READER’S GUIDE
 

Preparation of this document was guided by United 

States Department of the Interior (USDI) Bureau of 

Land Management (BLM) planning regulations issued 

under the authority of the Federal Land Policy and Management Act (FLPMA) of 1976 and federal environmental policy under the National Environmental Policy 

Act (NEPA) of 1969. The Draft Resource Management 

Plan/Environmental Impact Statement (RMP/EIS) primarily focuses on five planning issues and the decisions 

needed to resolve them. The issues were identified 

through public scoping, concerns raised to BLM staff in 

interactions with public land users, and resource management concerns of the BLM and cooperating agencies. 

The issues are: 

• vegetation communities; 

• wildlife, wildlife habitat, special status and priority 

plant and animal species; 

• travel management and access; 

• recreation including national trails, visual resources, 

wild and scenic rivers, and wilderness; and 

• Areas of Critical Environmental Concern (ACEC). 

Other management concerns were addressed in the 

RMP, but do not drive the formulation of the alternatives. To assist agency decision-makers and the general 

public in choosing appropriate solutions to the planning 

issues, four alternatives were proposed and their impacts 

evaluated. The alternatives were limited to those that 

span a reasonable way of managing public lands and 

federal minerals, while offering a broad range of options. 

DOCUMENT SECTIONS 

The format of the EIS follows the Council on Environmental Quality’s (CEQ) regulations implementing the 

NEPA (40 CFR 1500). The major sections of the EIS include: 

Executive Summary 

The Executive Summary provides an overview of information detailed in the full document and serves as a 

synopsis of the planning issues, alternatives and potential environmental consequences. 

Chapter 1 (Purpose and Need) 

This chapter contains background information on the 

planning process and sets the stage for the information 

that is presented in the rest of the document. The main 

sections in Chapter 1 include the Overview, Purpose and 

Need for Revising the Plan, Decisions from this Plan, 

Description of the Planning Area, Scoping and Planning 

Issues, Planning Criteria and Regulatory Requirements, 

Planning Process, Related Plans, Policy, Collaboration 

and Overall Vision and Desired Future Conditions. 

Chapter 2 (Alternatives) 

This chapter provides the description of management 

scenarios proposed for lands managed by the BLM 

within the Butte Field Office Planning Area. This chapter explains how alternatives were developed and, provides an overview of the four alternatives considered in 

detail, states the goals for management of resources, and 

describes the management actions by planning issue and 

management concern for each alternative, those common 

to all the alternatives and those common to the action alternatives. Alternatives that were considered but not analyzed in detail are discussed along with rationale for why 

they were not considered in detail. Finally, there is a table that shows the management actions in each alternative for easy comparison, followed by a table comparing 

the effects of each alternative. 

Chapter 3 (Affected Environment) 

This chapter describes the current condition of the Planning Area. This chapter is organized by resource, resource use, special designation, and social and economic 

conditions. 

Chapter 4 (Environmental Consequences) 

This chapter describes the projected impacts and 

changes that would result with implementation of each 

of the alternatives. There are two fundamental parts of 

this chapter. The first part of this chapter (in Volume I) 

discusses environmental consequences of RMP alternatives. The RMP alternatives section starts with an explanation of the types of effect discussed, followed by assumptions that were made in the analysis for each resource. The effects are organized by resource. Each resource section describes direct and indirect effects common to all alternatives, effects of Alternative A (No Action), effects common to the action alternatives, then effects of Alternative B, Alterative C and Alternative D. 

The cumulative effects section follows, with an 

introduction and listing of activities considered in the 

analysis and the cumulative effects. The RMP 

alternatives section closes out with the analysis of 

irreversible and irretrievable commitment and 

unavoidable adverse impacts. While details of the 

impacts are provided in this chapter, the summary table 

of impacts is found at the end of Chapter 2. 

The second part of this chapter (in Volume II) discusses 

environmental consequences of the alternatives for the 

five site-specific travel plans, organized by travel planning area. Direct/indirect and cumulative effects on each 

resource or resource use are discussed at the scale of 

each travel planning area. The chapter concludes with a 

discussion of cumulative effects of the travel plan alternatives for all five travel planning areas in aggregate at 

the Decision Area/Planning Area scales. 

 Butte Draft RMP/EIS R-1 
Reader

s Guide 

Chapter 5 (Consultation and Coordination) 

This chapter describes public involvement efforts and 

collaborative processes, lists of agencies, and organizations receiving the document, and identifies the preparers of the RMP/EIS. 

References 

Scientific publications and other references used as supporting information are listed in alphabetical order here. 

Glossary 

Technical terms and phrases with specific policy meaning or definition are explained in more detail. 

Index 

Terms frequently referenced are listed along with the 

page numbers where they occur. 

OTHER INFORMATION 

Tables and Figures have been included throughout the 

document to display and summarize pertinent information. While several Maps are nested within Volume I, 

most of the maps are oversized and are provided in a 

packet with an envelope. Acreages displayed in this 

document should be considered approximations even 

when displayed to the nearest acre. Most acreages were 

calculated from GIS coverages and as a result may not 

match acres provided in prior published documents that 

contained calculations from master title plats or other 

base data. In other instances, acres have been rounded as 

analysis was completed. These rounded figures should 

also be considered approximations. The data used 

throughout this document is for land use planning purposes and not necessarily for actual on-the-ground implementation. The precision afforded by GIS calculation 

does not reflect project level accuracy. Acreage figures 

provided in this document for land use plan analysis 

purposes will be refined as subsequent site specific 

analysis is conducted. Data used in development of the 

RMP is dynamic. Updating data is considered a plan 

maintenance action and will be incorporated over time 

as the RMP is implemented. 

Appendices provide more detail on some subjects. 

Some appendices may contain several pieces of information related to the appendix topic. 

R-2 Butte Draft RMP/EIS