Public involvement, consultation, and coordination initiated prior to and occurred throughout preparation of the Bighorn Basin Resource Management Plan (RMP) revision and associated Draft Environmental Impact Statement (EIS). The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) incorporated public involvement, consultation, and coordination through public meetings, informal meetings, individual contacts, news releases, newsletters, workshops, a planning website, and the Federal Register. This chapter describes the public involvement process, as well as other key consultation and coordination activities undertaken to prepare the EIS in support of the RMP revision. It also contains the List of Preparers in Table 5–2.

The BLM decision-making process is conducted in accordance with the requirements of the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) regulations implementing NEPA, and the United States Department of the Interior (DOI) and BLM policies and procedures implementing NEPA. NEPA and the associated regulatory and policy framework require that all federal agencies involve the interested public and potentially affected parties in their decision-making, consider reasonable alternatives to proposed actions, and prepare environmental documents that disclose the potential impacts of proposed actions and alternatives.

A Notice of Intent (NOI) published in the Federal Register on October 17, 2008, formally announced the BLM’s intent to revise the existing plans and prepare the associated EIS. The NOI initiated the scoping process and invited participation of affected and interested agencies, organizations, and members of the public in determining the scope and issues to be addressed by alternatives and analyzed in the EIS. The BLM solicited additional public involvement, including cooperating agency meetings and workshops, to help identify issues to be addressed in developing a full range of land management alternatives. Table 5–1 lists public involvement, coordination, and consultation events.