The revised RMPs will recognize valid existing rights.

Decisions in the revised RMPs will comply with all applicable laws and regulations. Decisions will comply, as appropriate, with policy and guidance.

Impacts from the management alternatives considered in the revised RMPs will be analyzed in an EIS developed in accordance with regulations at 43 CFR 1610 and 40 CFR 1500.

The planning process will follow the stages of an EIS-level planning process-conduct scoping, develop an AMS report, formulate alternatives, analyze the alternatives’ potential effects, select an agency preferred alternative, publish a Draft RMP and EIS, provide a 90-day public comment period for the draft, prepare and publish a Proposed Plan and Final EIS, provide a 30-day public protest period, and prepare an ROD. For specific information, see the Land Use Planning Handbook, H-1601-1.

Lands covered in the revised RMPs will be public land and split-estates the BLM administers. The BLM will make no decisions about lands or minerals that are not BLM administered.

BLM decisions will not apply to private land with private mineral estate.

The impact analysis will include all lands that could affect or be affected by BLM management of public lands in the Planning Area.

For program-specific guidance regarding land use planning-level decisions, the process will follow Land Use Planning Manual 1601 and Handbook H-1601-1, Appendix C.

The Bighorn Basin RMP Revision Project planning effort will be collaborative and multi-jurisdictional. The BLM will strive to ensure that its management decisions complement its planning jurisdictions and adjoining properties within the boundaries prescribed by law and regulation.

Broad-based public participation will be an integral part of the RMP revision and EIS process.

Decisions in the RMP will strive to be compatible with existing plans and policies of adjacent local, state, federal, and tribal agencies as long as the decisions are consistent with the purposes, policies, and programs of federal laws and regulations applicable to public lands.

The planning team will work cooperatively and collaboratively with cooperating agencies and all other interested groups, agencies, and individuals.

The BLM and cooperating agencies will jointly develop alternatives for resolution of resource management issues and management concerns.

The planning process will use the Wyoming BLM Mitigation Guidelines to develop management options and alternatives and analyze their impacts, and as part of the planning criteria for developing the options and alternatives and for determining mitigation requirements.

Planning and management direction will focus on the relative values of resources, not on the combination of uses that would give the greatest economic return or economic output.

All proposed management actions will be based on current scientific information, research and technology, and existing inventory and monitoring information.

Standards for Healthy Rangelands and Guidelines for Livestock Grazing Management for the Public Lands Administered by the Bureau of Land Management in the State of Wyoming will apply to all activities and uses.

The BLM will provide for public safety and welfare related to fire, hazardous materials, and abandoned mine lands.

The BLM will analyze and modify visual resource management (VRM) class designations to reflect present conditions and future needs.

The BLM will consider current and potential future uses of public lands through the development of reasonably foreseeable future development and activity scenarios based on technical analysis of historical, existing, and projected levels of use.

The BLM will develop reasonable foreseeable action scenarios for all land and resource uses (including minerals) and portray them based on historical, existing, and projected levels for all programs. The BLM will consider existing endangered species recovery plans, including plans for reintroduction of endangered and other species.

The planning process will involve Native American tribal governments and will provide strategies for the protection of recognized traditional uses.

Planning decisions will comply with the ESA and BLM interagency agreements with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS).

The BLM will continue implementing The National Sage-grouse Habitat Conservation Strategy that requires impacts to sagebrush habitat and sagebrush-dependent wildlife species be analyzed and considered in BLM land use planning efforts for public lands with sagebrush habitat in the Planning Area.

The BLM applied the relevance and importance criteria for ACEC designation (see BLM Manual 1613) to BLM-administered public lands in the Planning Area to identify areas that have the potential for ACEC designation. An ACEC designation alone does not change the allowed uses of public lands involved (FLPMA Section 201(a) and 43 CFR 1601.0-5a). In addition, protective measures for ACECs are not applied or required simply because of the designation. Any protective measures applied to ACECs are based on what is necessary to protect the relevance and importance criteria for which the ACEC was designated. The only automatic requirement associated with an ACEC designation is that a plan of operations must be submitted for any mining claim development in the area (43 CFR 3809.11(c)(3)).

During the preparation of the AMS for the Planning Area, the BLM evaluated free-flowing streams using the criteria established by the Wild and Scenic Rivers Act of 1968 to determine their eligibility and suitability for inclusion in the National Wild and Scenic Rivers System (NWSRS). The BLM developed interim management prescriptions for stream segments passing through public lands deemed Wild and Scenic River eligible. To provide a clear basis for comparisons, the No Action Alternative will not consider or include any of the stream segments evaluated in association with preparing the AMS for the RMP revisions.

OHV use management decisions in the revised RMPs will be consistent with the BLM 2001 National OHV Strategy.

The BLM will continue to manage Wilderness Study Areas (WSAs) under the Interim Management Policy (IMP) for Lands under Wilderness Review (BLM 1995a) until Congress either designates all or portions of the WSA as wilderness or releases the lands from further wilderness consideration. It is no longer BLM policy to designate additional WSAs through the RMP process, or to manage any lands other than existing WSAs in accordance with the non-impairment standard prescribed in the IMP.

Forest management strategies will be consistent with the Healthy Forests Restoration Act.

Fire management strategies will be consistent with the May 2004 Fire Management Plan for Wyoming Northern Zone (BLM 2004a).

Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and metadata information will meet Federal Geographic Data Committee standards, as required by Executive Order 12906 Coordinating Geographic Data Access. The BLM will comply with all other applicable BLM data standards.

In accordance with the principles of multiple use and sustained yield, this RMP will provide for monitoring and evaluation of RMP decisions over time. To the extent that Adaptive Management, as defined by DOI (http://www.doi.gov/initiatives/AdaptiveManagement/index.html) or BLM guidance, applies, the BLM will apply and assess Adaptive Management in activity-level and project-level plans. This RMP is not a standalone Adaptive Management project.