Development of this Approved RMP was formally initiated with publication of a Notice of Intent in the Federal Register on April 24, 2002. Over the next several years, the BLM conducted extensive public outreach, pursuing a number of collaborative efforts involving diverse communities and interests as part of plan development. These collaborative opportunities included informal meetings, community based partnership workshops, scoping meetings, alternative development workshops, and formal comment meetings. These are summarized in the Public Involvement section below and fully described on pages 661 through 663 of the Proposed RMP /Final EIS. In addition, communities were offered the opportunity to develop vision statements for public lands. Community vision statements from Black Canyon City, Castle Hot Springs, Dewey-Humboldt-Friends of the Agua Fria River Basin, New River, and Wickenburg are included on pages 32 through 34 of the Proposed RMP . The BLM also provided an opportunity to protest the proposed decisions to the Director of the Bureau of Land Management prior to approval of this Record of Decision ( ROD ) as required by the BLM planning regulations.

Resource Management Plans are prepared to resolve significant issues and management concerns associated with the management of the public lands in the planning area. The issues drive the RMP in that the Approved Plan is primarily designed to resolve the identified planning issues.

The BLM interdisciplinary planning team used the scoping process to identify issues relevant to the Bradshaw-Harquahala planning area. Through communication media such as meetings, newsletters, and news releases, the public was provided opportunities to identify issues that needed to be addressed in the Approved RMP . The planning team then analyzed the public’s comments and identified the major planning issues to be resolved. The specific criteria by which changes in current resource management practices were considered are: