This brief update on the coordinated Bureau of Land Management (BLM) and National Park Service (NPS) interagency planning effort is to inform you of the current schedule and advise you on upcoming steps in which you may wish to participate.

The objectives of this coordinated planning effort are to prepare management plans or amendments to existing plans for Death Valley National Park, Mojave National Preserve and about 2.5 million acres of BLM lands in the California portion of the Mojave Desert. After about two and a half years of scoping, public meetings, data gathering, interagency meetings and staff work on alternatives, the BLM decided to pursue preparation of their plan amendment as a standalone document. The NPS proceeded to extract relevant information from the combined DEIS that was being prepared, and began assembling separate DEISs for each park unit.

The NPS released draft general management plans and environmental impact statements for Death Valley and Mojave in September 1998, initially for a 90-day public review, but ultimately extended to a total of 127 days.

Following analysis of hundreds of written comments on the NPS DEISs, the NPS decided to amend the draft plans and issue revised draft environmental impact statements. At this time, it appears as though the NPS and BLM documents may be released at about the same time this spring. If these schedules are met, the opportunity for concurrent public review and joint public meetings may arise.

The BLM held additional scoping meetings in the fall of 1998 to consider the range of issues to be addressed specific to BLM lands, and the range of alternatives to address each issue.

Analysis began in early 1999, and a proposed California Desert Conservation Area Plan amendment and draft environmental impact statement are anticipated in the spring of 2000.

The BLM has been working in the Northern and Eastern Mojave planning area of the California Desert Conservation Area (CDCA) to address four goals:

The NPS and BLM estimate release dates for their respective DEISs around June 2000. A 90 day public review period would be provided with public workshops sometime during the latter half of the review period. Following public review, separate final EISs would be prepared by each agency to provide written responses to public and agency comments on the drafts, and revisions to the drafts where necessary. Thirty days after release of the final EISs, separate agency Records of Decision (RODs) would be issued identifying the management action chosen. The RODs provide the final agency decision after consideration of all the public input. The NPS would also print separate summary general management plans for Death Valley and Mojave shortly after the records of decision to present the overall management plan strategy for each park in a format separate from the environmental impact documents.

If you may be interested in reviewing any of the draft plans, there will be several ways this can occur:

You can help the BLM save money on printing and mailing costs by carefully determining your interests and capabilities for utilizing shared copies or computer technology, and choosing the method most suitable to your needs. The least expensive options are listed first (most are minimal or no cost), while the most expensive are listed last (printing and mailing hard copies of each document will cost about $35 each).

There may be a charge if you request both printed copy and CD-ROM.

IF YOU CHOOSE NOT TO REQUEST A COPY OF THE DOCUMENT, IT IS ASSUMED YOU WILL UTILIZE ONE OF THE SHARED OR COMPUTER TECHNOLOGY OPTIONS IN PREPARING YOUR COMMENTS.

Send the above information along with a return mail address to the address listed below.