October 31, 2024

BLM announces availability of final vegetation management plan

SAFFORD, Arizona – The Bureau of Land Management today announced its approval of a vegetation management plan that covers integrated vegetation management activities targeting landscape restoration for the majority of the Safford Field Office.

The associated Environmental Assessment, decision record, and finding of no significant impact are available on the BLM ePlanning site. Today’s decision begins a 30-day appeal period that ends on November 30, 2024.

The BLM began development of the draft plan in March 2017 that included a 30-day public scoping period and public meetings. A 30-day public comment period on the draft plan followed in December 2020, as well as a 45-day public comment period on Wilderness and Ecosystem Plan Amendments to supplement the EA in June 2021.

For more information, please contact June Lowery, [email protected], 520-345-2825.

June 3, 2021

The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) has prepared the proposed Safford Field Office Wilderness and Ecosystem Plan Amendments to supplement the Safford Field Office (SFO) Vegetation Management Plan Environmental Assessment (EA). Current vegetation communities are being encroached by invasive plant species that outcompete native plant species and limit biodiversity. These plans have been evaluated and the BLM has identified that updates need to be made to ensure the BLM can manage vegetation communities to improve wildlife habitat, and watershed and rangeland health across the field office for generations to come. Currently, these plan decisions are limiting due to outdated science and field observations. These amendments would replace the current identified vegetation management decisions based on current rationale. The amendments are available to the public for a 45-day comment period, as specified in each Plan’s Evaluations.

Only the proposed Safford Field Office Wilderness and Ecosystem Plan Amendments are open to public comment at this time. Public involvement for the EA began with a 30-day public scoping period from March 15 to April 12, 2017. The preliminary EA was made available for review for another 30 days from December 3, 2020 to January 6, 2021. Comments received are still being reviewed, and BLM’s responses will be available in an appendix to the Final EA. The preliminary EA is still available to review and provide important context to these plan amendments, but no comments received concerning the EA itself will be reviewed at this time.

The Safford Field Office Wilderness and Ecosystem Management Plan Amendments comment period will start June 3, 2021 and end July 18, 2021. Substantive comments received relevant to the proposed Safford Field Office Wilderness and Ecosystem Management Plan Amendments will be reviewed and considered for revisions to clarify and improve upon these proposed amendments. If the proposed amendments are approved by the Authorized Officer; they will be enacted through the Safford Field Office Vegetation Management Plan Decision Record. These decisions will supersede those in the management plans and will allow the BLM to implement those amended decisions via the SFO Vegetation Management Plan EA and any other subsequent vegetation management projects.

To review the documents, please visit the Documents tab on the left-hand panel, to submit your substantive comments on the Safford Field Office Wilderness and Ecosystem Plan Amendments. You can also submit comments on the document on the by visiting the Participation Period tab.

Bureau of Land Management (BLM), Safford Field Office, is developing a Environmental Assessment (EA) for various possible vegetation management treatment and maintenance actions on various BLM-administered lands* within the boundaries of the Safford Field Office in the state of Arizona. The proposed plan would provide the Safford Field Office with a suite of vegetation treatment methods to improve the condition of the vegetation communities across the landscape. 

The need for the Proposed Action is that some portions of the vegetation communities in the project area are not within defined shrub and tree cover objectives. The BLM is charged with managing landscapes to meet vegetation objectives in RMPs and as part of its multiple use mandate. By treating and maintaining vegetation communities using a landscape approach to consider vegetation management fulfills the need to prioritize vegetation treatments throughout the SFO and results in standard methods and best practices to be used across these vegetation communities.

The purpose of this EA is to allow the SFO to treat target species and maintain the vegetation communities within the field office using IVM strategies to transition areas that have departed from the vegetation objectives to a desired shrub and tree threshold. Allowing this action would mean SFO can more promptly implement treatments across SFO using the best available science, tools and methods to manage vegetative communities. 

The vegetation treatments would be completed through the use of integrated vegetation management practices utilizing, as appropriate:
     • Mechanical treatments, such as heavy equipment mastication, grubbing, and thinning.
     • Manual treatments involving small powered and non-powered tools, such as chainsaws and hand tools.
     • Chemical (herbicide) treatments, such as cut-stump, basal bark, spot treatment, broadcast aerial, and broadcast ground.
     • Prescribed fire treatments, including broadcast and pile burns.

This EA will be developed at a broad scale to facilitate BLM partnerships for managing vegetation within the region, although treatments may be identified and developed solely by the BLM. 

The SFO is proposing to treat up to 180,200 acres per year. Treatment units could range in size from as little as one to a few thousand acres. Treatment locations and acreage to be treated within any one year would be dependent upon need and funding availability. Treatment unit selection and design would undergo BLM interdisciplinary team review. Best management practices and specific protective measures would be prescribed for each treatment to minimize impacts. This subsequent environmental compliance review would ensure that the potential impacts have been analyzed and levels of impact are consistent with this EA.

* Excluded from the analysis area are the San Carlos and White Mountain Apache Indian Reservations and US Forest Service lands, as well as private, local, and state lands.

Scoping comment period ended April 12, 2017. 

Public comment period ended January 6, 2021.