PLANNING AREA

The planning area is the geographic area for which resource management plans are developed and maintained. The UFO planning area (planning area) boundary defines the area assessed in this RMP amendment, regardless of surface ownership or jurisdiction. It encompasses 3.1 million acres in Delta, Gunnison, Mesa, Montrose, Ouray, and San Miguel counties and includes BLM; U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service; U.S. Department of Interior, National Park Service; State of Colorado lands; and private property.

Proposed decisions in this RMP amendment apply only to BLM-administered lands and federal mineral estate under BLM jurisdiction. This is known as the decision area. The decision area consists of 678,400 acres of BLM-administered lands, including withdrawn lands.

There are over 2.2 million acres of federal mineral estate in the planning area, 963,300 acres of which are in the decision area. Federal mineral estate subject to oil and gas leasing decisions (including helium and methane) in the decision area includes mineral estate underlying BLM-administered lands. It also includes the federal mineral estate underlying privately owned lands, city lands, and state-owned lands (split estate). Management directions and actions in this RMP amendment only apply to BLM-administered lands and to the federal mineral estate under BLM jurisdiction within the decision area. The decision area is the same as that analyzed in the 2019 Proposed RMP/Final EIS, although acres have changed slightly due to improvements in geospatial information. The scope of this amendment includes oil and gas leasing (including helium and methane) but does not include geothermal leasing or geophysical exploration. 

CURRENT MANAGEMENT for OIL AND GAS LEASING STIPULATIONS