Federal Register / Vol. 87, No. 88 / Friday, May 6, 2022 / Notices 27181 

DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR 

Bureau of Land Management 

[LLWYD04000.L16100000.DP0000.19X] 

Notice of Availability of the Proposed 

Resource Management Plan 

Amendment and Final Environmental 

Impact Statement for Wild Horse 

Management for the Bureau of Land 

Management Rock Springs and 

Rawlins Field Offices, Wyoming 

AGENCY: Bureau of Land Management, 

Interior. 

ACTION: Notice of Availability. 

SUMMARY: 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 Bureau of Land 

Management (BLM) has prepared a 

Final Environmental Impact Statement 

(EIS) and Proposed Resource 

Management Plan (RMP) Amendment 

for Wild Horse Management within the 

Rock Springs and Rawlins Field Offices 

of Wyoming and by this notice is 

announcing its availability and the 

opening of a protest period on the RMP 

Amendment. 

DATES: The BLM planning regulations 

state that any person who meets the 

conditions as described in the 

regulations may protest the BLM’s 

Proposed RMP Amendment. A person 

who meets the conditions and files a 

protest must file the protest within 30 

days of the date that the Environmental 

Protection Agency (EPA) publishes its 

Notice of Availability in the Federal 

Register. The BLM will issue a Record 

of Decision no earlier than 30 days from 

the date of the Notice of Availability 

published by the EPA. 

ADDRESSES: Instructions for filing a 

protest with the Director of the BLM 

regarding the Proposed RMPs may be 

found online at https://www.blm.gov/ 

filing-a-plan-protest and at 43 CFR 

1610.5–2. 

You may review the Final EIS and 

Proposed RMP Amendment online at 

the RMP ePlanning website, (https://

go.usa.gov/xeyxa). Hard copies are also 

available for review at the following 

BLM offices: 

• Rawlins Field Office, 1300 North 

Third, Rawlins, WY 82301–2407. 

• Rock Springs Field Office, 280 

Highway 191 North, Rock Springs, WY 

82901–3447. 

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: 

Kimberlee Foster, Field Manager, BLM 

Rock Springs Field Office at 307–352– 

0256. 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 BLM 

manages wild horses under the 

authority of the Wild Free-Roaming 

Horses and Burros Act of 1971, as 

amended, to ensure healthy wild horse 

herds thrive on healthy rangelands in 

balance with other resources. The Act 

requires the BLM to manage wild horses 

at Appropriate Management Levels 

(AML) to achieve a ‘‘thriving natural 

ecological balance.’’ It also requires 

BLM to remove wild horses that have 

strayed onto private lands if the 

landowner requests their removal. 

In June 2010, the Rock Springs 

Grazing Association (RSGA) filed a 

lawsuit (Rock Springs Grazing 

Association v. Salazar, No. 11–CV– 

00263–NDF) in the U.S. District Court 

for the District of Wyoming, contending 

the BLM violated Section 4 of the Wild 

Free-Roaming Horses and Burros Act 

(16 U.S.C. 1334) by failing to remove 

strayed animals from private lands 

controlled by the RSGA in southern 

Wyoming’s checkerboard pattern of 

alternating public and private lands. In 

April 2013, the court approved a 

Consent Decree and Joint Stipulation for 

Dismissal that resolved the lawsuit and 

required the BLM to evaluate potential 

changes to its management of wild 

horses on checkerboard lands by 

considering an RMP revision for the 

Rock Springs and Rawlins field offices. 

The BLM initiated the planning effort 

and developed this Final EIS to meet the 

terms of the Consent Decree, which 

directs the BLM to analyze and consider 

certain wild horse management actions. 

If approved, management actions 

analyzed in this Final EIS would amend 

the 1997 Green River RMP and the 2008 

Rawlins RMP. The planning area for this 

Final EIS and proposed RMP 

Amendment includes the four herd 

management areas that contain 

checkerboard land and are addressed in 

the Consent Decree, encompassing 

approximately 2,811,401 acres managed 

by the Rock Springs and Rawlins Field 

Offices. 

The BLM manages approximately 

1,920,314 acres of surface estate in the 

planning area. Private land in the 

planning area totals approximately 

814,086 acres. The Proposed RMP 

Amendment would change management 

as follows: (1) The Rock Springs Field 

Office portion of the Adobe Town Herd 

Management Area (HMA) would no 

longer be designated as an HMA and 

would be managed for zero wild horses. 

For the Rawlins Field Office portion of 

the HMA, all checkerboard land and the 

portion of the HMA north of the existing 

Corson Springs southern allotment 

boundary fence would no longer be 

designated as an HMA and would be 

managed for zero wild horses. The 

remainder of the HMA would be 

retained and managed with an AML of 

259–536; (2) the entire Great Divide 

Basin HMA would no longer be 

designated as an HMA and would be 

managed for zero wild horses; (3) the 

entire Salt Wells Creek HMA would no 

longer be designated as an HMA and 

would be managed for zero wild horses; 

and (4) the boundary of the White 

Mountain HMA would remain the same 

and would continue to include 

checkerboard land. 

All protests must be in writing and 

submitted, as set forth in the DATES and 

ADDRESSES sections earlier. The BLM 

Director will render a written decision 

on each protest. The decision will be 

mailed to the protesting party. 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 BLM Director’s Protest 

Resolution Report made available 

following issuance of the decisions. 

Before including your address, phone 

number, email address, or other 

personally identifying information in 

your protest, you should be aware that 

your entire protest—including your 

personally identifying information— 

may be made publicly available at any 

time. While you can ask the BLM in 

your protest to withhold your personal 

identifying information from public 

review, we cannot guarantee that we 

will be able to do so. 

Authority: 40 CFR 1506.6, 40 CFR 

1506.10, 43 CFR 1610.2, 43 CFR 1610.5 

Andrew Archuleta, 

State Director, Wyoming. 

[FR Doc. 2022–09556 Filed 5–5–22; 8:45 am] 

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