I 1 I I 

UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF THE 

INTERIOR 

BUREAU OF LAND MANAGEMENT 

Wyoming State Office 

5353 Yellowstone Road 

Cheyenne, WY 82003 

UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF 

AGRICULTURE 

FOREST SERVICE 

Rocky Mountain Regional Office 

740 Simms Street 

Golden, CO 8040 l

Intermountain Region 

324 25th Street 

Ogden, UT 8440 I 

In reply refer to: 

1610 (WY930) 

Dear Reader: 

Enclosed is the Wyoming 9-Plan Sub-regional Greater Sage-Grouse (GRSG) Proposed Land Use Plan 

Amendment (Proposed LUPA) and Final Environmental Impact Statement (FEIS), one of fifteen subregional efforts being conducted as part of the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) and Forest Service 

National Greater-Sage Planning Strategy. The BLM and Forest Service prepared the Proposed 

LUPA/FEIS in consultation with cooperating agencies, taking into account public comments received 

during this planning effort. The purpose of the Proposed LUPA is to amend the Casper, Kemmerer, 

Newcastle, Pinedale, Rawlins and Rock Springs BLM Resource Management Plans (RMPs) and the 

Bridger-Teton National Forest (BTNF), Medicine Bow National Forest (MBNF), and Thunder Basin 

National Grassland (TBNG) Land and Resource Management Plans (LRMPs) to identify and incorporate 

appropriate conservation measures to conserve, enhance and/or restore Greater Sage-Grouse habitat by 

reducing, eliminating, or minimizing threats to that habitat. The need for action is in response to the 

US Fish and Wildlife Service's (USFWS) March 2010 "warranted, but precluded" Endangered Species 

Act listing petition. The USFWS found that the inadequacy of regulatory mechanisms was identified as a 

significant threat to GRSG in their finding on the petition to list the GRSG. Land use plan conservation 

measures were identified as the BLM's and Forest Service's principal regulatory mechanism. 

This Proposed LUPA/FEIS has been developed in accordance with the National Environmental Policy 

Act of 1969, as amended, the Federal Land Policy and Management Act of 1976, as amended, and the 

National Forest Management Act of 1976, as amended. The Proposed LUPA is largely based on 

Alternative E, the preferred alternative in the Draft LUPA/DEIS, which was released on December 27, 

2013. The Proposed LUP A/FEIS contains the Proposed Plans, a summary of changes made between the 

Draft LUPA/DEIS and Proposed LUPA/FEIS, impacts of the Proposed Plan, a summary of the written 

and verbal comments received during the public review period for the Draft LUPA/DEIS, and responses 

to the comments. 

In accordance with 36 C.F.R. § 219.59, the Forest Service will waive their objection procedures of this 

subpati and instead adopt the BLM's protest procedures outlined in 43 C.F.R. § 1610.5-2. 
Pursuant to BLM's planning regulations at 43 CFR 1610.5-2, any person who pmiicipated in the planning 

process for this Proposed LUPA and has an interest which is or may be adversely affected by the planning 

decisions may protest approval of the planning decisions within 30 days from date the Environmental 

Protection Agency (EPA) publishes the Notice of Availability of the FEIS in the Federal Register. For 

futilier information on filing a protest, please see the accompanying protest regulations in the pages that 

follow (labeled as Attachment# 1). The regulations specify the required elements of your protest. Take 

care to document all relevant facts . As much as possible, reference or cite the planning documents or 

available planning records (e.g. meeting minutes or summaries, correspondence, etc.). 

Emailed protests will not be accepted as valid protests unless the protesting party also provides the 

original letter by either regular mail or overnight delivery postmarked by the close of the protest period. 

Under these conditions, the BLM will consider the emailed protest as an advance copy and will afford it 

full consideration. Ifyou wish to provide the BLM with such advance notification, please direct emailed 

protests to: protest@blm.gov. 

All protests must be in writing and mailed to one of the following addresses: 

Regular Mail: 

Director (210) 

Attn: Protest Coordinator 

P.O. Box 71383 

Washington, D.C. 20024-1383 

Overnight Delivery: 


Director (210) 


Attn: Protest Coordinator 


20 M Street SE, Room 2134LM 


Washington, D.C. 20003 


Before including your address, phone number, email address, or other personal identifying information in 

your protest, be advised that your entire protest including your personal identifying information - may 

be made publicly available at any time. While you can ask us in your protest to withhold from public 

review your personal identifying information, we cannot guarantee that we will be able to do so. 

The BLM Director, in agreement with the responsible official for the Forest Service, will make every 

attempt to promptly render a decision on each protest. The decision will be in writing and will be sent to 

the protesting patty by certified mail, return receipt requested. The decision of the BLM Director shall be 

the final decision of the Depaiiment of the Interior on each protest. Responses to protest issues will be 

compiled and formalized in a Director's Protest Resolution Rep01i made available following issuance of 

the decisions. 

Upon resolution of all land use plan amendment protests, the BLM and Forest Service will issue an 

Approved LUPA and Record of Decision (ROD). The Approved LUPA and ROD will be mailed or 

made available electronically to all who paiiicipatecl in the planning process and will be available on the 

BLM website at http://www.blm.gov/wo/st/en/prog/more/sagegrouse /wyoming.html and the Forest 

Service website at http://vvww.fs.usda.gov/cletail/r4/home/?cid=STELPRD3 815825 

Sincerely, 

-1cQr 7~ M(.y 

Acting 

Jo 

State 

Rugwell 

Director ~~ Regional Forester 
Attachment I 

Protest Regulations 

[CITE: 43CFR1610.5-2] 

TITLE 43--PUBLIC LANDS: INTERIOR 


CHAPTER II--BUREAU OF LAND MANAGEMENT, DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR 


PART 1600--PLANNING, PROGRAMMING, BUDGETING--Table of Contents 


Subpati 1610--Resource Management Plaiming 


Sec. 1610.5-2 Protest procedures. 


(a) Any person who participated in the planning process and has an interest which is or may be 

adversely affected by the approval or amendment of a resource management plan may protest 

such approval or amendment. A protest may raise only those issues which were submitted for 

the record during the plmming process. 

(1) The protest shall be in writing and shall be filed with the Director. The protest shall be 

filed within 30 days of the date the Envirorunental Protection Agency published the 

notice ofreceipt of the final envirom11ental impact statement containing the plan or 

amendment in the Federal Register. For an amendment not requiring the preparation of an 

enviro1m1ental impact statement, the protest shall be filed within 3 0 days of the 

publication of the notice of its effective date. 

(2) The protest shall contain: 

(i) The name, mailing address, telephone number and interest of the person filing 

the protest; 

(ii) A statement of the issue or issues being protested; 

(iii) A statement of the paii or parts of the plan or amendment being protested; 

(iv) A copy of all documents addressing the issue or issues that were submitted 

during the platming process by the protesting party or an indication of the date 

the issue or issues were discussed for the record; and 

(v) A concise statement explaining why the State Director's decision is believed to 

be wrong. 

(3) The Director shall promptly render a decision on the protest. 

(b) The decision shall be in writing and shall set forth the reasons for the decision. The decision 

shall be sent to the protesting party by certified mail, return receipt requested. The decision 

of the Director shall be the final decision of the Department of the Interior.