In Reply To:

1610 (070)

United States Department of the Interior

BUREAU OF LAND MANAGEMENT

Montana State Office

5001 Southgate Drive

Billings, Montana 59101-4669

http://www.mt.blm.gov/mt

April 2009

Dear Reader/Interested Party:

I am pleased to announce that the Butte Resource Management Plan (RMP) is complete. This document will provide

management guidance for more than 307,000 acres of public land and approximately 661,000 acres of federal mineral

estate administered by the Bureau of Land Management in western Montana.

The attached Record of Decision (ROD) and Approved RMP were prepared in accordance with the Federal Land Policy

and Management Act and the National Environmental Policy Act. The document has been sent to members of the public

who requested a copy and to pertinent local, state, tribal and federal government entities. The ROD links final land use

plan decisions to the proposed decisions presented in the Proposed RMP/Final Environmental Impact Statement that was

released in September 2008. Six unique protests were received. After consideration of the points raised in these protests,

the BLM Director concluded that all applicable laws, regulations, policies, and pertinent resource considerations had

been followed in developing the proposed plan. The protest review did not result in any significant changes to the

proposed plan. Minor adjustments or points of clarification incorporated into the RMP in response to final BLM review

are discussed in the ROD’s Modifications and Clarifications sections.

The ROD serves as the final decision for the land use planning decisions described in the attached Approved RMP. The

ROD also contains travel route designations described and mapped for the Helena Travel Planning Area (TPA), East

Helena TPA, Lewis and Clark County NW TPA, Boulder/Jefferson City TPA, and Upper Big Hole River TPA. Travel

route decisions for these five TPAs are implementation level decisions that are now subject to the Department of

Interior’s appeal regulations at 43 CFR Part 4. The appeal period will close 30 days from the date the Notice of

Availability of the ROD/RMP appears in the Federal Register. This date will be announced via local news releases and

on the Butte RMP website. The Appeal Procedures for Implementation Decisions section in the ROD provides a more

detailed discussion of the appeal procedures.

Additional hard copies or CD copies of the ROD/Approved RMP may be obtained by contacting the Butte Field Office

at 106 North Parkmont, Butte, MT, 59701. The document will also be available on the Butte Field Office website on the

internet at: http://www.blm.gov/mt/st/en/fo/butte_field_office.html.

We appreciate your help in this planning effort and look forward to your continued participation as the plan is

implemented.

Sincerely,

Gene R. Terland

State Director, Montana/Dakotas

RECORD OF DECISION

AND

APPROVED BUTTE RESOURCE MANAGEMENT PLAN

April 2009

Prepared by:

U.S. Department of the Interior

Bureau of Land Management

Butte Field Office

Butte, Montana

Approved by:

April 20, 2009

Gene R. Terland Date

State Director, Montana/Dakotas

ACRONYMS

ACEC Area of Critical Environmental Concern

AML Abandoned Mine Lands

APLIC Avian Power Line Interaction Committee

ATV All Terrain Vehicle

AUM Animal Unit Month

BFO Butte Field Office

BLM Bureau of Land Management

BMP Best Management Practice

CCF Hundred Cubic Feet

CEQ Council on Environmental Quality

CFR Code of Federal Regulations

CSU Controlled Surface Use Stipulation

DBH Diameter at Breast Height

DNRC Montana Department of Natural Resources

DOE Department of Energy

EA Environmental Assessment

ECMA Elkhorns Cooperative Management Area

EIS Environmental Impact Statement

ESA Endangered Species Act

FAMS Facility Asset Management System

FLPMA Federal Land Policy and Management Act

FMU Fire Management Unit

FRCC Fire Regime Condition Class

GIS Geographic Information System

HUC Hydrologic Unit Code

IGBC Interagency Grizzly Bear Committee

IM Instructional Memorandum

LWCF Land and Water Conservation Fund

MBF Thousand Board Feet

MDEQ Montana Department of Environmental

Quality

MFP Management Framework Plan

MFWP Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks

MLA Mineral Leasing Act

MMBF Million Board Feet

NA Not Applicable

NEPA National Environmental Policy Act

NL No Lease

NOI Notice of Intent

NPS National Park Service

NSO No Surface Occupancy Stipulation

NW Northwest

OHV Off-Highway Vehicle

PEIS Programmatic Environmental Impact

Statement

PM10 Particulate Matter less than 10 micrograms

ppm Parts per million

PSQ Probable Sale Quantity

R&PP Recreation and Public Purposes

RMP Resource Management Plan

RMZ Riparian Management Zone

ROD Record of Decision

ROS Recreation Opportunity Spectrum

ROW Right-of-way

SIMPPLLE Simulating Patterns and Processes at

Landscape Scales

SRMA Special Recreation Management Area

SMZ Streamside Management Zone

TL Timing Limitation Stipulation

TMDL Total Maximum Daily Load

TPA Travel Planning Area

USC United States Code

USDA United States Department of Agriculture

USDI United States Department of the Interior

USFS United States Forest Service

USFWS United States Fish and Wildlife Service

VRM Visual Resource Management

WFIP Wildland Fire Implementation Plan

WFU Wildland Fire Use

WSA Wilderness Study Area

WSR Wild and Scenic River

WUI Wildland/Urban Interface