United States Department of the Interior 


BUREAU OF LAND MANAGEMENT 


Jarbidge Field Office 


2536 Kimberly Road 


Twin Falls, Idaho 83301 


In Reply Refer To: 

1610 (210) 

t2'._WIN FALLS DISTRICT OFFICE Dear Reader: 

Enclosed are the Jarbidge Proposed Resource Management Plan (PRMP) and Final Environmental 

Impact Statement (FEIS). The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) prepared the PRMP/FEIS in 

consultation with cooperating agencies, taking into account public comments received during this 

planning effort. The PRMP provides a framework for the future management direction and 

appropriate use of the Jarbidge Field Office, located in Elmore, Owyhee, and Twin Falls Counties, ID 

and Elko County, NV. The document contains land use planning decisions to guide the BLM's 

management of the Jarbidge Field Office. 

This PRMP and FEIS have been developed in accordance with the National Environmental Policy Act 

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

PRMP is largely based on Alternative IV, the preferred alternative in the Draft Resource Management 

Plan/Environmental Impact Statement (DRMP/DEIS), which was released on September 2, 2010. The 

PRMP/FEIS contains the Proposed Plan, a summary of changes made between the DRMP/DEIS and 

PRMP/FEIS, impacts of the Proposed Plan, a summary of substantive comments received during the 

public review period for the DRMP/DEIS, and responses to the comments. 

Pursuant to BLM's planning regulations at 43 CFR 1610.5-2, any person who participated in the 

planning process for this PRMP 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 in the Federal Register. 

For further 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. If you wish to provide the BLM with such advance notification, please 

direct emailed protests to the attention of the BLM protest coordinator at protest@blm.gov. 
2 

Sincerely, 

!:::£~ Acting Idaho State Director ~ Enclosure 

All protests, including the follow-up letter (if e-mailing) must be in writing and mailed to the following 

address: 

Regular Mail: 

Director (210) 

Attn: Protest Coordinator, W0-210 

P.O. Box 71383 

Washington, D.C. 20024-1383 

Overnight Delivery: 


Director (210) 


Attn: Protest Coordinator, W0-210 


20M Streets 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 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 party by certified mail, return receipt 

requested. The decision of the BLM Director shall be the final decision of the Department of the 

Interior on each protest. Responses to protest issues will be compiled and formalized in a Director's 

Protest Resolution Report made available following issuance of the decisions. 

Upon resolution of all land use plan protests, the BLM will issue an Approved Resource Management 

Plan (RMP) and Record of Decision (ROD). The Approved RMP and ROD will be mailed or made 

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

BLM website at http://www.blm.gov/planning. 

Unlike land use planning decisions, implementation decisions included in this PRMP/FEIS are not 

subject to protest under the BLM planning regulations, but are subject to an administrative review 

process, through appeals to the Office of Hearings and Appeals (OHA), Interior Board of Land 

Appeals (IBLA) pursuant to 43 CFR, Part 4 Subpart E. Implementation decisions generally constitute 

the BLM's final approval allowing on-the-ground actions to proceed. Where implementation decisions 

are made as part of the land use planning process, they are still subject to the appeals process or other 

administrative review as prescribed by specific resource program regulations once the BLM resolves 

the protests to land use planning decisions and issues an Approved RMP and ROD. The Approved 

RMP and ROD will therefore identify-the implementation decisions made in the plan that may be 

appealed to the Office of Hearing and Appeals. 
Enclosure 1 

(a) 

(1) 

(2) 

(3) 

(b) 

(i) 

(ii) 

(iii) 

(iv) 

(v) 

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 


Subpart 1610--Resource Management Planning 


Sec. 1610.5-2 Protest procedures. 


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 planning process. 

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 Environmental Protection Agency published the 

notice of receipt of the final environmental impact statement containing the plan or 

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

environmental impact statement, the protest shall be filed within 30 days of the 

publication of the notice of its effective date. 

The protest shall contain: 

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

the protest; 

A statement of the issue or issues being protested; 

A statement of the part or parts of the plan or amendment being protested; 

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

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

the issue or issues were discussed for the record; and 

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

be wrong. 

The Director shall promptly render a decision on the protest. 

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.