WASHINGTON — The Bureau of Land Management will hold eight public open houses throughout the West in February to gather input on the agency’s proposal to withdraw a subset of lands that are sage grouse strongholds from future mining claims.
One of those meetings will be held Tuesday, 5 to 7 p.m., at the BLM’s office at 2370 S. Decker Lake Blvd. in West Valley City.
The meetings are the next step in a process that started in September 2015 with the successful efforts by the BLM and its state and federal partners to prevent the greater sage grouse from being listed under the Endangered Species Act.
A draft environmental impact statement analyzes five alternatives, ranging from no action to the withdrawal of approximately 10 million acres of federal locatable minerals in certain areas that are particularly crucial to the greater sage grouse in six states: Idaho, Montana, Nevada, Oregon, Utah and Wyoming.
Neither the segregation, nor any subsequent withdrawal, would prohibit ongoing or future mining exploration or extraction operations on valid pre-existing claims.
The proposal was published in the Federal Register on Dec. 30, and carries a 90-day public comment period that will end March 30.
Interested parties can mail written comments to Mark Mackiewicz, Bureau of Land Management (BLM) WO, c/o Price Field Office, 125 S. 600 West, Price, UT 84501, or by submitting it electronically to sagebrush_withdrawals@blm.gov.