that are being proposed to see how they
might contrast with the character of that landscape. The final would be
looking at designing mitigation into the project to help minimize the
contrast that might be created. You\'re asking, how do you describe a
landscape? This is where the professions of landscape architecture and
environmental design arts help us out and they do that by breaking down
the landscape into the basic design elements that help to contribute to
the overall visual appearance of that landscape. By doing that we can
help to introduce consistency and objectivity to the process that
otherwise people might think of as being more subjective in nature. You
always hear the adage of beauty is in the eye of the beholder. There is
some of that. But these professions have shown through the decades of
research that there is some constant agreement between folks and that
you can break the landscape down in that regard. This basically is when
we center the VRM system around. Another way of thinking about it
that-mile-per-hour help, think about it as being a common language and
that common language we use to help communicate amongst different staff
so we\'re talking on the same page about the landscape. In that regard
the landscape can be broken down into this language of form, line, color
and texture that we often refer to. We\'re going to try to take a moment
and walk through some of those aspects and see if we can help
communicate that a little better. We\'re going to start with form. As it
shows on the screen there, form is really the shape of the land. It\'s
the three dimensional forms in the land. The word land form itself I
think helps to reinforce that. In this picture here when you\'re
thinking about form, the flat Mesa top coming across and these blocky,
angular \-- blocky areas of the cliff faces is one form, and that\'s
very different from this very angled slope form. Yet another form in
this landscape is going to be the very much flat plain much constitutes
\-- that constitutes this river Valley. The other side of the cliffs
have the same exact form. If we could pan left and right, I think those
overall forms would be that much more readily apparent in this
particular image.

Let\'s see if we can move onto line. Line is really what are the lines
that might be apparent in the landscape? What ones stand out? What ones
are prominent? I think the one that is probably most obvious to folks is
the river corridor itself. That line can be thought of as a general
gradual sweeping curve through the area. Let me back up here. You might
be tempted to think in this particular case that line has a lot of
ripples to it. But it doesn\'t. If you compare it to the Mississippi
river line, which it\'s a winding or braided system of rivers, you can
see that the \-- the difference of how line can influence the visual
appearance on the landscape. Other lines are the very, very flat
horizontals formed by this Mesa, very verticals, lines coming down that
are forming these exposed cliff faces. And then very distinctly these
diagonal lines that are the slopes and these lines in the landscape
really in this particular image draw our eye right towards the river
corridor. So that\'s an important thing when we\'re looking at analyzing
potential contrast.

If we\'re siting a location of something, the lines that are found in
the landscape are directing our eye to the river corridor. Any project
in that area would be very, very noticeable. Let\'s move onto color.
Color, it\'s just that. Color is color in the landscape. In this
particular image, I think it\'s easy to see the color of the vegetation
and the difference between the vegetation here and the rock slopes here.
There\'s even some Willow or other riparian vegetation in this area
that\'s a different color of the green. There\'s the color of the water
feature itself. An important thing is that color can actually almost act
as a line, a de facto line. An example might be in this area where the
actual color difference between the vegetation on the riparian corridor
and the slopes tends to form a visible line. We\'ll show you a little
late or where that does play into maybe some ways of designing our
activities to work with that instead of contrasting against it. Finally,
texture. Texture tends to be one of the more difficult ones for people
to comprehend and sometimes I get confused myself but it\'s the
coarseness or smoothness of the landscape, land form. You can think of
it being akin to sandpaper. I also like to tell people that if you think
about being a giant and you\'re standing over this landscape and if you
could close your eyes and you would run your hand across that landscape,
what would that coarseness or smoothness feel like? In a case like this
where we have the Mesa tops, the overall feel of that land form will
probably be relatively smooth, even if it did have vegetation on it. The
vertical cliff faces have straight lines would be coarser. These slopes
would not be as coarse as the cliff faces but they would still have a
coarser texture than probably the Mesa tops. Then the river plain itself
would be relatively smooth. Let\'s try this one more time with another
example. Here\'s an example of sand dunes in a \-- and a sagebrush flat
and ridges in the background. If we look at the form in the background,
this ridge line here if we could see through to the back probably does
something like that. There\'s probable a diagnose null line here
representing the back side of the ridge which is forming an extruded
pyramid across the landscape. That form is different from this plain,
essentially this flat plain. That\'s yet again different from the more
undulating rolling forms associated with the sand dunes.

In terms of line, well, I just drew some lines that tend to reflect in
the landscape. Starting with the horizon line of the ridge line, it\'s
generally pretty regular. There are some up and down Jags associated
with it. Let me draw that again. But when you think about how
significant those Jags are in terms of describing the line, think about
comparing it to something that\'s more jagged such as a rocky mountain
or teton situation where much more incised situations are going on. I
wouldn\'t describe this particular line as being extremely jagged. It\'s
more so regular with a few deviations. Then there is a line that\'s
formed in the separation of that the foothills of that ridge line and
the plain of the sagebrush flat. Yet again, there\'s lines that are very
noticeable that are sweeping, drawing our eye into the landscape of
these sand dunes. Color, you can see the color difference between the
sand dunes and the sagebrush flats. Then the purple mountain majesty of
the background ridges. Then texture again, if we were closing our eyes
and rubbing our and across the landscape that sagebrush flat area would
probably have an overall landscape it to that\'s smoother than if we
were rubbing our hands across the area of the sand dunes or running our
hands up and down over the ridge line there.

Now, you might be asking, why is it important to pay attention to these
aspects of form, line, color and texture? Well, it\'s important because
in doing so we can help to design our activities to repeat the \--
repeat these elements found in the landscape and help produce projects
that blend in better with surroundings thereby reducing contrast. One of
the examples is coming on your screen now. This is an example of a
reclaimed exploratory drilling site that, I believe, is right in this
general area here and notice the careful attention they\'ve taken to
replace those rocks in that area to help replicate that texture that
characteristic of that landscape. Not only did they replace the rocks on
the site, they preserved the existing ones there and then hand placed
them back in, made sure the weathered side was up so there wasn\'t a
contrast in the color of the rocks. Very great example. Another example
of repeating elements of form, line, color and texture n this particular
case, is vegetative patterns and probably a ski resort example where
blending in with the patterns that are naturally associated with the
different types of vegetation in this landscape as well as orientation,
which in this case may be akin to avalanche chutes and other drainages.
They were able to remove parts of the vegetation in a way that tended to
repeat the elements of the line and the color in the landscape. Another
example of this is if we\'re thinking avenue project and we wanted to
put in a transmission tower line through there or ski lift, just coming
straight across the landscape would create an obvious noticeable line.
But we could just skew that a little bit using the vegetation boundary
created between these two types and the openings that exist and really
make a significant difference in reducing the amount of contrast that
project created in the landscape. After we have described the landscape
we have to go to the next step was analyze and analyze what the proposed
project might create in terms of contrast to the landscape. The VRM
system has its contrast rating form which is found in your notebook. I
think it\'s page 23. We won\'t have time to go through that in detail.
But suffice it to say that it\'s an extremely valuable tool for helping
to first account for what that existing landscape looks like in terms of
the form, line, color and texture, describing that characteristic
landscape and then identifying the elements associated with the new
project and how those might contrast with that which allows us to
evaluate the effects but probably more importantly is it allows us to
identify potential mitigations that we might use to help bring that
project more in alignment with repeating those elements that are found
in that characteristic landscape.

The VRM system has several other design techniques and fundamentals we
use to help minimize project disturbances. Those different \-- different
types will be talked about later in unit 4 after the break where we\'ve
targeted those towards the best management practices aspects of
principles. But I will highlight a couple of them. They can be found in
pages 23 through 36 of the notebook. We go through the design
fundamentals and design strategies, but we\'ll take a moment just to
talk about a few. First we\'ll start with proper siting. I think here\'s
a great example of proper siting. This transmission tower was located in
a location of an existing opening that is characteristic to this
landscape that\'s already there. In doing so really helps to minimize
what otherwise might have been a continual right-of-way clearance swath
that would have been aligned that would not have been characteristic to
this landscape. There are no long vertical lines or horizontal lines
across this landscape. That would have created a lot of contrast. They
avoided that and instead used the natural clearings. Even if they had
come in and created a new opening here where one did not exist, if they
had done it in this shape and fashion, it would have very much repeated
the other shapes and lines and color transitions that you see in that
landscape.

Another example is vegetative manipulation. I\'ll start out first
describing this cut bank along the roadside. The first thing they did is
a little bit of earthwork and that earthwork instead of having a
distinct angular cut bank they paid attention to roll that cut back into
the landscape so that those land forms are more in keeping with the
natural patterns you find. Then in terms of the vegetative manipulation
they played off of that by avoiding a direct cut in the vegetation that
would have been across the slope and instead played attention to
selective removal of the different trees, different types of trees,
heights of trees, to create that irregular appearance that would have
been more natural and more in keeping with what would have been there
prior to the cut. Final example is of linear alignment. This is a great
illustration of how playing with the natural feature of the landscape
can help us. This is a road that lays light on the land and it does so
by following the natural contours that the drainage creates rather than
bulldozing a straight line through that may have seemed easier at the
time. The other thing this does is helps reduce the disturbance and
amount of other unnecessary disturbance that would have been associated
with this load alignment. It also proceed serves some scenic rock \--
preserves some scenic outcrop features. It may be there\'s natural
pictographs or other art, Indian art, prehistoric art that may also be
along this area and doing this more linear alignment or paying attention
to the linear alignment helps preserve those aspects. We\'re going to
spend more time, as I mentioned, on these in the next unit, in unit
four. That\'s really because the Visual Resource Management System is a
good basis to be kind of a foundation for which these visual resource
Best Management Practices tend to spring out of. The \-- remember that
the common denominator between the two is they\'re all about reducing
contrast in the landscape. There\' also important environmental factors
that can help influence how much contrast is there and can accentuate
the form, line, color and texture and the significance or degree to
which those elements might be more of an issue for us in having to
design activities to blend with that characteristic landscape.

An example might be, where is the project viewed from? What prominent
viewpoints might the project be viewed from? In had particular example
is typical of a kiosk, maybe not typical of all the landscapes we have,
but this is certainly one every those drop your jaw sort of landscapes,
akin to a Grand Canyon sort of thing, people are coming for the
experience, they\'re looking much to scenic vista. That\'s a place you
would want to be careful about the activities. Another example might be
a prominent viewpoint located along a scenic by way. We have a lot of
backcountry byways in our system and there\'s a lot of pull offs
associated with those. We need to be conscious of the location of those
activities relative to the viewpoints as well as how we design them in
terms of repeating the elements of form, line, color and texture found.
A final example, probably some of the most important examples,
communities. This is where the public and people that interface with us
and care about what we do on public lands live. A lot of them are buying
houses with those big windows specifically to take advantage of the
views out their back door and that just suggests that much more
challenge for us and that much more obligation for us to do the right
thing. We refer to these prominent viewpoints as key observation points
or KOPs.

The key observation points can be influenced as well by the angles in
which the observer is looking at the landscape and also the speed or
duration and view. We\'re going to show an example of a couple diagrams
here of that. This particular case, the first would be just the angle
that the project is observed from. If we assume this is a clearing
associated with timber harvest, whether we\'re looking at it straight on
or below or above can make a difference in how much of that particular
clearing is visible. Another influencing factor would be the duration
that the project is in view. That can be influenced by the speed at
which the person or the viewer is traveling. If this was a scenic byway
on the highway and it was 60 miles an hour versus a backcountry byway at
a lower speed that can influence the cone of vision or the visible area
that would be in view. If we imagine this as not being a scenic byway or
something traveled by vehicle but, say, for instance, a trail, a
national historic scenic trail, where the person can basically spend all
the time they want, turn around 360 degrees, then this cone of vision is
essentially that. That\'s not a circle I don\'t believe. I\'m a
landscape architect, right? Anyway, that really, I think, gives you an
idea of how the significant difference can be associated with the speed
at which someone is traveling along and how our activities need to be
more sensitive to that. Along that trail we want to pay more attention
to designing those activities to make sure we blend them in. Some other
considerations we also want to keep in mind relative to designing
activities that minimize contrasts would include the season of use, what
is the prominent season of use that people are going to be looking at
this. If it\'s a recreation area, they\'re coming there during the
summer, we want to make sure \-- pay attention to what the landscape
look likes during that season. Scale of development, is this one well or
a full scale development? Another thing might be the lighting
conditions, whether there\'s motion associated with it, motion tends to
draw the eye in. If you think about a wind farm, you not only have the
structures but the wind turbines that draw the eye our eye in and that
makes it challenging for us. Geothermal have steam associated with it.
We have pump jacks that go up and down. Then recovery time, is this
project in the arid desert west or the Pacific northwest where we have
90 inches of rainfall a year? There are a lot of tools that can help us
take the key observation viewpoints, all the other considerations and
environmental factors and try to determine what is going to be visible
or not and determine how significant the impacts might be.

The first of these would be a visibility analysis. We have an example on
the screen. This particular case it is in a town called canyon city
Oregon and this project was a timber harvest and they wanted to see how
much of the project would be visible from the town. This was located in
a mountain area, Canyon Mountain, that was much part of the setting of
that town. It was part of that scenic backdrop. So the public was very
concerned living there. What they did was use GIS analysis to do a
visibility analysis and determine that these pink areas here are the
primary areas in which the project is viewable from and that helped them
to be able to adjust and massage their design activities to take that
into consideration. Another example staying on this visibility analysis
here, if we could go back one, please. Let\'s assume this is a national
historic scenic trail here. Then we could do a viewshed analysis from
that trail and determine what areas are more visible, how often they\'re
in view, how long they\'re in view, and in doing that, we can maybe
determine there\'s some areas that might be very close to the trail that
we thought might not be allowable for projects that we might be able to
permit. Conversely there might be projects much further off but still
are very visible and contribute to that scenic setting of that trail and
we want to pay attention to that. So the viewshed, visibility analysis
helps us do our job better.

The other tool would be visual simulations. This is an example of just a
before and after, assuming this is the existing situation and the
pipeline corridor and ancillary road features are reflected to the
right. This helps us to disclose to our \-- the internal team what we
think the activities might look like so they can help each person on the
team get a sense of what the impacts are that they need to respond to in
terms of the resource. It also helps our public better understand what
the potential impacts might be so they can comment appropriately on our
proposed action and our alternatives. The other thing probably I think
is the most valuable is it helps us to make some changes in design
mitigations to our proposed actions and design so that in this case may
be instead of introducing a line that\'s not apparent and not
characteristic to the landscape, we use a different routing that might
play off the land form within this area to locate that or it could be
simply that we pay attention to the revegetation and reclaiming of the
pipeline to blend it back into the textures and form and color and line
we described earlier. So these are really the core VRM principles that
we wanted to focus on today. And as I mentioned, they become the basis
of the Visual Resource Management Best Management Practices that Jim and
rob are going to take an entire unit to spend with you and show great
examples. We\'ve covered a lot. Remember you have that notebook there
that can provide more details. We also have some more resources,
extensive resources that can help you out.

The first of those would be our VRM specialists, our policy requires
that we have a national lead, which I\'m lucky enough to be. The state
offices all have VRM leads that are supposed to be designated. In some
cases those are landscape architects, in other cases it might be a
recreation lead. The field offices are also required to have a VRM
contact that you can go to and get help from. The second resource, if
you haven\'t already gone to it, I highly encourage you to go to it, and
that\'s our VRM website. It\'s a great place to find ought more about
the system, background, responsibilities, some of the design techniques
I was alluding to. The other thing on this website is if you notice on
the bottom, that\'s the VRM field coordinators. You click on that link,
and it will take you to an up to date list of who those people under
your area that you can get more information from. This website also has
in digital form the contrast rating form and the inventory forms and the
form the BLM uses as well as you can print off copies of the manuals and
the policy that \-- handbooks we discussed earlier.

The final resource is our training. We spent a lot of time with VRM
training, the training centers really take a lot of credit for that that
we have the basic five-day course which rotates around. The next
offering is going to be in Moab in September of this year. That\'s a
great resource, training, role playing, field training exercises every
day. The role simulation course is also a valuable course. We sit you
down at the computer and walk you through how to create a simulation.
And finally we have the BMPs for fluid minerals. So I encourage you to
use the notebook. I encourage you to find those VRM coordinators and
specialists. Feel free to contact me any time you want. With that I\'ll
turn it back to you, Don.\
\
D. Simpson: Thanks, Brad. That was a great discussion of the VRM
principles. Let see if I can connect the dots. We have a legal
obligation to protect scenic resources. The VRM system was designed to
help us do that. The VRM system contains core principles that help us
identify design techniques and mesh do you remember identify the con\--
minimize contrasts. The design techniques are the basics of BMPs. I\'m
sure everyone out there is anxious to learn more. Let\'s take a
15-minute break and when we come back we\'ll take a look at some real
life examples every these VRM principles on the ground. We\'ll also be
able to take some questions and answers during that segment. Stick
around. There\'s a lot more to come.\
\
D. Simpson: Welcome back to our satellite course on Visual Resource
Management for fluid minerals. Once again we have our instructional team
of Brad Cownover, Jim Perry, Walt George, and Rob Sweeten. At this time
I would like to remind everybody that we are able to receive faxes and
you do not need to wait until the end of the broadcast if you have a
question that you would like to make sure we receive at any time. Now
we\'re ready to move onto unit 4, Best Management Practices, that begins
on page 39 of your notebook. This is where the rubber really hits the
road. The object sieve to provide examples of existing BMPs you can use
to reduce potential impacts. Now we\'ll take you a virtual field tour.\
\
J. Perry: If you\'re following along in the notebook, please turn to
page 42. I want to take this point to really express my appreciation for
those of you who are watching this today. Lot of folks are out there
processing APDs, working on EAs, answering the phone but it\'s you, the
dedicated ones that are here learning how to sharpen your skills. Really
appreciate that. Best Management Practices, what are they? I like to
think of Best Management Practices as better ways for achieving better
results. Outcome based, results oriented. After all, it\'s results we
want. BMPs are continually changing the results of constant improvement
in the way we conduct our business. Before we go any further, let\'s
take a little test.

Looking at this photo, what mitigations could have been used to lessen
the visible impacts of this site? Take a minute now. You probably are
aware of a few BMPs from Brad\'s talk. I bet you can come up with some
good ideas how you would lessen the visual impacts of this site. At the
end of this unit we\'ll show the slide again and I bet you will have a
whole lot more ideas. Want to start out with an overview of BMPs.
There\'s five basic concepts we want to cover, minimize contrast \--
what were they thinking \-- key observation points, reduce surface
disturbance and other resources also benefit from BMPs and I want to
state that the leadership firmly supports your use of BMPs. It\'s all
about contrast. Repeating the elements of form, line, color and texture.
Consider where and how development will be seen. Those key observation
points, as Brad mentioned, could be linear features, roads, highways,
trails, rivers. You\'re continually moving along. Also, it could be a
point, a place, a kiosk, an overlook, where you\'re there for a long
period of time looking at that oil and gas development.

Next, let\'s reduce surface disturbance. The more long-term surface
disturbance we have, the more visual contrast. The larger the surface
disturbance, the more visual contrast. It\'s not just the pad. It\'s the
roads. It\'s the power lines. It\'s the utilities. It\'s the tank
batteries. It\'s all those other ancillary facilities that add to visual
contrast. Whoa! Don\'t forget, other resources also benefit. VRM is not
the sole resource we are managing. We manage the larger landscape,
minerals, wildlife, recreation, soil, water. You name it. Many of the
resources that BLM manages benefit from the techniques we use to reduce
visual impacts. This is a sage grouse and you\'ll be hearing a lot more
about the sage grouse. This bird, take good care of this bird. We do not
want this to become an endangered species. Use Best Management Practices
to reduce the impacts to sage grouse habitat. And finally, the
Washington office leadership, this is the Washington office Fluid
Minerals Group, very strongly supports the use of BMPs and encourages
the use of VRM BMPs in all field offices. Many BMPs are already standard
operating practices throughout the bureau. The assumption is that all
offices will use BMPs. However, a note from our attorneys, be aware, not
all BMPs are suitable for all locations and all situations. Just because
Jim Perry says directional drilling doesn\'t mean directional drilling
is the best choice in all locations. Use your best judgment and the NEPA
process to evaluate the need for VRM mitigation and analyze alternative
mitigations through the alternatives in the NEPA document. As you
consider what mitigation works best, also consider the implementation
cost to the operator. What\'s that cost-benefit? Are we making the
operator do something unreasonable or is it really what he should be
doing to minimize those impacts. A win-win situation for the operator,
the BLM and the public. After the project has been completed, evaluate
those results and make adjustments to future permits as necessary.
Don\'t just keep using the same BMP when really times have changed, BMPs
have evolved, there\'s better ways of doing things. Rob, what can you
add on VRM BMP principles?\
\
R. Sweeten: As Brad discussed earlier, there are some basic VRM
principles and techniques we use to reduce contrasts. Jim and I are
going to cover four most critical areas as they relate to oil and gas.
Those are proper site selection, reducing unnecessary disturbance,
choice of color and final reclamation. Now, I\'m going to go ahead and
cover proper site selection and choice of color and Jim\'s going to
cover reducing the amount of disturbance and final reclamation. As you
can see, I\'m from Moab, and I don\'t have a whole lot of BLM land that
looks like this, but I know we have it. I know if I was picking a cabin
location, I\'d want to put it right here, and that\'s the first thing I
would like to discuss is location. Location, location, location. One of
the most important tools we use to reduce visual contrast is picking the
best location. Many times we may have a site that\'s in the improper
location, no matter what we do, no matter what color we paint it, no
matter how we minimize, shield or screen it, we\'re not going to be able
to minimize for the visual impacts.

The first thing we need to ask ourselves is, is this the best spot? In
many locations, or a few locations, such as this, we have some sensitive
areas where this may not be the best location. We might want to avoid it
altogether. One other principle we have in location is identifying the
land forms and locations we have that we may want to avoid. In this
particular instance it\'s a ridge line. We want to avoid placing
facilities along a ridge line. When we place a facility along a ridge
line, it sky lines that facility. I know there are some of you that have
plenty of them painted blue, we\'ll make it blend into the sky. We
don\'t condone that. We don\'t ask you to do that. What happens is along
comes the white cloud, the storm cloud and we have this funny blue thing
protruding into the sky. We need to paint this to match into the land
form but want to avoid that situation altogether and don\'t put it on
the ridge line. We also need to take into consideration where we\'re
viewing this from. Are we viewing it from a superior, inferior position?
Is it going to be back dropped? We may have something on a ridge line
but it\'s going to be back dropped.

As a general rule, avoid putting them on ridge lines. That may be
different in the case of a road. This particular road is placed along
the side of this Mesa and it casts the material off and it creates a cut
and fill whereas if it was located along the top, it would for the most
part not be visually denied. \-- evident. Another principle that\'s very
helpful is using distance to your advantage. Many times just moving
something a little further away from the area that you\'re viewing it
from will greatly mitigation for visuals. For instance, in this
particular instance, if this was a road that I was standing on and this
was the view, and we placed this juniper green pump jack right here in
this location, it would be quite prominent in the in the view. Instead
we move it back, it for the most part disappears to be casual observer.
This is a very effective method. Just move it a little further back.
Sometimes that might mean a little more road and a little more
disturbance in that arena, but if done properly this can work very well.
Next, we need to avoid prominent features. What is a prominent feature?
I think many of us can think \-- well, take a minute. Do you have
features or landmarks in your area, office, that have names that for the
most part the general public understands what they were, if you were
giving directions and told someone where to go you might use that
feature? That\'s a pretty good indication that that feature has some
prominence to the public. You would try to avoid it. This one happens to
be in the Monticello field office, Moab field office. My kids call it
turtle rock. That doesn\'t mean you have to avoid every rock that looks
like a turtle, but if you know this area \-- this feature is a prominent
landmark, you might want to avoid it, at least putting something in an
area where it would be in the viewshed of the people who view it.

The next principle we would like to talk about is taking advantage of
the topography and the natural screens that exist there. If you could
move the location to take better advantage of screening such as
vegetation or an existing swale or land form behind a ridge or bend, do
it. You just need to go out and take a look at the land and be familiar
with it. Get out and get some mud on your shoes. If you need to move it
100 yards to this location or that location, that time just moving it to
take advantage of screening women make it completely disappear. This is
\-- screening will make it disappear. You need to take into
consideration where you\'re viewing this particular site from? Where are
the most people viewing it from? Perhaps what time of day, what time of
the year? Take all those things into consideration when you do this.
Once again, if you can take advantage of natural screening, do so.
Sometimes some of you live in areas that there\'s not a lot of
vegetation, there may not even be a whole lot of change in the land form
and you might want to consider something like a berm or a man-made
screen. This can be effective. Every once in a while it can backfire but
take that into consideration and use common sense.

Another thing we need to consider in location is what is the greater
plan? I spoke about this. We may be approving one or two wells at this
point, but do they have the intention to come forward with 20, 25? One
or two wells along a scenic byway most likely we can meet that visual
threshold and we can make it work. But if we know there\'s going to be
more, we need into take into consideration where these locations are. We
might put one or two next to the road and people might drive by them and
they\'ll forget about them. But if there\'s going to be a constant
reminder to the people who are driving along this road that oil and gas
or the facility we\'re working on is going to be here and it\'s every
8th of a mile, then we might need to consider those cumulative impacts.
For instance, in this particular instance one or two wells in this
scene, well, it\'s pretty obvious. We need to take into consideration
the road system. When we locate something it\'s not just the production
pad. It is the roads and the facilities and the rights-of-ways that are
going to need to be used to connect that pad. How is that going to
happen? If we plan the road system we can many times reduce the amount
of surface disturbance, but also we can reduce the construction costs,
the maintenance costs. We can make this a win-win for everybody. We need
to avoid straight lines in many cases as we\'ve talked about trying to
mimic the features in the landscape, as is identified in this photo.
Instead of taking a straight line to the site, the particular route
follows the contours the landscape and it blends in very well. I have an
example of this. I was working on a seismic project in Moab, and we
asked that the large seismic trucks with their big tires to work in a
syrup unteen \-- serpentine fashion. Then the person that came along to
do the follow-up and bring them their lunch or whatever drove this
six-wheeled ATV vehicle in a straight line right along the route. What
was seen? It wasn\'t what the large vehicles drove. It was that ATV and
it made a big difference. Avoid those straight lines and try to work
with the contours in the landscape. Also when you\'re planning for your
roads, if you found a better location than the road that exists and you
put it in, such as in this photograph, make sure you go back and reclaim
the existing road so that we don\'t have this proliferation of roads and
things that don\'t get fixed or reclaimed. If you don\'t just feel like
you have to use the existing route, it may not be safe. That particular
route may need to be fixed, or when you put in a new route, make sure
your mitigation measures are safe and maintainable, because this is
obviously an important factor we need to take into consideration. But
choose the best location that meets the safety and maintenance needs and
also best needs that mitigate for the visual impacts. And just the
bottom line, we need to work with the operator up front and early.

As I mentioned earlier, don\'t drop this on their lap at the last
minute. We need to meet with them 37 we need to be on the same page. In
this particular instance, we may have met at the notice of staking and
APD phase, this is a swell, if you put it in this location as opposed to
this area, you will be able to mitigate for visual impacts, you will be
able to make it invisible to the people who drive along the road. If you
don\'t put in a straight road, it\'s going to break up that line. We can
have a nice product and when this particular pad is put into production,
if it goes that far, and it\'s painted the proper color and intermediate
reclamation takes place, we\'ll have a good product. Jim, by like to
turn it over to you to go ahead and discuss how to reduce unnecessary
disturbance.\
\
J. Perry: Thanks, rob. Those were some good ideas. Reducing unnecessary
disturbance, that\'s the second step to minimizing visual contrast, is
that reduction of soil and vegetative disturbance. Avoid locating roads
and pipelines on steep slopes. Follow the contours of the land. Reduce
that earthwork disturbance that cuts \-- the cuts and the fills. This
visual scar is a really bad example of the use of line that Brad
mentioned. Avoid locating your well sites and your well pads on steep
slopes. Well pads on steep slopes can have large cut and large fill
slopes. They\'re more expensive to reclaim, highly visible from
long-distances, and if you must avoid \-- locate on a seep slope, avoid
the side cast of material. Construct the minimum road necessary.
Consider using two-track roads for things such as exploration wells
could that become dry holes, production wells with very low vehicle use
during production. Remember, the BLM 9113 roads manual says that bureau
roads must be designed to an appropriate standard, no higher than
necessary, to accommodate their intended functions. Will a two track
road work in all situations? No. But there are situations out there
where that\'s the best way to go. Interim reclamation, consider interim
reclamation of roads. Once that road cross section is constructed, go in
and revegetate the road profile to reduce the visual size of that road.
Initiate reclamation. Return topsoil back into these areas. Reseed.
Revegetate. Minimize. In some cases even the graveled surface can be
revegetated turning this into a hard-pan road with a two-track surface.
Share rights-of-ways. Minimize surface disturbance. Roads and utilities
should be buried, if they are buried, and hopefully they are, within the
same right-of-way. Consider burying your electrical power in your road,
particularly in you\'re in a highly visual area. In this case, this is a
coal bed methane well right here with submersible pump, so it\'s not
very visible, and the power to operate this buried in the two-track
road, the flowlines are in the two-track road, everything is buried in
here. The two-track road is totally revegetated. Because they use remote
monitoring, they do not have to hardly ever drive out here. So this is
your road going in to your submersible pump. Look at the visual
contrast. This is nothing compared to a standard BLM graveled road. This
is great. Bury those flowlines. Buried flowlines are less visually
contrasting than surface lines running across country.

Where might surface lines be ok? Well, in highly industrialized areas
perhaps or for short-term flowlines. We highly encourage you to bury the
flowlines or bury in the road or adjacent to the road. And don\'t forget
housekeeping. Keep a clean well location. Poor housekeeping is totally
unnecessary. It creates a poor image in the eyes of the public. Yes,
this really is a well location. Hopefully it\'s not on BLM land.
Consider moving that well location to a better site. One when possible,
choose a flat area, area hidden from view. This very large well pad with
multiple wells was laced in this location because to place it up higher
or other places would have been more visible to scenic corridor and
created more disturbance. So they tucked it down here in the Valley out
of sight and with good interim reclamation we can really make that
disappear. Minimize topsoil removal in flat areas by considering the use
of brush beading or mowing the well location. Only excavate where the
rig would go. Reserve pit if you have one. Only remove the topsoil
that\'s absolutely necessary. And then, it\'s ok to park on the grass.
It\'s ok to set up your pipe racks on the grass. This is not a problem,
even if it gets muddy, back drag it, reseed it. But next spring, it will
reclaim much faster for much less expense. Reduce the pad size to the
minimum necessary for a safe operation. Work with that operator to
determine \-- do they really need a 5-acre pad or do they just do that
because how they\'ve traditionally done it?

Can they get away a 3 acre pad? Whatever you two decide is the safest
way to go. But reducing the pad size greatly reduces reclamation costs
and reduces the visual contrast. Centralize those tank batteries. The
tanks for several wells can all be placed in one location that\'s tucked
away, out of sight, from key observation points. If you can centralize
tank batteries, it also reduces vehicle use of the roads. It\'s a great
way to go. Co-locate your wells to reduce road, pad and utility
disturbance. In this case, they put six wells on one pad. It saved from
having to construct an additional five roads, five pads, five utility
corridors and all the maintenance associated with that. In this case,
the operator broke even. Even though they were directionally drilling,
which costs more, by not having to drill all those additional pads,
build those additional roads in steep country, they saved money, greatly
reducing the visual contrast. Look at the color they chose. Outstanding
color for those tank batteries. Interim reclamation of well locations.
Minimize that disturbed area to reduce visual impacts. Recontour those
slopes back to the original contour where you do not need to set pup
notice how well this revegetated location, here\'s the pulling unit, and
the tank battery is off site. Notice how well that opening blends with
the other openings in the area just as Brad mentioned. Interim
reclamation greatly reduces visual contrast. Here\'s your well box right
here for gas well. It\'s a paradigm shift, I understand, to come back in
with your workover rig or your other service vehicles and park on the
grass, but it\'s ok to park on the grass and set up. Like I said before,
if you mess it up, just fix it. But that\'s a whole lot better than
leaving large disturbed areas. Plan for interim reclamation. Facilities
on the well location should be placed correctly so that you can maximize
the amount of pad that could be reclaimed. Because these production
facilities were placed against the cut slope, it didn\'t allow for
interim reclamation of placing fill material back up into the cut. On
the other hand, in this case, they did use a BMP of low tanks which is
hidden from view up here on the county road. So\... What are the steps
to interim reclamation?

First of all, you need to leave enough flat area so that you can set up
your work overrig, which is fairly small. You need to recontour
everything else. Everything else back to the original contour or contour
that blends with the surrounding topography. Then respread that topsoil
over the entire location all the way up to the production facilities.
Leaving just enough room for gravel turnaround, only if necessary.
Encourage the encroachment of native vegetation. Proper interim
reclamation involves the use of native plants, allowing over time the
localized natives to recolonize the site. This location here, here\'s a
water well injection box for a field injection. The well pad used to be
huge but notice how with interim reclamation proper native seeding they
have reestablished the original vegetation an over time the local
natives have moved back in. Real reduction in sagebrush habitat loss,
something we need to protect that sage grouse that we saw. Keep in mind
barren areas equal mud, equal weeds, increased maintenance, lost forge
and increased visual contrast. I couldn\'t stand back far enough with a
camera to get a full view of how large this pad is. Bottom line, work
with the operators. Minimize the footprint of roads, utilities,
production facilities and well locations. Create a win-win situation for
you, the BLM, the operator and the public. If you did a good job of
interim reclamation, your final reclamation needs and costs will be
absolutely minimal. Well, rob how about choice of color? What can you
tellous color?\
\
R. Sweeten: Thanks, Jim. Choice of color is one of the most common and
least expensive measures that we use to mitigate for visual resources.
I\'m often asked, what color should we paint this? Or different things.
I would like to emphasize, that once again color is not the all fix. We
need to take into consideration a lot of the things we\'ve spoken about
making sure we picked the proper site location and located something in
the right area before we come back and say, oh, we\'ll paint it a
certain color. Color is often used as the sole mitigation and that\'s
because in many cases kit make a project disappear \-- it can make a
project disappear but we need to take into consideration the whole
project. Color that\'s improperly chosen or that contrasts with the
landscape really pops out, even if you\'ve picked the proper location
and you\'ve done all the things right and you pick the improper color,
it\'s going to stand out even in some cases for miles. This is a good
example of a color. We may have the proper location. We didn\'t stick it
up here on the ridge. We may have moved it a little further out but we
may have picked the proper location, you don\'t see a lot of cuts and
fills but, boy, we picked the wrong color. We went with white it comes
right out at you and stands out. Lighter colors come towards you, darker
colors tend to recreed into the background. \-- recede into the
background. One of the \-- other quick principle and thing that helps is
we need to pick a color one or two shades darker than the background. We
do this because I mentioned before, darker colors have a tendency to
recede. We also need to take into consideration it\'s the sun and
atmospheric conditions that make the colors what they are. The shadows
that play in the landscape make things darker and if you have a light
facility, it pops it out. When you have a dark facility they tend to
recede. This particular compressor we used the colors in the background,
not the colors of the disturbed soil. This is back dropped by the people
who view it and it will recede back into the landscape. This is an
excellent color choice.

We also need to take into consideration a what kind of paints we use. We
need to use semi gloss because paints have a tendency to fade, they need
maintenance. We need to make sure we\'re using the proper colors and
that we\'re using the proper types of paints. Once again, I mentioned
this earlier, but we need to consider the overall picture or color in
the landscape. What is the dominant color in this particular view? Well,
I don\'t think it\'s this disturb road color but that seems to be what
we tried to match it to. It may not be the dark greens of the Mesas and
the junipers. It\'s obviously the sage grays and greens that are found
here in the flat areas. Avoid these lighter colors. In this instance
this may something such as desert tan for a while we got hooked on
desert tan but the problem is it\'s so light it tends to pop forward. We
were matching the coloration of the land form. We may have to match the
coloration of the land form but in this instance it\'s the vegetation we
want to try to match. We want to stick with that background vegetation.
We have some specific instances and we need to use common sense with
color. We\'ve done a lot of research out in the field about trying to
come one different colors that we can let the operator know what they
need to do so we\'re not creating custom colors.

In some instances, creating a custom color may be the thing to do. In
this particular instance, it\'s one of Rob's cabin sites I might choose
for a location. We may want to come one a custom color that matches the
vegetation that\'s found in this area. I\'d also like to point out in
this photo you need to take into consideration season of use. Some
people may say, rob, we\'re in Wyoming here. There\'s snow on the ground
for four to five months of the year. Why not paint it white. We like to
stick with the things that are consistent. It may be it\'s white but
underneath we have this vegetation and people are accustomed to seeing
things come from the site. Instead of the desert tan chosen, that may
have been a common spec, we would have better served to choose a custom
color. The standard color chart is found in the handbook, in the
notebook. It\'s had in different places. It got placed in the back or it
may be someplace in the middle. Some of you may have seen the standard
color chart. The BLM back a few years ago spent a lot of time to
research what the best colors were for the landscapes that we manage. We
have a full range, some of them cars bad canyon, juniper green, desert
tan, some of them haven\'t been used much. But there\'s been a lot of
research. Some of you may have seen there was a recent memo sent out
requesting good examples that people have and that\'s a good thing to
do. Once you\'ve found something, share it with others. As you\'re
driving around and looking at things if you see a color that works well,
find out if you can call the people who own the property and identify
what that color is. Many times I\'ve even been guilty of this, we\'ve
picked a color and we\'ve applied it and it worked well and then we
forgot to document what that color was. Well, we got \-- we get to go
back through this all over again. We just need to apply common sense. If
you\'re out in the areas where not a lot of people are viewing things,
you still want to pick the proper color but try to pick a color from the
standard environmental charts or some things you know work without
having to go through a custom color mix. If you have a sensitive area,
please take advantage of the tools you have to pick that. What are the
tools we use to pick a custom color? We may go out with color swatches.
We may go out and squint through the whole in the chart. It\'s kind of
like picking carpet colors, it can be hard on the little swatches. So
the bigger sheets, if you don\'t, you can give Brad a call, he can send
them out to you.

Another method we use is just, like I\'ve said, the examples we have, go
out and look. If I were painting a transmission tower and I saw this
example, I\'d maybe want to do a little research and say, what was the
color you shows because as you can look at this, this color really
works. This dark green tower as opposed to the gray tower basically
almost disappears in the landscape, and this is a very effective picture
of the effect that color can have on the visual resources. Once again,
another example, you\'ve seen this slide several times but we used the
juniper green or olive color to blend in with the vegetation. It works
very well. We can do this. We just need to really document it. If
you\'re in this area and you see this color, hopefully we\'ve documented
it and share it with others so we don\'t go through and make the
mistakes. You can imagine if this would have been colored this lighter
color or we\'re going to match it to the snow, we would have a
completely different view. One of the lessons my mother always taught me
when I was younger, when you take a shower, don\'t put on your dirty
underwear, and many times we do that when we work with our facilities.
We may give a specification for the facility, in this case we have this
nice coloration, but then we come back in with the white signs or
additional facilities that just pop it right back out again.

Back to my ATV versus the seismic truck example. We put in this nice
facility and then we put this up next to it. It\'s kind of like taking a
shower and putting on your dirty underwear. We need to take that into
consideration. We need to make sure we monitor and follow through.
Another example of partial compliance is in maintenance. Many times we
start out with something, and in this case we have this desert tan type
paint and then the new facility comes along on the pad or on the site
and we don\'t paint it and we really dilute the effect of that color. Or
we say we\'re going to paint it but then we come along later and it\'s
getting hot so we go with the white roof. I mean, it reflects the sun
but it certainly does show up and we need to take into consideration if
this is an area visually sensitive we diluted the effect of color in
this particular instance by going with white roofs and additional gray
facilities. Now, I spoke earlier about some of the techniques. We put
the color swatches out there in trying to pick a color but we also have
the ability to choose color through visual simulations. Brad talked
about the visual simulation we hold in Phoenix. This is an example how
you may use visual simulations. I enjoy doing this in my office, it\'s a
very effective way of doing it. You can go ahead and take the color
picker and pick this color here and apply it to this pad appeared pick
\-- boy, moving around here, pick that green and put it here. Basically
step back and say, hey, does that work? Which of these tanks to you feel
works best within this landscape. Some of you may say this dark gray
kind of green, others may say it\'s this brown-green right there. But
obviously this white is popping right out at you, and this particular
color is fairly neutral and bland. But use the visual simulations and
you can get a good mix. Actually the computer will give you the exact
color mix you need to take to the operator. Let\'s talk a little about
camouflage.

Camouflage may be appropriate if you\'re trying to mimic the textures in
the landscape and also trying to make sure people don\'t see it. I have
seen applications of camouflage where they did it and it actually kind
of drew more attention because we took something fairly bland and
standard and colored it up like plants and vegetation. But camouflage
when directly done can be an effective tool. It\'s not anything I\'ve
ever really done, but I know other people have done it, as in these
examples, and it\'s been very effective. We can use a disguise. This is,
I\'m sure, what you\'re saying, sure, rob, on my next APD is a condition
of approval I\'m going to say you need to put your compressor station in
a barn. It\'s been done. It has been done. We just need to take into
consideration the sensitivity of the visual resources. Obviously this
isn\'t going to happen every day, but if you did have a sensitive visual
resource with people who were concerned about the pastoral nature are of
their landscape and what the compressor station may look or sound like,
and you know it\'s going to be house to do mitigate for the noise, make
the look like a barn and mitigation the visual impacts. In this
particular instance, this is kind of a fun example, I know we all have a
lot of BLM land that\'s in Miami, Florida, or wherever this particular
picture is, I\'m not sure, but we have taken a drill rig in this
particular instance and placed it in this tower to mitigate and make it
fit in. The key thing here is \-- it\'s still visible, we\'ve included
an intrusion perhaps into the landscape, but it better fits in with the
characteristic landscape and the architecture of the region instead
every looking like a large drill rig. So disguise can be an effective
tool if properly used in the proper instances.

Well, ok, here\'s a classic example. The butterfly disguise. It\'s not
quite working. I like the eyes and wings. You get the picture. We don\'t
need to turn all our oil wells into butterflies. Let\'s leave the
artistic work to those high-dollar barns and towers, but this is kind of
a fun picture on where disguise just might not work quite very well. The
bottom line is we need to work with the operators early in picking a
color that\'s going to blend with the background that can minimize
visual impacts and be a win, win, win for the operator and public. I
would like to emphasize once again we need to put a focus on the darker
shades, juniper greens, the darker colors that have a tendency to move
away from you and not towards you. Go ahead, Jim.\
\
J. Perry: I liked that butterfly, but not on public land. Let\'s talk
about final reclamation. What will be the long term impacts of he will
oil and gas development three year or 300 years from now? Will we have a
permanent scarring? We have to remember, oil and gas development is a
temporary use of the public lands and its impact should be temporary as
well. The goal of final reclamation is to return all disturbed areas to
a condition where over time the disturbed areas will be absorbed back
into the seamless natural landscape. If it looks good, it probably is
good. There\'s steps we can take to accelerate the process. In drilling
a well, there is going to be a short-term visual contrast. Wells going
into production, however, should undergo interim reclamation. If the
well\'s a dry hole, it should go into final reclamation. We need to
restore that land form. In order to restore that land form, if it had
been a producing pad with interim reclamation, we need to restrip that
topsoil and vegetation. Restrip that healthy vegetation and topsoil
everywhere the land form is not correct. You can also regrow vegetation,
but a contour that\'s out of place is like that forever. Recontour
everything back to the original contour or a contour that blends with
the surrounding topography.

Site preparation is critical, probably one of the most critical steps.
Respread that topsoil. Roughen the surface. Consider applying a high
phosphorous fertilizer. Got a steep slope, long slope? Mulch that slope.
Revegetate with native species. If you use native species, over time the
localized natives will move in. Understand, it is going to be a
short-term color difference when you revegetate, two, three, four, five
years. But if you\'ve used native species, the natives will move in and
that color difference will go. If you introduced species like crested
wheat grass there will always be a vegetative color difference. It\'s
critical we reclaim roads. Roads are a temporary use. We need to reclaim
these roads not by ripping and seeding roads. We need to recontour these
roads back to the original contour. Leave a rough texture, something
that will trap water, snow, seed and if it\'s rough enough, will keep
the OHV users off. Here\'s a good example of an area about to be
reseeded. Here it\'s not going to be broadcast seeded. It will be drill
seeded, so they left it smooth. However, look at the results.
Outstanding. This is what we want to see. Brad showed you this one
before with a rock placed back in here. It looks natural. It looks
great. Bottom line, it\'s important that we design, implement and final
reclamation to minimize those long-term visual impacts.

We\'re looking for a win-win once again with the operator, the public
and the BLM. Let\'s learn what we\'ve applied. Looking back at this
slide again, what visual resource BMPs can you come up with to minimize
those visual impacts? I\'m sure you can come up with several more BMPs
this time. Got some ideas? How about a uniform color, if everything was
painted the same color? Ah, how about if everything was painted the
correct color, perhaps a juniper green, something would that blend back
in with the sagebrush and the grasses? Hmm\... housekeeping, definitely.
We need to do some enforcement action here. Make sure that only what
needs to be out there is out there. There isn\'t junk and trash and
years and years of debris serving no purpose and is still out there.
We\'re along a historic trail. How about distance? How about if we
placed this farther into the background. Ok? How about if we placed it
down into a rise, a swale I should say, out of sight, moving it a few
hundred meters to get it out of sight of the trail. We have power. How
about if we buried the power? Interim reclamation would help us choke
down that pad to a smaller size. That applied with the right color you
would hardly notice this. How about the tanks? How about instead of \--
rather than using tall tanks that are highly visible, how about if we
used low flat tanks like we saw in one of the earlier pictures? Did you
come up with all those great ideas? I sure hope so. Visual resource
management Best Management Practices really do make the difference, and
we are certain that you can make the difference, and, yes, there is
drilling in here, there is natural gas production in here, there is
roads in here and production facilities. You just can\'t see them
because of BMPs like you can over here. Please, look for Best Management
Practices on the web. We keep this site updated quite frequently with
new BMPs. We\'re looking forward to you sending in more BMP photographs,
anything you have we\'ll take it. We like to share your ideas, the good,
the bad and the ugly. Well, I think that\'s it. Don?\
\
D. Simpson: Thanks, guys, Jim and robbed just covered BMP principles
showed photos of good and not so good practices. I hope this generated
thoughts on your part what we can do in the field to minimize contrasts
in environments you manage. Now we\'re ready to move onto unit 5. Our
objective for this unit is to provide tips and techniques on how to
incorporate BMPs into your everyday work. We\'re going to hear the
Assistant Director\'s perspective on your roles. We\'re going to talk
about project documentation, scenery Valerie in forcements,
collaboration tips and negotiating techniques. So how do you incorporate
these BPBMPs in your everyday field work? We\'ve asked Ed Shepard and
Tom Lonnie, Assistant Director for minerals realty and resource
protection to give you their perspective on working with your oil and
gas operators and within your office to promote the use of BMPs.\
\
Hello from Washington. Tom and I appreciate the opportunity to remind
you of the importance of pursuing the same objectives and outcomes in
applying the visual resource Best Management Practices.\
\
Hi, we\'ve got the full support of the secretary in implementing these
BMPs and she speaks often to representatives of industry, conservation,
local government groups about the important of BMPs to the energy
program. We in turn have worked closely with energy and other
industries, conservation and environmental groups as well as the western
governors association to identify and refine Best Management Practices.
President Bush has directed us to develop an environmentally sound
energy program on the public lands. This means that our goal is a
sustainable energy program which has the full support of the public.
That support will come as we show that energy development can be
conducted in an environmentally sound manner.\
\
Some of you may be asking how we could promote energy development and
provide stewardship for the landscape as well. This means we need to
identify early in the process what are the sensitive resources that
could be affected? How would they be affected by Noriega development?
What types of mitigation are appropriate? And how much time is involved
and what are the costs? Can the time and costs be minimized? Who are the
interested parties and how do we work with them to address their needs?\
\
In some cases these aren\'t easy issues to tackle. Many of the
development scenarios pose some complex challenges. The Director has
great faith these challenges will be met in the usual BLM spirit. Some
things we should remember, don\'t ignore the problems you\'re seeing.
Work closely with realty specialists and VRM contacts from other offices
who may have already encountered some of these issues. Don\'t get bogged
down in the process. Get objective views from others. Identify the true
interests of each party so the goal effective mitigation can be reached.
Remember to take the initiative. Take ownership of the landscape and the
permit process. Start discussion with your peers, managers and
operators. Remember to involve applicants and operators early in the
process. Discuss options. Describe issues. Try to reach an agreement.
Have the operator buy-in. Incorporate mitigation you\'ve agreed to into
the permit. The don\'t forget the opportunity to take VRM training.
Invite the operators to do it as well. It will also help to remember to
set your priorities Clare flea and decide what\'s going to give you the
biggest bang for the buck. Be sure to identify time and costs and try to
keep both to a minimum. Always explore different options. Think outside
the box. As with any project, what is and isn\'t working? Monitor the
sites over time. Is the color scheme working? Did the seeding take? Are
the BMPs effective? Get out on the ground and verify the results.\
\
Don\'t forget why the BLM needs to be sensitive to scenic values. As the
Director has pointed out, BLM lands are being increasingly valued more
and more for recreation alt opportunities they offer. They provide
Americans with an opportunity to get outdoors, get fit and enjoy the
peace and solitude. The use of Best Management Practices contributes
towards helping us reduce the negative impacts and protecting scenic
values on public lands is a legal obligation. The VRM system is our
policy for fulfilling that application. Remember the importance of good
planning, and I mean planning at all levels. We must balance scenic
values and other resources. Make Best Management Practices part of the
solution.\
\
To be successful it\'s critical we get the support of our customers
early and throughout the process. Remember to schedule pre-permitting
meetings. Listen and understand platers\' needs. Explain our resource
concerns. Explain the reasons for protecting sensitive resources in
order to help empower the operators to come up with solutions on their
own. Be sensitive to industry needs but remember BLM has other resource
protection responsibilities as well. Always remember, BLM is ultimately
responsible for ensuring the correct outcome.\
\
Finally, we have to remember to keep working in a team setting. The BLM
needs to speak in one voice. We may never be able to eliminate all the
protests and appeals and litigation but following the techniques we\'ve
spoken to today will increase the chances of being upheld when we are
challenged in the future.\
\
And Ed and I hope to see you all at the next Yankees-Red Sox game.\
\
D. Simpson: Tom and Ed made some very important points. We really
appreciate them taking the time to prepare those comments for us.
Here\'s some important points to remember\... the ideas of using Best
Management Practices has the full support of the secretary of interior.
We all need to remember that our scenic resources on public lands are a
public resource. At times you will need to take the initiative when
negotiating. Whenever possible, try to work with operators up front and
throughout the process. And don\'t forget to monitor and document your
operational activities so that you see just how effective you have been
over time. We\'ve covered a lot of material today and now it\'s your
turn. We\'re going to put on the green light and turn on the
push-to-talk system to take your questions. You can also send us a fax
or make a call. The numbers will be on the screen. We\'ll take as many
of your questions as we can in the time remaining. You have a page in
your course notebook, page 65, where you can take notes on the points.
So if anyone has any questions, comments, we\'ll go to a push-to-talk
first. Hoping to see if anybody is still awake or if everybody is
sneaking out for lunch. I know it\'s getting to be noon in the west. Do
we have anybody with a push-to-talk question?\
\
Caller: Jim Goodebar, question from Carlsbad, New Mexico. We have a lot
of hard rock country out here, and the shallow soils \-- shallow \--\
\
D. Simpson: Jim, let me interrupt you there. Jim, we\'re getting some
feedback there? Could we get you to turn the television down and give
about that 18 inches and try your question one more time? Thank you.\
\
Caller: The shallow soils types out here don\'t work real well with
buried flowlines because of the disturbance of the limestone. Basically
doesn\'t reclaim very well. So we\'ve tried to use a lot of surface
flowlines because they would be temporary in nature. And the reclamation
in the long term would come out better. One of the other things that we
are considering is not using the reclamation of a very quickly if we\'re
expecting to have co-located wells on a recurring basis. So if we\'re
got three or four wells going in over a period of time, not to come back
in and recontour the wells or the well site so that then the company
would have to come back again and re\-- make room for another well.\
\
D. Simpson: Tim, I think \-- Jim, I think the question was two part. I
think I\'ll ask Jim Perry if he could take the questions. In the shallow
soils they have in New Mexico, sometimes that reclamation is different.
I think he\'s wanting ideas on the pipeline issue. Second one, having
multiple wells, well pads, is there some merit to recontouring all of
them in one felled swoop at the end of the development.\
\
J. Perry: Remember that sign I showed you, this sign has sharp edges?
You really is to use common sense. It\'s not a one size fits all. I\'m a
really strong advocate of burying flowlines but if it\'s true you\'re in
a limestone soil, it will appear as a white streak, if you can\'t bury
the pipeline and put the lime stone back in, if that won\'t work, maybe
surface lines are the way to go, particularly if you\'re not in an area
highly visible to the public and tourists and such. Multiple wells on a
single pad, when do we do interim reclamation? You have to put some
common sense thought into that. Are all those wells going to be drilled
within, say, one year after another or is it going to be two years? Or
is it going to be, well, we have a well throughout and maybe the other
well won\'t be drilled for 15 years or at all? We\'ve got to apply that
common sense and say, well, if the second well may never get drilled or
maybe another 15 years or five years, let\'s do that interim
reclamation. But, yeah, there\'s no sense in doing interim,
redisturbing, doing interim, redisturbing. However, the benefit of
interim reclamation is that by spreading that topsoil out over the pad,
revegetating it, you keep that topsoil by logically healthy. If you put
that topsoil off in a pile, the seeds start to within die within the
first year and that topsoil becomes a fine dust, not by logically
active. Let\'s take the advice of that sharp edges sign and use common
sense.\
\
D. Simpson: Thank you, Jim. Thanks Jim Goodebar from Carlsbad. We have
Judy from Jackson, Mississippi.\
\
Caller: My comment is about the oil and gas picture from Florida. We do
have oil and gas responsibilities in south Florida. We deal with the
minerals on both the MICCOSUKI reservation and the Seminole reservation.
So, yes, we do have oil and gas in south Florida. Thank you.\
\
D. Simpson: That\'s a good observation, Judy. I think a lot of our
photos were from the west and that\'s where much of our work is. Does
anybody have any observations from the southeast part of the country?\
\
R. Sweeten: That was me, and I must confess I wasn\'t sure where that
was, and, of course, in Moab I don\'t see the ocean very often. But
we\'re obviously pointing that out ooze a positive thing to do. I was
just poking a little fun at saying it\'s not going to be a common stip
for at least me or most people in the BLM but obviously we have a broad
range of places that we have to work in. We do have oceanfront
locations. So in that case, a facility such as that may be an
appropriate mitigation measure. So I would hope that in this those
instances that you have to deal with those and that\'s a sure different
world than I have to work in, but obviously we\'ve included it as an
option that could be used.\
\
J. Perry: I think that photo that you showed came from the Los Angeles
area in California, and it was highly appropriate there. It showed some
creativity. Same with that compressor station in that barn. It was in a
highly valuable, very expensive subdivision type area, very wealthy
area, and you would not have gotten away with a compressor station
there. Unless they had disguised it like a barn.\
\
Do we know where the butterfly is?\
\
J. Perry: Probably south Texas. Who did I offend? Sorry.\
\
W. George: Judy mentioned the responsibility with some native American
tribes and I wanted to point out that the bureau has responsibility with
native American tribes and administering federal minerals under other
surfaces managed by others as such as the Forest Service and in those
places it\'s important to understand those agencies or those groups,
land use planning decisions and for native Americans it\'s especially
important to remember their attitudes and points of view towards their
respective places.\
\
D. Simpson: Good observation. Judy, that was a good thought. Let\'s go
ahead and see if there\'s any additional push-to-talk calls. Absent any,
if you have any questions, be ready and we\'ll come back for a
push-to-talk here in just a minute. Cindy from the Montana state office
sent in an interesting observation and question, so I think I\'ll pose
this to Walt and then maybe Jim or Brad if you guys want to chime in.
Her concern is that the BLM in her view does not have a BLM-wide know
surface occupancy stipulation for VRM class I. The Montana-Dakotas
apparently had a clarification on oil and gas leasing back in \'91 that
indicated no surface occupancy and use in VRM class I. She did suggest
that we might be negligent in not identifying VRM I as a know surface
occupancy. We could be doing a disservice to lessees if we didn\'t let
them flow may be some potential NOS in a VRM I. I\'ll turn that over to
you, Walt.\
\
W. George: Thanks for that question, Cindy. I would encourage any office
that has VRM class I areas and oil and gas development potential to
consider an NSO stipulation in one of the alternatives you would analyze
for land use plan revision or amendment. However, if you stipulate and
NSO circumstance for all class I areas, we really are denying the
leaseholders the opportunity to develop techniques and measures and
approaches to extracting oil and gas by limiting them to a no surface
occupancy requirement. It might be more appropriate to put a lease
notice in where they would be alerted to the fact that they would need
to come in and visit with our oil and gas and VRM specialists to
understand the approaches and mitigation measures they might be needing
to apply and understand the VRM resource objectives. Eventually you\'re
going to have to develop a stip that will address oil and gas
development in a class I area but it seems more appropriate to do that
in an implementation action, either a field development plan or the EA
that addresses approving the APD.\
\
J. Perry: Walt is right on. We do have some situations where we are
developing oil and gas right now \-- or planning for a VRM class in
areas. In the mitigation we choose comes right out of the presentation
we were talking about today, and perhaps goes even a little farther
outside the box. We\'re talking about totally buried wellheads, full
interim reclamation covering the entire surface, full interim
reclamation of all roads, everything buried so you don\'t see any of the
disturbance, all flowlines, production facilities, whatever are way off
site. So with proper mitigation, it is possible to produce in a VRM I a
area but if it looks like you have high potential for oil and gas in a
VRM I area you need to work out those conflicts that the land use plan
so you\'re not stuck with it at the APD stage.\
\
Eye other observations?\
\
R. Sweeten: I would add one, we need to remember the visual resources is
exactly that, what is viewed and seen. You may have some VRM areas that
are not high traffic areas if traffic areas at all for people. You can
do things in VRM I. It\'s basically it shouldn\'t be seen. You can do a
lot of activities in VRM Is and have it not be 17 it\'s not viewed from
a roadeer trail. The one quick point I wanted to make, you need to use
common sense and identifying if you are setting up the operator for a
failed situation or the BLM for a failed situation. If you have a
particular area below a thousand-foot overlook or particular areas no
matter what is done you\'re not going to be able to mitigate it, then
you need to consider that stipulation. For the most part we\'re here to
say VRM is a tool to help you make this objective occur, and if we\'ve
given it a VRM I location and we have oil and gas we may need to tell
you how to do certain things but we need to make it work in this
particular area.\
\
D. Simpson: Good. Thanks for those responses. Cindy from Montana that
was an excellent question with a lot of detail. There are any
push-to-talk? Let\'s 73 there\'s any interest in that at this moment. I
have a question here that, when you guys were talking, I think I\'ll
throw this over to Brad, if you don\'t \-- if in your resource
management plan you don\'t have any VRM designations or maybe it\'s an
old MFP, how would you handle that if you were looking at APD to process
at this time?\
\
B. Cownover: That\'s actually a really good point and unfortunately I
think we have that situation more often than we would like. Our VRM
policy dictates that when you\'re in a situation like where that you
don\'t have any management classes already established as part of your
plan and you have activities, whether they be this fluid minerals
activity or another activity, you still have to develop some classes and
we refer to them as interim management classes, VRM management classes
and these are a little bit different than the inventory ratings that rob
was talking about and then the management classes that we have in a
normal RMP in the sense that the interim management classes need to
marry with what the existing allegations are. So even if that particular
area from an inventory standpoint inventoried out a high \-- like for
instance a VRM II but it was a fulfill development type of allegation
that might have been adjusted back down as part of an RMP, we\'re not
really able to use that inventory class. We need to look at an interim
management class that doesn\'t conflict with what the other allegations
and use that as the class that we measure our activities by in trying to
design to meet.\
\
D. Simpson: Thanks, Brad. Is there any push-to-talk at this point? I
have another question but I\'ll open it up for push-to-talk. Good.
Another \-- this will be a Walt. You\'ve had it too easy here, Walt. I
know you\'re worn out. If an operator says that they\'re not required to
meet the requirements of a VRM class, be it a I, II, II or IV because
the lease stips did not require or mention that, what would your
response be to that operator\'s notion?\
\
W. George: This is a common point of view that many operators have. I
guess I would try to take it and use it as a lunching situation for the
operator and for us. Be sure to point out to them that terms in the
lease document, in the lease form, require them to comply with existing
laws and regulations, use it as an opportunity to inform them about the
characteristics and requirements of the VRM management system. Find out
what their limitations are. Listen to them and see if you guys can find
and work out someway together to meet those VRM objectives, keep it
economical and functional for the operator and, who knows, maybe those
will develop into standard operating procedures for that company.\
\
D. Simpson: Thanks, Walt. One last opportunity for push to talk. Ok. I
think we\'re to the point where we can go ahead and wrap things up.
Let\'s check with our strictors for one last take on the session. Maybe
the questions generated some ideas that you would like to address. With
that I\'ll start with Walt.\
\
W. George: Thanks, Don. I want teem faux size two points, one on land
use plans and one on the NEPA process. We need to make sure our land use
plans are comprehensive. But we need to avoid being prescriptive. As I
think you\'ve gathered from the presentations, so many of the
applications of Best Management Practices for visual resource management
are site specific. So don\'t try to put those into the land use plan
decision. Follow the classification objectives. Do the classifications.
Understand what those objectives are there. But hold that as your land
use plan decision. In the NEPA analysis we weigh document and disclose
the rationale that you make \-- that you use for making decisions.
Don\'t hesitate to dive into those NEPA documents. It might be mean you
might have to add more next or narrative, it might mean you couldn\'t
use a standard format you\'ve used a long time. Don\'t let that dissuade
you from giving the full treatment to this issue. Thanks, Don.\
\
D. Simpson: Good observations. Brad, any final thoughts you have from
your perspective as BLM\'s chief landscape architect?\
\
B. Cownover: I do have a couple Don. The first is I realize we covered a
lot of information and hopefully we\'re speaking to the choir out there
and everyone is already well aware of this and is using it as we talked
about. But in case you\'re not, and in case you feel like you need more
help, know we have those resources available that we went through, they
should be listed in the back of your notebook as well. Weaver
opportunities for additional training. Please take them. Know that you
can call us at any time and we\'ll be happen\' to walk through things
with you. Also if you have experiences and ideas, please send them to
us. Rob or Jim mentioned there was a memo that was sent out a while back
requesting information on good uses of color and things like that. While
the contractor may already be moving forward with their process for
gathering that information, it\'s never too late to send us that
information. We can always use it. It\'s a continually updating process.
Finally, the last point, don\'t lose sight that there are more benefits
than just the visual resource management benefit as part of implementing
these VRM BMPs.\
\
D. Simpson: Thanks, Brad. Jim, any last words, you would like to share
with the folks?\
\
J. Perry: Sure. Much 6 what you have heard today is probably new to you.
It really involves thinking outside the box. But, please, for the
sustainability of the fluid minerals program, please, put into action
what you\'ve learned here today. Thank you.\
\
D. Simpson: Good. Thank you, Jim. Rob, last but not least, do you have
any final thoughts you would like to share with the folks?\
\
R. Sweeten: Sure, Don. One of the things that I\'d like to really point
out is that it\'s very important that we meet with the operator early.
Some of you will be thinking, you just piled on a whole heck of a lot of
work to us poor operators. I\'m fortunate enough to have VRM as part of
my job description but many of you wouldn\'t find it on your PDs. But
the opportunity to use these VRMs and principles to lighten your
workload in the long run is available. If we can make these BMPs and the
VRM program part of the operators thinking and proposed action, we will
greatly reduce workload. It may take a little bit of awkwardness, but if
we take the time, we can make our proposed actions flow better through
the process and be much less controversial and easier to document.\
\
D. Simpson: Thanks, rob. That\'s about wraps things up for our VRM
satellite course for fluid minerals. For more information check out
BLM\'s VRM website as well as the Washington office Best Management
Practices website. There you can find more information on the principles
and many of the things we talked about today. Check it out. You can get
the URLs for those websites in your course notebook. Points of contact
are your local, state and national VRM and oil and gas specialists. As a
result of this course we hope you will, in fact, be point of contact to
work with the BLM staff and operator to do what\'s right for the
landscape. Thanks for being with us and so long from the national
training center in Phoenix.