Wyoming Mitigation Guidelines are a compilation of practices employed by Bureau of Land Management (BLM) to mitigate impacts from surface disturbance. They apply to activities such as road or pipeline construction, range improvements, and permitted recreation activities. The guidelines are designed to protect resources such as soils and vegetation, wildlife habitat, and cultural or historic properties. The guidelines are presented as an appendix of the Resource Management Plan (RMP) Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) for easy reference as they apply to many resources and derive from many laws. All BLM RMPs have included these guidelines as appendices. Public comment on the guidelines, per se, has not been requested. The guidelines are not land use decisions; rather they are examples of mitigation measures that could be applied, as appropriate, based on site-specific National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) analysis for individual proposals. Comment on the use and application of specific mitigation measures can be made during the NEPA process for individual proposals. Because mitigation measures change or are modified, based on new information, the guidelines are updated periodically for all Field Offices in Wyoming.

These guidelines are primarily for the purpose of attaining statewide consistency in how requirements are determined for avoiding and mitigating environmental impacts and resource and land use conflicts. Consistency in this sense does not mean that identical requirements would be applied for all similar types of land use activities that may cause similar types of impacts. Nor does it mean that the requirements or guidelines for a single land use activity would be identical in all areas.

There are two ways the mitigation guidelines are used in the RMP and EIS process: (1) as part of the planning criteria in developing the RMP alternatives; and (2) in the analytical processes of both developing the alternatives and analyzing the impacts of the alternatives. In the first case, an assumption is made that any one or more of the mitigations will be appropriately included as conditions of relevant actions being proposed or considered in each alternative. In the second case, the mitigations are used (1) to develop a baseline for measuring and comparing impacts among the alternatives; (2) to identify other actions and alternatives that should be considered; and (3) to help determine whether more stringent or less stringent mitigations should be considered.

The EIS for the RMP does not decide or dictate the exact wording or inclusion of these guidelines. Rather, the guidelines are used in the RMP EIS process as a tool to help develop the RMP alternatives and to provide a baseline for comparative impact analysis in arriving at RMP decisions. These guidelines will be used in the same manner in analyzing activity plans and other site-specific proposals. These guidelines and their wording are matters of policy. As such, specific wording is subject to change primarily through administrative review, not through the RMP EIS process. Any further changes that may be made in the continuing refinement of these guidelines and any development of program-specific standard stipulations will be handled in another forum, including appropriate public involvement and input.