Intent To Prepare Northern and Eastern Colorado Desert Coordinated Management Plan, To Amend the California Desert Plan, and To Analyze Impacts in an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS); Invitation To Participate in the Identification of Issues

DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR

Bureau of Land Management

[A-060-04-4350-08]

Intent To Prepare Northern and Eastern Colorado Desert

Coordinated Management Plan, To Amend the California Desert Plan, and

To Analyze Impacts in an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS);

Invitation To Participate in the Identification of Issues

AGENCY: Bureau of Land Management, Department of the Interior.

ACTION: Amended notice of intent.

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SUMMARY: Amended notice is hereby given that the Bureau of Land

Management (BLM), in cooperation with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife

Service (FWS), the California Department of Fish and Game (DFG), and

Joshua Tree National Monument (JTNM), will develop a comprehensive land

use plan and environmental impact statement (EIS) for federal public

lands in California's Northern and Eastern Colorado Desert.

AREA: Portions of California counties of Imperial, Riverside, and San

Bernardino.

The plan will identify measures to implement the recovery tasks

called for by the FWS in its ``Recovery Plan for the Desert Tortoise

(Mojave Population)'', and address the needs of other significant and

special status plants and wildlife. The plan will amend BLM's

California Desert Conservation Area Plan of 1980.

The plan and EIS for the Eastern Colorado Desert, the original

target area, has been expanded for efficiency to include the Northern

Colorado Desert and the cooperating agencies. The original Notice of

Intent, published on January 4, 1993, is hereby amended.

DATES: BLM is seeking the involment of interested publics,

organizations and other local, state and federal agencies in the

identification of issues that should be addressed in the plan and EIS.

Written comments should be received or post-marked by [30 days after

publication] to allow for compilation into a report on issues

assessment.

A new series of public workshops has been scheduled as follows:

March 29, 1994, 7-9 p.m.

Blythe City Council Chambers, 220 N. Spring St., Blythe, CA

March 30, 1994, 7-9 p.m.

Needles City Council Chambers, 1111 Bailey Ave., Needles, CA

March 31, 1994, 7-9 p.m.

Imperial Irrigation District Auditorium, 1285 Broadway, El Centro,

CA

April 5, 1994, 7-9 p.m.

BLM Yuma District Office, 3150 Winsor Ave., Yuma, AZ

April 6, 1994, 7-9 p.m.

BLM Palm Springs Office, 63-500 Garnet Ave., Palm Springs, CA

April 7, 1994, 7-9 p.m.

Park Headquarters Conference Room, Joshua Tree National Monument,

54485 National Monument Dr., Twenty-Nine Palms, CA

With the reinitiation of this plan all comments received during the

last year from previous public meetings and by letter will still be

considered and need not be resubmitted.

ADDRESSES: Send written comments to Team Leader, Northern & Eastern

Colorado Desert Coordinated Management Plan, Bureau of Land Management,

6221 Box Springs Blvd., Riverside, CA 92507.

FOR ADDITIONAL FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:

Richard E. Crowe, Bureau of Land Management, 6221 Box Springs Blvd.,

Riverside, CA 92507, (909) 697-5216/5200.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The Desert Tortoise, Gopherus agassisii, was

listed as a threatened species by the FWS on April 2, 1990, under the

federal Endangered Species Act. It is also listed as threatened under

the State's endangered species act. Populations have been in decline

for a number of years due to human and disease factors. In April, 1993,

the FWS issued a Draft Recovery Plan for the Desert Tortoise (Mojave

Population). This document requires that federal land managing

jurisdictions prepare and implement plans for the recovery and

delisting of the Mojave populations of Desert Tortoise. Three of the

target Desert Wildlife Management Areas--the Chuckwalla Bench, Joshua

Tree (in part), and Chemehuevi--are in the Northern and Eastern

Colorado Desert Recovery Units in California. One or another of them

are common to BLM, JTNM and also the Chocolate Mountains Gunnery Range,

administered by the U.S. Marine Corps Air Station, Yuma. A request is

being made to the U.S. Marine Corps for that agency to become a

cooperating member of the project.

The boundary for the planning area, which is about 5.5 million

acres in size, is described as follows: I-40 Freeway to the north, the

boundary of the California Desert Conservation Area to the east, the

north edge of the Imperia Sand Dunes to the south, and the eastern

boundary of the West Mojave Coordinated Management Plan to the west.

The two tortoise recovery units are very large in area, overlaying

private and public lands managed by many jurisdictions. Recovery has

many implications for use and management of the desert by the public

and agencies. Therefore, this plan will be an ecosystem management

plan. The goal is that it be comprehensive enough to satisfy the goal

of the Recovery Plan, to meet the needs of agencies' resource

management programs, and to preclude the need for further major land

use plans and additional listings of species under the ESA.

At the heart of managing desert resources (both their uses and

protection), including tortoise populations, is the management of

access for vehicles. Therefore, the designation of vehicle routes as

open, closed and limited will become an important element of this plan.

Comments from the public and government agencies on specific routes of

travel will be accepted throughout the period of development of the

draft and final plan and EIS, scheduled to end in December, 1995.

Dated: March 9, 1994.

Henri R. Bisson,

District Manager.

[FR Doc. 94-6072 Filed 3-14-94; 8:45 am]

BILLING CODE 4310-40-M