57358 Federal Register / Vol. 69, No. 185 / Friday, September 24, 2004 / Notices 

recovery criteria are met, the status of 

the species will be reviewed and they 

will be considered for removal from the 

Federal List of Endangered and 

Threatened Wildlife and Plants (50 CFR 

part 17). 

Authority 

The authority for this action is section 

4(f) of the Endangered Species Act, 16 

U.S.C. 1533 (f).

Dated: August 31, 2004. 

Cynthia K. Dohner, 

Deputy Regional Director, Southeast Region.

[FR Doc. 04–21475 Filed 9–23–04; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 4310–55–P

DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR

Bureau of Land Management 

[AK–961–1410–HY–P; AA–84417, CAA–12] 

Notice of Decision Approving Lands 

for Conveyance: Alaska Native Claims 

Selection

AGENCY: Bureau of Land Management, 

Interior.

ACTION: Notice.

SUMMARY: As required by 43 CFR 

2650.7(d), notice is hereby given that an 

appealable decision approving lands for 

conveyance pursuant to the Alaska 

Native Claims Settlement Act will be 

issued to Calista Corporation. The lands 

are located in Tps. 22 and 23 N., R. 48 

W., and T. 22 N., R. 49 W., Seward 

Meridian, in the vicinity of Donlin 

Creek, Alaska, and contain 17,207.68 

acres. Notice of the decision will also be 

published four times in the Tundra 

Drums.

DATES: The time limits for filing an 

appeal are: 

(1) Any party claiming a property 

interest which is adversely affected by 

the decision shall have until October 25, 

2004 to file an appeal. 

(2) Parties receiving service of the 

decision by certified mail shall have 30 

days from the date of receipt to file an 

appeal. 

Parties who do not file an appeal in 

accordance with the requirements of 43 

CFR Part 4, Subpart E, shall be deemed 

to have waived their rights.

ADDRESSES: A copy of the decision may 

be obtained from: Bureau of Land 

Management, Alaska State Office, 222 

West Seventh Avenue, # 13, Anchorage, 

Alaska 99513–7599.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:

Chris Sitbon, by phone at (907) 271–

3226, or by e-mail at Chris_Sitbon 

@ak.blm.gov. Persons who use a 

telecommunication device (TTD) may 

call the Federal Information Relay 

Service (FIRS) on 1–800–877–8330, 24 

hours a day, seven days a week, to 

contact Ms. Sitbon.

Chris Sitbon, 

Land Law Examiner, Branch of Land Transfer 

Services.

[FR Doc. 04–21463 Filed 9–16–04; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 4310–$$–P

DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR

Bureau of Land Management 

[CA–660–04–2822] 

Notice of Extension of Emergency 

Temporary Closure (69 FR 16597, 

March 30, 2004) to Motorized and 

Mechanized Vehicle Use and Certain 

Other Uses on Public Lands 

Administered by the Bureau of Land 

Management (BLM), Palm SpringsSouth Coast Field Office, California

AGENCY: Bureau of Land Management, 

Interior.

ACTION: Notice.

SUMMARY: The BLM Palm Springs-South 

Coast Field Office is extending an 

emergency temporary closure order, 

which closes portions of public lands to 

motorized and mechanized vehicle use 

and prohibits or restricts certain other 

uses, in the South Coast Planning Area 

in San Diego County, California. The 

exception to the extended closure will 

be the Otay Mountain and Minnewawa 

Truck Trails. These roads will be 

opened to vehicle access. The extension 

of the closure is needed to protect 

stabilization treatments as 

recommended in the Department of the 

Interior’s Burned Area Emergency 

Stabilization and Rehabilitation (BAER). 

Extension of the closure will allow a 

seed treatment of native species to 

germinate and establish during one 

growing season without the threat of 

trampling from vehicle and other 

human activities.

[[Page 16598]] 

Plan for the Otay fire in San Diego 

County.

DATES: This extended emergency 

temporary closure will be in affect from 

October 30, 2004 until May 31, 2005.

ADDRESSES: Copies of the extended 

closure and a map of the closed areas 

can be obtained at the BLM, Palm 

Springs-South Coast Field Office, 690 

West Garnet Avenue, North Palm 

Springs, CA 92258, telephone (760) 

251–4800; BLM, California State Office, 

2800 Cottage Way, Room W–1834, 

Sacramento, CA 95825, Telephone (916) 

978–4600. BLM will also announce the 

extension of the closure through local 

media outlets, and by posting this notice 

with a map of the closed areas at key 

locations that provide access to the 

closure area.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:

Janaye Byergo, Bureau of Land 

Management, phone (858) 451–1767 or 

by e-mail at Janaye_Byergo@ca.blm.gov.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The same 

conditions and exceptions apply which 

were stated in the original temporary 

closure. 

The emergency temporary closure is 

being extended as the conditions for 

ending the closure have not been met 

(69 FR 16599, March 30, 2004). Seeding 

treatments on 250 acres in Sycamore 

Canyon will be implemented in October 

2004. The extension will protect the 

seeded area from off-highway (OHV) 

activity and other activities such as 

recreational target shooting and 

camping, allowing regeneration of 

native species. (43 CFR 8341.2, 43 CFR 

8364.1)

Gail Acheson, 

Palm Springs-South Coast Field Manager.

[FR Doc. 04–21462 Filed 9–23–04; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 4310–40–P

DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR

Bureau of Land Management 

[WY–920–1320–EL, WYW151134] 

Notice of Competitive Coal Lease Sale, 

Wyoming

AGENCY: Bureau of Land Management, 

Interior.

ACTION: Notice of competitive coal lease 

sale. 

SUMMARY: Notice is hereby given that 

certain coal resources in the West 

Roundup Tract described below in 

Campbell County, WY, will be offered 

for competitive lease by sealed bid in 

accordance with the provisions of the 

Mineral Leasing Act of 1920, as 

amended (30 U.S.C. 181 et seq.).

DATES: The lease sale will be held at 10 

a.m., on Wednesday, October 27, 2004. 

Sealed bids must be submitted on or 

before 4 p.m., on Tuesday, October 26, 

2004.

ADDRESSES: The lease sale will be held 

in the First Floor Conference Room 

(Room 107), of the Bureau of Land 

Management (BLM) Wyoming State 

Office, 5353 Yellowstone Road, P.O. 

Box 1828, Cheyenne, WY 82003. Sealed 

bids must be submitted to the Cashier, 

BLM Wyoming State Office, at the 

address given above.

Federal Register / Vol. 69, No. 185 / Friday, September 24, 2004 / Notices 57359

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:

Mavis Love, Land Law Examiner, or 

Robert Janssen, Coal Coordinator, at 

307–775–6258, and 307–775–6206, 

respectively.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: This coal 

lease sale is being held in response to 

a lease by application (LBA) filed by 

Triton Coal Company, LLC, of Gillette, 

WY. The coal resources to be offered 

consist of all reserves recoverable by 

surface mining methods in the 

following-described lands located 

southeast of Wright, Wyoming, in 

southeastern Campbell County 

approximately 7 miles east of State 

Highway 59 and 5 miles south of State 

Highway 450:

T. 42 N., R. 70 W., 6th P.M., Wyoming 

Sec. 4: Lots 17, 18; 

Sec. 5: Lots 17–20; 

Sec. 6: Lots 8–23; 

Sec. 7: Lots 5–14; 

Sec. 8: Lots 1–12; 

Sec. 9: Lots 1–8, 11–14; 

T. 43 N., R. 70 W., 6th P.M., Wyoming 

Sec. 31: Lots 13–20; 

T. 42 N., R. 71 W., 6th P.M., Wyoming 

Sec. 1: Lots 5, 6, 11–14, 19, 20.

Containing 2,812.51 acres, more or less.

The tract is crossed by the Reno 

County Road and by the rail spur to the 

North Rochelle Mine and is adjacent to 

Federal coal leases held by the North 

Rochelle Mine to the east and the Black 

Thunder Mine to the north, and to State 

of Wyoming coal leases to the northwest 

and southeast. The northwest State lease 

is controlled by the Black Thunder Mine 

while the southeast State lease is 

controlled by the North Antelope/

Rochelle Mine. The tract is also adjacent 

to additional unleased Federal coal to 

the south and west. 

All of the acreage offered has been 

determined to be suitable for mining 

except lands under the existing rail loop 

and plant facilities serving the North 

Rochelle Mine. These areas are 

protected from premature development 

by a USDA-Forest Service special use 

permit, which has determined that these 

areas are unsuitable for mining. 

However, these areas can be made 

suitable for mining by removing these 

features and using temporary loadout 

facilities farther west at the end of mine 

life. Other features, such as the county 

road, can be moved to permit coal 

recovery. In addition, numerous oil and/

or gas wells have been drilled on the 

tract. The estimate of the bonus value of 

the coal lease will include consideration 

of the future production from these 

wells. An economic analysis of this 

future income stream will determine 

whether a well is bought out and 

plugged prior to mining or reestablished after mining is completed. A 

small portion of the surface estate of the 

tract is controlled by the North Rochelle 

Mine but most of the surface estate is 

controlled by the United States and the 

Black Thunder Mine. 

The tract contains surface mineable 

coal reserves in the Wyodak seam 

currently being recovered in the 

adjacent, existing mines. On the tract, 

the Wyodak is generally a thick seam 

with one thin upper split and two thin 

lower splits. The lower splits are not 

continuous over the LBA tract but are 

often merged into the main seam. The 

upper split is generally present but is 

often too thin to recover. The main seam 

ranges from about 53–79 feet thick 

while the splits range from about 0–16 

feet thick for the upper one and from 

about 0–8 and 0–5 feet thick for each of 

the lower two, respectively, where they 

occur. The overburden depths range 

from about 185–465 feet thick on the 

LBA. The interburden between the 

upper split and the main seam is from 

0–30 feet while the lower splits are from 

0–13 feet from the main seam and from 

0–7 feet from each other. 

The tract contains an estimated 

327,186,000 tons of mineable coal. This 

estimate of mineable reserves includes 

the main seam and splits mentioned 

above, but does not include any tonnage 

from localized seams or splits 

containing less than 5 feet of coal. The 

tract includes approximately 76,355,000 

tons of mineable coal under the rail spur 

and plant facilities serving the North 

Rochelle Mine, which can be mined at 

the end of mine life. It does not include 

either the State of Wyoming coal in the 

northwest, which is expected to be 

recovered by the Black Thunder Mine, 

or the State of Wyoming coal in the 

southeast, which is not expected to be 

recovered at this time. The total 

mineable stripping ratio (BCY/Ton) of 

the coal is about 4.3:1. Potential bidders 

for the LBA should consider the 

recovery rate expected from thick seam 

and multiple seam mining. 

The West Roundup LBA coal is 

ranked as subbituminous C. The overall 

average quality on an as-received basis 

is 8790 BTU/lb with about 0.2% sulfur 

and 1.6% sodium in the ash. These 

quality averages place the coal reserves 

near the high end of the range of coal 

quality currently being mined in the 

Wyoming portion of the Powder River 

Basin. 

The tract will be leased to the 

qualified bidder of the highest cash 

amount provided that the high bid 

meets or exceeds the BLM’s estimate of 

the fair market value of the tract. The 

minimum bid for the tract is $100 per 

acre or fraction thereof. No bid that is 

less than $100 per acre, or fraction 

thereof, will be considered. The bids 

should be sent by certified mail, return 

receipt requested, or be hand delivered. 

The Cashier will issue a receipt for each 

hand-delivered bid. Bids received after 

4 p.m., on Tuesday, October 26, 2004, 

will not be considered. The minimum 

bid is not intended to represent fair 

market value. The fair market value of 

the tract will be determined by the 

Authorized Officer after the sale. The 

lease issued as a result of this offering 

will provide for payment of an annual 

rental of $3.00 per acre, or fraction 

thereof, and of a royalty payment to the 

United States of 12.5 percent of the 

value of coal produced by strip or auger 

mining methods and 8 percent of the 

value of the coal produced by 

underground mining methods. The 

value of the coal will be determined in 

accordance with 30 CFR 206.250. 

Bidding instructions for the tract 

offered and the terms and conditions of 

the proposed coal lease are available 

from the BLM Wyoming State Office at 

the addresses above. Case file 

documents, WYW151134, are available 

for inspection at the BLM Wyoming 

State Office.

Dated: June 16, 2004. 

Alan Rabinoff, 

Deputy State Director, Minerals and Lands.

[FR Doc. 04–21403 Filed 9–23–04; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 4310–22–P

DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR

Bureau of Land Management 

[ID–087–5420–PN–D031, D032; GPO–04–

0005; IDI–34724, IDI 34725] 

Disclaimers of Interest in Lands, Idaho

AGENCY: Bureau of Land Management, 

Interior.

ACTION: Notice.

SUMMARY: Two applications have been 

filed by Ann Nilsson for recordable 

disclaimers of interest in certain lands 

by the United States.

DATES: Comments or protests to this 

action should be received by December 

23, 2004.

ADDRESSES: Comments or protests must 

be filed with: State Director (ID933), 

Bureau of Land Management, 1387 S. 

Vinnell Way, Boise, ID 83709.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:

Cathie Foster, BLM, Idaho State Office, 

1387 S. Vinnell Way, Boise, Idaho 

83709, (208) 373–3863 or Ron Grant, 

BLM, Cottonwood Field Office, House 1, 

Butte Drive Route 3, Box 181,