Federal Register / Vol. 89, No. 249 / Monday, December 30, 2024 / Notices 106559 

outside the scope of the Governor’s 

Appeal process. 

Finally, the BLM has prepared the 

Buffalo PRMPA/FSEIS in accordance 

with all applicable Federal laws, 

regulations, and policies. The BLM did 

carefully review and consider 

applicable State, local, and other 

Federal agency plans, policies, and 

programs in the development of the 

Buffalo PRMPA/FSEIS. The BLM is 

consistent, to the extent practicable, 

with these plans as per the provisions 

of FLPMA and the planning regulations 

at 43 CFR 1610–3–2.’’ 

(Authority: 43 CFR 1610.3–2(e)) 

Nada Wolff Culver, 

Principal Deputy Director. 

[FR Doc. 2024–31314 Filed 12–27–24; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 4331–22–P 

DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR 

Bureau of Land Management 

[PO4820000251] 

Filing of Plats of Survey: Oregon/ 

Washington 

AGENCY: Bureau of Land Management, 

Interior 

ACTION: Notice of official filing. 

SUMMARY: The plats of survey of the 

following described lands are scheduled 

to be officially filed in the Bureau of 

Land Management (BLM), Oregon State 

Office, Portland, Oregon, 30 calendar 

days from the date of this publication. 

DATES: Protests must be received by the 

BLM prior to the scheduled date of 

official filing, January 29, 2025. 

ADDRESSES: A copy of the plats may be 

obtained from the Public Room at the 

Bureau of Land Management, Oregon 

State Office, 1220 SW 3rd Avenue, 

Portland, Oregon 97204, upon required 

payment. The plats may be viewed at 

this location at no cost. 

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: 

Robert Femling, telephone: (503) 808– 

6633, email: rfemling@blm.gov, Branch 

of Geographic Sciences, Bureau of Land 

Management, 1220 SW 3rd Avenue, 

Portland, Oregon 97204. Persons who 

use a telecommunications device for the 

deaf (TDD) may call the Federal Relay 

Service at 1–800–877–8339 to contact 

Mr. Femling during normal business 

hours. The service is available 24 hours 

a day, 7 days a week, to leave a message 

or question. You will receive a reply 

during normal business hours. 

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The plats 

of survey of the following described 

lands are scheduled to be officially filed 

in the Bureau of Land Management, 

Oregon State Office, Portland, Oregon: 

WILLAMETTE MERIDIAN, OREGON 

T. 34 S., R. 7 W. accepted September 11, 

2024 

T. 38 S., R. 3 E., accepted September 12, 2024 

T. 33 S., R. 3 E., accepted October 22, 2024 

T. 33 S., R. 2 E., accepted October 22, 2024 

T. 15 S., R. 8 W., accepted October 22, 2024 

T. 34 S., R. 2 E., accepted October 22, 2024 

T. 39 S., R. 1 W., accepted October 22, 2024 

T. 39 S., R. 5 E., accepted October 22, 2024 

T. 38 S., R. 5 E., accepted October 22, 2024 

T. 36 S., R. 3 E., accepted October 22, 2024 

T. 37 S., R. 3 E., accepted October 22, 2024 

A person or party who wishes to 

protest one or more plats of survey 

identified above must file a written 

notice of protest with the Chief 

Cadastral Surveyor for Oregon/ 

Washington, Bureau of Land 

Management. The notice of protest must 

identify the plat(s) of survey that the 

person or party wishes to protest. The 

notice of protest must be filed before the 

scheduled date of official filing for the 

plat(s) of survey being protested. Any 

notice of protest filed after the 

scheduled date of official filing will be 

untimely and will not be considered. A 

notice of protest is considered filed on 

the date it is received by the Chief 

Cadastral Surveyor for Oregon/ 

Washington during regular business 

hours; if received after regular business 

hours, a notice of protest will be 

considered filed the next business day. 

A written statement of reasons in 

support of a protest, if not filed with the 

notice of protest, must be filed with the 

Chief Cadastral Surveyor for Oregon/ 

Washington within 30 calendar days 

after the notice of protest is filed. If a 

notice of protest against a plat of survey 

is received prior to the scheduled date 

of official filing, the official filing of the 

plat of survey identified in the notice of 

protest will be stayed pending 

consideration of the protest. A plat of 

survey will not be officially filed until 

the next business day following 

dismissal or resolution of all protests of 

the plat. 

Before including your address, phone 

number, email address, or other 

personal identifying information in a 

notice of protest or statement of reasons, 

you should be aware that the documents 

you submit—including your personal 

identifying information—may be made 

publicly available in their entirety at 

any time. While you can ask us to 

withhold your personal identifying 

information from public review, we 

cannot guarantee that we will be able to 

do so. 

(Authority: 43 U.S.C., chapter 3) 

Robert Femling, 

Chief Cadastral Surveyor of Oregon/ 

Washington. 

[FR Doc. 2024–31029 Filed 12–27–24; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 4331–25–P 

DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR 

Bureau of Land Management 

Fish and Wildlife Service 

[PO #4820000251] 

Notice of Availability of the Records of 

Decision for Reconsideration of a 

Highway Right-of-Way Application and 

Associated Amendment of an 

Incidental Take Permit, Washington 

County, UT 

AGENCY: Bureau of Land Management, 

Interior; Fish and Wildlife Service, 

Interior. 

ACTION: Notice of availability. 

SUMMARY: The Bureau of Land 

Management (BLM) and the United 

States Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS), 

as co-lead agencies, announce the 

availability of the records of decision 

(RODs) for the Northern Corridor 

highway right-of-way (ROW) and 

associated amendment of an incidental 

take permit (ITP) located in Washington 

County, Utah. The RODs constitute the 

decisions of the BLM and FWS. 

DATES: The Acting Deputy Secretary of 

the Interior signed a ROD for the 

Northern Corridor highway ROW on 

December 19, 2024. The FWS’s Deputy 

Regional Director for the MountainPrairie Region (Region 6) signed a ROD 

to amend the ITP issued to Washington 

County (County) on December 19, 2024. 

ADDRESSES: The RODs are available on 

the BLM ePlanning project website at 

https://eplanning.blm.gov/eplanning-ui/ 

project/2026562/510. 

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: 

Dawna Ferris-Rowley, National 

Conservation Area (NCA) Manager, Red 

Cliffs and Beaver Dam Wash NCAs, 

telephone (435) 688–3200; address 345 

East Riverside Drive, St. George, UT 

84790; email BLM_UT_

NorthernCorridor@blm.gov. Individuals 

in the United States who are deaf, 

deafblind, hard of hearing, or have a 

speech disability may dial 711 (TTY, 

TDD, or TeleBraille) to access 

telecommunications relay services for 

contacting Ms. Ferris-Rowley. 

Individuals outside the United States 

should use the relay services offered 

within their country to make 

international calls to the point-ofVerDate Sep<11>2014 23:58 Dec 27, 2024 Jkt 265001 PO 00000 Frm 00154 Fmt 4703 Sfmt 4703 E:\FR\FM\30DEN1.SGM 30DEN1

ddrumheller on DSK120RN23PROD with NOTICES1
106560 Federal Register / Vol. 89, No. 249 / Monday, December 30, 2024 / Notices 

contact in the United States. Replies are 

provided during normal business hours. 

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The BLM 

and FWS are issuing this Notice of 

availability pursuant to the National 

Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), 42 

U.S.C. 4321 et seq.; the Council on 

Environmental Quality’s regulations for 

implementing NEPA, 40 CFR parts 1500 

through 1508 (as amended on May 20, 

2022, 87 FR 23453); and the Department 

of the Interior’s NEPA regulations, 43 

CFR part 46. 

On September 4, 2018, the Utah 

Department of Transportation (UDOT) 

applied for a ROW grant for the 

Northern Corridor project north of the 

City of St. George, Utah, on BLMmanaged and non-Federal lands within 

the Red Cliffs NCA and the Red Cliffs 

Desert Reserve. The Red Cliffs NCA was 

established through the passage of the 

Omnibus Public Land Management Act 

of 2009 (16 U.S.C. 460www). Prior to 

the NCA’s designation, the Red Cliffs 

Desert Reserve was established for the 

protection of the Mojave desert tortoise 

as part of the 1995 Washington County 

Habitat Conservation Plan (HCP). In 

2015, pursuant to section 10(a)(1)(B) of 

the Endangered Species Act (ESA), 

Washington County applied to renew 

and amend the HCP and associated ITP. 

The restated and amended HCP 

described the Northern Corridor 

highway as a potential changed 

circumstance, which would be partially 

offset with the addition of a sixth zone 

to the Red Cliffs Desert Reserve (Zone 6) 

as the primary conservation strategy. To 

consider the ROW application and the 

proposed Zone 6, the BLM needed to 

also consider amending the St. George 

Field Office and Red Cliffs NCA 

Resource Management Plans (RMPs). 

In 2019 and 2020, the BLM and FWS 

prepared an environmental impact 

statement (EIS) to analyze the 

environmental impacts associated with 

the proposed actions and reasonable 

alternatives. The BLM also consulted 

with the FWS to meet the requirements 

in section 7(a)(2) of the ESA. The FWS 

issued a biological opinion to the BLM 

that determined the ROW and the 

amendments to the RMPs were not 

likely to jeopardize the continued 

existence of the Mojave desert tortoise 

or destroy or adversely modify 

designated critical habitat for the 

Mojave desert tortoise. In addition, the 

FWS issued an intra-agency biological 

opinion that determined that the ITP 

was not likely to jeopardize the 

continued existence of the Mojave 

desert tortoise, Holmgren milkvetch, 

Shivwits milkvetch, dwarf bear-poppy, 

Siler pincushion cactus, Gierisch 

mallow, and Fickeisen plains cactus or 

result in the adverse modification of 

critical habitat for any of the abovelisted species. 

On January 13, 2021, the Secretary of 

the Interior signed a ROD that approved 

the Northern Corridor ROW application 

and approved the amendments to the 

RMPs. The decision approving the ROW 

was effective immediately. The BLM 

then signed and issued the ROW grant 

to UDOT on the same day. Also on 

January 13, 2021, the FWS Regional 

Director for the Mountain-Prairie Region 

signed a ROD approving the issuance of 

an ITP to Washington County. The FWS 

issued the ITP to Washington County on 

January 13, 2021. Because the BLM 

approved the UDOT ROW application, 

the changed circumstance was triggered, 

and Zone 6 was formally added to the 

Reserve. 

On June 3, 2021, seven conservation 

organizations (collectively, Plaintiffs) 

filed an initial complaint in the United 

States District Court for the District of 

Columbia, Case No. 1:21-cv-01506. 

Among other claims, plaintiffs alleged 

the BLM’s ROW decision violated both 

NEPA and the National Historic 

Preservation Act (NHPA). The Plaintiffs 

stated, in part, the Final EIS did not 

fully address the changed circumstances 

of wildfire in the region and the impacts 

it may have on the Mojave desert 

tortoise, desert tortoise habitat, and the 

spread of invasive annual grasses. The 

Plaintiffs also alleged that the BLM 

failed to comply with the consultation 

requirements under section 106 of the 

NHPA. On July 27, 2021, Plaintiffs 

amended their complaint to include the 

FWS and additional claims related to 

NEPA and the ESA. 

During the litigation, the United 

States and plaintiffs reached a 

settlement agreement that was signed on 

August 30, 2023. Prior to executing that 

agreement, the United States moved for 

the remand and partial vacatur of the 

BLM’s and FWS’s 2021 decisions. In the 

motion, the United States acknowledged 

the BLM did not fully comply with the 

NHPA and the agencies had concerns 

that the Final EIS may lack sufficient 

analysis of certain resource effects, 

including the effects of the construction 

and use of the Northern Corridor project 

in the context of the following: (1) the 

trend in the increasing frequency and 

extent of wildfires in the Mojave Desert; 

(2) the rise of non-native/exotic and 

invasive vegetation in post-burn areas; 

and (3) the impacts increased fire and 

new non-native/exotic and invasive 

vegetation have on desert tortoise. On 

November 16, 2023, the court issued an 

Order that granted the remand of all 

decisions associated with the January 

2021 RODs issued by the BLM and FWS 

and denied the BLM’s request to vacate 

the ROW grant issued to UDOT in 

January 2021. On March 8, 2024, at the 

request of the BLM and consistent with 

the Settlement Agreement, the FWS 

withdrew the Biological Opinion for the 

Northern Corridor ROW grant. 

A 30-day public scoping period for a 

supplemental EIS was initiated with the 

publication of a Notice of Intent in the 

Federal Register on November 16, 2023 

(88 FR 78781). The scoping period was 

extended at the request of Washington 

County and the State of Utah until 

December 28, 2023. The scoping period 

included a public open house held in 

St. George, Utah on December 6, 2023, 

with over 200 attendees. A total of 8,993 

comment submissions were received, of 

which 8,145 were form letters, 793 were 

unique submissions, and 55 did not 

include a comment or were comments 

not relevant to scoping. The BLM and 

FWS considered all comments received 

during the scoping period in 

preparation of the Draft Supplemental 

EIS. A scoping report is available for 

public review on the BLM ePlanning 

project website (see ADDRESSES). 

A Notice of Availability for the Draft 

Supplemental EIS was published in the 

Federal Register on May 10, 2024 (89 

FR 40504), initiating a 45-day public 

review and comment period. In 

addition, the BLM issued media releases 

and sent notifications via email to 

cooperating agencies, Tribal Nations, 

and the updated project mailing list. 

The BLM and FWS held an in-person 

public open house on June 4, 2024, at 

the Dixie Convention Center in St. 

George, Utah, during the public 

comment period. 

Agencies, organizations, and 

individual stakeholders were able to 

submit comments through the U.S. 

Postal Service and the BLM ePlanning 

project website (see ADDRESSES). The 

comment period was extended until 

July 9, 2024, after an updated Traffic 

Analysis Memorandum, prepared by the 

Dixie Metropolitan Planning 

Organization, and an Assessment, 

Inventory, and Monitoring Vegetation 

Survey Technical Report were made 

available for public review on the BLM 

ePlanning project website. The BLM and 

FWS announced the availability of these 

documents, and the date of the extended 

public review and comment period, 

through social media releases, a posting 

on the BLM ePlanning project website, 

and email messages to the project 

mailing list. 

A total of 4,255 comment submissions 

were received during the 60-day public 

comment period, of which 3,354 were 

part of organized letter-writing 


ddrumheller on DSK120RN23PROD with NOTICES1
Federal Register / Vol. 89, No. 249 / Monday, December 30, 2024 / Notices 106561 

campaigns and 901 were unique 

comment submissions. The BLM and 

FWS considered all comments received 

during the extended comment period in 

the preparation of the Final 

Supplemental EIS. The BLM and FWS 

responded to substantive comments and 

made appropriate revisions in the Final 

Supplemental EIS or explained why a 

comment did not warrant a change, as 

documented in Appendix F of the Final 

Supplemental EIS. 

The BLM’s 2024 ROD decision is to 

terminate the UDOT ROW grant issued 

on January 13, 2021, and to endorse the 

Red Hills Parkway Expressway 

alternative. The termination of the BLM 

ROW grant is effective immediately. The 

FWS’s ROD amends the 2021 ITP to 

authorize incidental take of the desert 

tortoise to Washington County caused 

by covered activities, without the 

Northern Corridor changed 

circumstance. The amended ITP 

reinstates take authorization of desert 

tortoise in the 3,341 acres of State and 

private land in Zone 6, previously 

required as mitigation under the 

Northern Corridor changed 

circumstance. 

(Authority: 40 CFR 1506.6; 40 CFR 1506.10 

(2022)) 

Matthew A. Preston, 

Acting State Director. 

Anna Munoz, 

Deputy Regional Director. 

[FR Doc. 2024–30978 Filed 12–27–24; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 4331–25–P 

DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR 

Bureau of Land Management 

[PO #4820000251] 

Notice of Termination of the 

Environmental Impact Statement for 

the Twin Metals Project in the Superior 

National Forest, Lake and St. Louis 

Counties, Minnesota 

AGENCY: Bureau of Land Management, 

Interior. 

ACTION: Notice of termination. 

SUMMARY: By this notice, the Bureau of 

Land Management (BLM), Northeastern 

States District, located in Milwaukee, 

Wisconsin, is announcing the 

termination of the Twin Metals Project 

Environmental Impact Statement (EIS). 

DATES: This termination takes effect 

immediately. 

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Kurt 

Wadzinski, NSDO Planning and 

Environmental Coordinator, at 414– 

297–4408 or by email to kwadzins@

blm.gov. Persons who use a 

telecommunications device for the deaf 

(TDD) may call the Federal Relay 

Service (FRS) at 1–800–877–8339 to 

contact during normal business hours. 

The FRS is available 24 hours a day, 7 

days a week, to leave a message or 

question. You will receive a reply 

during normal business hours. 

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Pursuant 

to the National Environmental Policy 

Act of 1969 (NEPA) and Council on 

Environmental Quality (CEQ) NEPA 

regulations, the BLM published its 

Notice of Intent (NOI) to prepare an EIS 

for the Twin Metals Project in the 

Federal Register on June 30, 2020 (85 

FR 39206). The EIS would have 

analyzed the potential impacts of 

issuing a proposed new preference right 

lease (MNES 57965) and approving a 

mine plan of operations for that lease 

and an existing lease (MNES 1352) held 

by Twin Metals Minnesota (Twin 

Metals) in the Superior National Forest 

in Lake and St. Louis counties, 

Minnesota. 

In October 2021, the USDA Forest 

Service submitted an application to 

withdraw the lands in question from 

disposition under the United States 

mineral and geothermal leasing laws. 

The BLM published a notice of its 

receipt of that application in the Federal 

Register (86 FR 58299), which 

segregated the lands from the operation 

of the mineral and geothermal leasing 

laws, and the BLM subsequently 

rejected the preference right lease 

application submitted by Twin Metals 

in accordance with 43 CFR 2310.2(d). 

In January 2022, the Department of 

the Interior cancelled two hardrock 

mineral leases held by Twin Metals, 

including lease MNES 1352, because the 

leases were improperly renewed. 

Because Twin Metals did not have an 

underlying land use authorization, the 

BLM subsequently rejected the mine 

plan of operations. On January 31, 2023, 

the Secretary of the Interior issued 

Public Land Order 7917 (88 FR 6308), 

which withdrew approximately 225,504 

acres of National Forest System lands in 

Cook, Lake, and Saint Louis counties, 

Minnesota, from disposition under the 

United States mineral and geothermal 

leasing laws for a period of 20 years, 

subject to valid existing rights. As a 

result, new mineral leasing is prohibited 

for 20 years from the date of the 

withdrawal. 

Based on BLM environmental policy, 

the bureau must announce in the 

Federal Register when it does not 

complete previously initiated NEPA 

actions. 

(Authority: 40 CFR 1501.9) 

Mitchell Leverette, 

Eastern States State Director. 

[FR Doc. 2024–31215 Filed 12–27–24; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 4331–18–P 

DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR 

Bureau of Land Management 

[PO #4820000251] 

Public Land Order No. PLO 7954; 

Withdrawal of National Forest System 

Lands for the Schwartz and Leff 

Administrative Site; California 

AGENCY: Bureau of Land Management, 

Interior. 

ACTION: Public land order. 

SUMMARY: This Public Land Order (PLO) 

withdraws 39.6 acres of National Forest 

System lands from location and entry 

under the United States mining laws, 

but not from leasing under the mineral 

or geothermal leasing laws or disposal 

under the Mineral Materials Act of 

1947, for a period of 20 years, subject to 

valid existing rights, to protect the 

integrity of the historic and cultural 

resources located within the Schwartz 

and Leff Administrative Site along the 

North Fork of the Salmon River in 

Siskiyou County, California. 

DATES: This PLO takes effect on 

December 30, 2024. 

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: 

Heather Daniels, BLM California State 

Office, telephone: (916) 978–4674, 

email: hdaniels@blm.gov; or Zareen Ali, 

Forest Service Regional Office, 

telephone: (707) 562–8964 during 

regular business hours, 8:00 a.m. to 4:30 

p.m. Monday through Friday, except 

holidays. Individuals in the United 

States who are deaf, deafblind, hard of 

hearing, or have a speech disability may 

dial 711 (TTY, TDD, or TeleBraille) to 

access telecommunications relay 

services. Individuals outside the United 

States should use the relay services 

offered within their country to make 

international calls to the point-ofcontact in the United States. 

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The 

United States Forest Service will 

manage the lands to protect the integrity 

of the historic and cultural resources 

located within the Schwarz and Leff 

Administrative Site along the North 

Fork of the Salmon River in the Klamath 

National Forest, Siskiyou County, 

California. 

Order 

By virtue of the authority vested in 

the Secretary of the Interior by Section 


ddrumheller on DSK120RN23PROD with NOTICES1