The Federal Land Policy and Management Act (FLPMA) directs the BLM to manage the public lands and their various resource values for multiple use and sustained yield to ensure they are utilized in a manner that will best meet the present and future needs of the American people. As required by FLPMA and current BLM policy, the BLM prepared this Approved RMP to establish management directions for the balanced use of such renewable and non-renewable resources as rangeland, wildlife, wilderness, recreation, cultural resources, and other natural, scenic, scientific, and historical values within the Bradshaw-Harquahala planning area.

The planning area boundaries formerly encompassed portions of the BLM’s Phoenix Resource Area, Lower Gila Resource Area, and Phoenix Field Office. The planning area is now administered by the Hassayampa Field Office as a result of a reorganization of the Phoenix District in 2005. The area has been managed under prior, amended RMPs and a Management Framework Plan. This Approved RMP consolidates these earlier plans and guides the overall management of activities, as well as the use and protection of BLM-administered resources within the planning area. Subsequent site-specific and more detailed planning will take place for certain geographic areas and resources within the planning area in conformance with this RMP. The management plan creates a framework for future planning and decision making.

This RMP was needed to respond to changed conditions and circumstances which may not have been previously addressed, as set forth in the Phoenix RMP (BLM 1988); the Lower Gila North Management Framework Plan (BLM 1983), and the Approved Amendment to the Lower Gila North Management Framework Plan and the Lower Gila South Resource Management Plan (BLM 2005). Since these prior management plans were completed, the Phoenix metropolitan area has seen dramatic increases in population and urban development. Changed conditions include compliance with stricter air quality standards; higher demands for saleable mineral products; and increased pressure on public lands for recreation, new rights-of-way for roads and utilities, and other uses. Those portions of previous management which are responsive to changed conditions and circumstances were carried forward to this Approved RMP.

The National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA ) requires federal agencies to prepare an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) on major federal actions. Since the Approved RMP is a major federal action, the BLM distributed the Draft Resource Management Plan/Draft Environmental Impact Statement (DRMP/DEIS) in January 2006 and the Proposed Resource Management Plan/Final Environmental Impact Statement (PRMP/FEIS) in August 2008. The FEIS documented the potential environmental impacts of implementing the Preferred Alternative from the DRMP/DEIS as well as other alternatives and conforms to U.S. Council on Environmental Quality regulations for implementing NEPA (40 CFR 1500).

The area includes large blocks of private land west of Phoenix and State Trust land west of Wickenburg. The southern portion of the Prescott National Forest includes higher areas of the Bradshaw Mountains. Two large, rural parks are located near Phoenix: White Tank Mountains Regional Park, operated by Maricopa County; and Lake Pleasant Regional Park, managed cooperatively by Maricopa County and the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation. Three Native American communities are located near the planning area boundaries: Yavapai Prescott Indian Tribe, Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community, and Gila River Indian Community. Other tribes in central, western, and northern Arizona have traditional cultural ties to these lands.