The purposes of the “Wyoming BLM Mitigation Guidelines” are (1) to reserve, for the BLM, the right to modify the operations of all surface and other human presence disturbance activities as part of the statutory requirements for environmental protection; and (2) to inform a potential lessee, permittee, or operator of the requirements that must be met when using BLM-administered public lands. These guidelines have been written in a format that will allow for (1) their direct use as stipulations, and (2) the addition of specific or specialized mitigation following the submission of a detailed plan of development or other project proposal, and an environmental analysis.

Those resource activities or programs currently without a standardized set of permit or operation stipulations can use the mitigation guidelines as stipulations or as conditions of approval, or as a baseline for developing specific stipulations for a given activity or program.

Because use of the mitigation guidelines was integrated into the RMP EIS process and will be integrated into the site-specific environmental analysis process, the application of stipulations or mitigation requirements derived through the guidelines will provide more consistency with planning decisions and plan implementation than has occurred in the past. Application of the mitigation guidelines to all surface and other human presence disturbance activities concerning BLM-administered public lands and resources will provide more uniformity in mitigation than has occurred in the past.