The IMP allows for little flexibility in the management of a WSA, because no discretionary actions that adversely affect WSAs are allowed (according to the nonimpairment mandate). The IMP prohibits surface-disturbing and most other disruptive activities and sets management guidelines aimed at the preservation of wilderness characteristics. However, the IMP respects valid existing rights and includes a grandfather clause that allows several resource uses and management actions not subject to the nonimpairment mandate. Resource uses and management actions that may meet this definition, and potentially adversely affect WSAs, include mineral development; ROW maintenance and development and new temporary ROWs where there is no reasonable, less impairing, alternative access available; or valid existing rights where the BLM has determined that application of the nonimpairment standard would unreasonably interfere with the exercise of those rights.
Valid existing mining claims not subject to the nonimpairment mandate may adversely affect wilderness characteristics, primarily through surface disturbance and facilities development. WSAs are closed to mineral leasing and mineral materials disposal under all alternatives, protecting wilderness values from adverse impacts from new mineral leasing. Existing ROW maintenance requiring vehicle use and new ROW authorizations necessary to develop valid existing rights may adversely affect wilderness characteristics in WSAs through surface disturbance and facilities development.
Invasive species are anticipated to spread under all alternatives and may adversely affect the naturalness of WSAs. Invasive species control is permitted in WSAs under the IMP. Vegetation treatments to control the spread of invasive species may result in short-term adverse impacts to wilderness characteristics due to mechanical clearing, prescribed fire, or other treatments that disturb the naturalness of WSAs. However, invasive species control would result in long-term beneficial impacts by maintaining natural vegetative communities and helping to meet vegetation management objectives.
Other special designations in WSAs, such as ACECs and WSRs, may be beneficial to wilderness characteristics in WSAs if their management increases resource restrictions or actions that protect or increase wilderness characteristics in the WSA. The Spanish Point Karst ACEC, designated under all alternatives, would provide additional protection for cave and karst resources in the Trapper Creek and Medicine Lodge WSAs.
WSAs are managed as VRM Class I areas under all of the alternatives, which is beneficial to the maintenance of wilderness characteristics because VRM Class I areas are managed to preserve the existing character of the landscape. However, activities that alter the visual landscape are allowed in areas adjacent to WSAs if they conform to the VRM for the area.
While the types of impacts to WSAs under each alternative are similar, the magnitude of these impacts would vary based on specific management and allocations under each alternative.
Restrictions on motorized vehicle use in WSAs would provide beneficial impacts to the preservation of wilderness characteristics. Motorized vehicle use may be incompatible with the concept of primitive recreation, and may affect perceptions of solitude by increasing noise levels and visitor contacts or by degrading the natural character of the landscape in areas where unauthorized pioneered routes have proliferated. Under Alternative A, motorized vehicle use is limited to existing roads and trails in the Cedar Mountain and Honeycombs WSAs, and limited to designated roads and trails in the Trapper Creek, Medicine Lodge, Alkali Creek, and McCullough Peaks WSAs (in those areas outside the Spanish Point Karst ACEC, which is closed to motorized vehicle use). The Owl Creek, Sheep Mountain, Red Butte, and Bobcat Draw Badlands WSAs are closed to motorized vehicle use under Alternative A to manage for maintaining their wilderness characteristics.
The proposed expansion of the Bobcat Draw Badlands WSA would result in beneficial impacts by restricting uses incompatible with the preservation of wilderness characteristics on an additional 1,290 acres. No other land acquisitions or disposal actions are proposed for WSAs under this alternative.
All WSR eligible waterway segments are managed to protect their free-flowing nature, ORVs, and tentative classifications. Segments of Medicine Lodge Creek and Trapper Creek lie within similarly named WSAs. Under Alternative A, these special designations include additional resource protection measures that prohibit surface-disturbing activities such as range improvements, exclude ROWs, and close these segments to motorized vehicle use. These protective measures would result in beneficial impacts to WSAs by further protecting wilderness characteristics.
Alternative B is the most restrictive alternative for motorized and mechanized vehicle travel and would be the most beneficial to the preservation of wilderness characteristics such as opportunities for solitude and primitive recreation. Management under this alternative maintains the closures under Alternative A and expands them to include all areas in the WSAs and mechanized vehicle travel.
Lands and realty management under Alternative B would provide the BLM flexibility to acquire WSA inholdings and may, therefore, have the greatest beneficial impact on eliminating any incompatible uses (e.g., extensive surface disturbances with strong visual contrast) occurring on these non BLM-administered parcels. The identification of land-tenure adjustment zones may result in beneficial impacts to WSAs by increasing the potential for and expediting the disposal of inholdings or the acquisition of areas with high wilderness characteristics values that increase the manageability of WSAs.
Under Alternative B, designating approximately 571,288 acres of LWCs as Wild Lands and managing them to protect wilderness characteristics would decrease incompatible land uses adjacent to some WSAs, resulting in beneficial impacts to the wilderness characteristics in WSAs. Because many of the Wild Lands are adjacent to or surround the WSAs, adverse impacts to wilderness characteristics from adjacent land uses (e.g., intensive oil and gas development) would be limited along the boundaries of the WSAs.
Impacts to WSAs from WSRs would be similar to Alternative A, except that the Dry Medicine Lodge Creek WSR, a portion of which is in the Medicine Lodge WSA, includes additional management actions for resource protection under this alternative that would further protect the wilderness characteristics of the WSA.
Alternative C is the least restrictive for motorized vehicle use in WSAs and would be the least beneficial to the preservation of wilderness characteristics. Under Alternative C, motorized vehicle use is limited to designated roads and trails in all WSAs. Management of the Cedar Mountain and Honeycombs WSAs under Alternative C would provide greater protection of the areas’ wilderness characteristics than management under Alternative A. The less restrictive designations in the remaining WSAs, especially Owl Creek, Sheep Mountain, Red Butte, and Bobcat Draw Badlands – closed to motorized vehicle use under Alternative A but limited to designated trails under Alternative C – would provide the least benefit to the preservation of wilderness characteristics of any alternative.
Under Alternative C, the BLM does not pursue the acquisition of inholdings, lands, or interests in lands within WSA boundaries, which would result in adverse impacts to WSAs by decreasing lands transactions that consolidate lands in WSAs and increase the ability to meet management objectives that help maintain or improve wilderness characteristics. Reducing the potential for land transactions in WSAs also would result in adverse impacts by reducing the flexibility to mitigate the effects of incompatible adjacent uses through land-tenure adjustments.
Under Alternative C, management of WSR eligible waterway segments would not benefit wilderness characteristics in the WSAs, because the BLM does not manage waterways to maintain their ORVs.
Alternative D is generally more restrictive of travel in WSAs than alternatives A or C, but less than Alternative B. Alternative D limits motorized vehicle use to designated roads and trails in the Cedar Mountain, Honeycombs, Trapper Creek, Medicine Lodge, and Alkali Creek WSAs (as under Alternative C), carries forward the McCullough Peaks Travel Management Plan (as under Alternative A), and closes the Owl Creek, Sheep Mountain, Red Butte, and Bobcat Draw Badlands to motorized vehicle use (as under Alternative A). Beneficial impacts to wilderness characteristics from travel management in these areas would be similar to those identified under alternatives A and B.
As under Alternative B, the BLM would have flexibility under Alternative D to acquire WSA inholdings or interests in lands within WSA boundaries, which could result in beneficial impacts by eliminating uses incompatible with the preservation of wilderness characteristics occurring on these non BLM-administered parcels. Alternative D also includes land-tenure zones that would increase the potential for and expedite the disposal of inholdings or the acquisition of areas with high wilderness characteristics values that increase the manageability of WSAs. Designating some LWCs as Wild Lands (52,485 acres) would result in similar impacts to WSAs as those described under Alternative B, but to a lesser extent. Under Alternative D, the BLM does not manage WSR eligible waterway segments to maintain their ORVs or wilderness characteristics, so no beneficial impacts would be conveyed to WSAs where these areas overlap or adjoin other special designations.