This Resource Management Plan (RMP) and Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) describes and analyzes alternatives for the future management of public lands and resources the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) administers in the Bighorn Basin in northwestern Wyoming (Figure 1-1). The Bighorn Basin RMP Revision Project is a combined effort to revise RMPs for the BLM Cody Field Office (CYFO) and BLM Worland Field Office (WFO). This document refers to the combined CYFO and WFO planning areas as the Planning Area (Figure 1-1).

The BLM administers public lands in the Planning Area according to three plans  the Cody RMP (1990) for the CYFO and the Washakie RMP (1988) and Grass Creek RMP (1998) for the WFO. The existing plans have been updated and amended since the BLM adopted them. While the BLM is preparing one EIS to address the impacts of revising the three existing plans, each field office will issue a Record of Decision (ROD) and RMP for its jurisdictional area at the end of the planning process. When complete, the Bighorn Basin RMP Revision Project will replace existing RMPs with one Approved RMP and ROD for the CYFO and one Approved RMP and ROD for the WFO. The Bighorn Basin RMP Revision Project is scheduled for completion by July 2012.

The Planning Area covers approximately 5.6 million acres of federal, state, and private lands in four Wyoming counties (Big Horn, Park, Washakie, and Hot Springs). Of the total area, 3.1 million acres are BLM-administered surface lands and 4.2 million acres are federal mineral estate. The CYFO extends west beyond the Bighorn Basin. However, generally, the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) Forest Service and the National Park Service manage those lands and leasing decisions are deferred to the surface management agency; therefore, this RMP and EIS does not consider them.