Calico Basin Recreation Area Management Plan and Environmental Assessment
Draft RAMP/EA and Frequently Asked Questions
Reading the Draft RAMP/EA
The BLM prepared the Draft Calico Basin RAMP/EA to guide the agency’s overall management of recreation in the Calico Basin as part of the General Management Plan for the RRCNCA. The Draft Calico Basin RAMP/EA includes the following sections:
Chapter 1 identifies the project background, context, early planning, and issues for consideration.
Chapter 2 is the proposed Calico Basin RAMP.
Chapter 3 describes the monitoring, enforcement, and adaptive management associated with implementing the RAMP.
Chapter 4 describes the affected environment and analyzes the environmental consequences.
Chapter 5 documents the BLM’s consultation and coordination relative to the RAMP and the associated EA.
Calico Basin Trail sign at Red Springs
Issues considered in the Draft RAMP/EA
Following the identification of preliminary issues by the public, stakeholders, and BLM interdisciplinary team in the early planning and information gathering process, the BLM identified three issues to structure the proposed RAMP (Section 2.1) and focus the EA analyses of environmental consequences (Section 3.3).
Issue 1: Recreational uses, experiences, and setting. What recreation uses should be allowed within the Calico Basin and how should the BLM manage those uses?
Issue 2: Fees, administration, and infrastructure. How would a reservation system for visitor use help the BLM manage increasing visitation to the Calico Basin, and how would a fee collection system contribute to infrastructure or facilities management and enforcement in the Calico Basin?
Issue 3: Consistency with the management considerations in the RRCNCA. How will the proposed recreation management in the RAMP/EA conserve, protect, and enhance the natural, cultural, social, and other resource conditions in the Calico Basin portion of the RRCNCA?
Calico Basin Homes Near the Entrance
Structure of the RAMP
The Calico Basin RAMP (Chapters 2 and 3 of the Draft RAMP/EA) identifies the goals, strategies, and decisions for the BLM’s management of recreation in the Calico Basin, and identifies processes for monitoring, enforcement, and adaptive management. While the RAMP identifies potential implementation-level projects, such as adding signage to trailheads or modifying existing facilities, it does not analyze these projects in detail. Most future implementation-level projects would require separate analyses under NEPA. Further information on the priorities for implementation-phase projects is provided in Section 2.5.4 of the Draft Calico Basin RAMP/EA. The proposed Calico Basin RAMP’s purpose is to be a planning document that guides how the BLM manages recreation on BLM-administered lands in the Calico Basin, consistent with the values of the RRCNCA.
The RAMP consists of a mission, guiding principles, goals, strategies, and decisions. The BLM recognizes that achieving the mission, goals, strategies, and decisions of the RAMP would require continued coordination with the public and key stakeholders. Plan monitoring would inform the need for any future plan updates and associated adaptive management.
The mission provides a broad vision for management
Guiding principles provide direction for consistency with the values of the RRCNCA
Goals explain the aspirations for desired conditions toward which the BLM would like to move
Strategies define the methods the BLM would use to achieve those goals
Decisions reflect the specific, detailed management BLM would employ to achieve the mission and goals for the RAMP. The degree to which these specific management decisions are carried out depends on priorities, available personnel, funding levels, and completion of further environmental analyses and decisionmaking, as appropriate.
The BLM is proposing recreation area management goals, strategies, and decisions under two of the aforementioned issues—Recreational uses, experiences, and settings and Fees, administration, and infrastructure. This management direction is guided by the need to conserve, protect, and enhance natural resources. Under each of these issues and associated goals, strategies and decisions are considered further under resource subheadings such as Resource Protection; Special Recreation Permits; Trails and Access; Visitation Management; Roads and Parking; etc. This organization allows readers of the RAMP (and future decision-makers at the RRCNCA) to clearly follow specific topics and understand the rationale and context for management decisions.
Cactus in Gateway Canyon
RAMP Adaptive Management Framework
Monitoring, Enforcement, and Adaptive Management
Chapter 3 of the Draft Calico Basin RAMP/EA addresses monitoring, enforcement, and adaptive management. The adaptive management proposed in this RAMP/EA framework is divided into four major elements:
Build the foundation with the broad management in the RRCNCA RMP;
Define specific visitor use management direction for the Calico Basin in the RAMP/EA;
Identify monitoring and adaptive management strategies; and
Implement, monitor, evaluate, and adjust.
These elements provide increasingly detailed management direction from the RRCNCA RMP to the in-field monitoring and mitigation to move resources toward the desired characteristics of the relevant Management Emphasis Area described in the RRCNCA RMP (see Figure 11 and Figure 12). Further, this process of adaptive management is intended to be flexible, iterative, and adaptable while including the application of relevant laws and regulations, agency guidance, and public involvement.
Analysis in the EA
Chapter 4 of the Draft Calico Basin RAMP/EA describes the affected environment, which is the existing or baseline conditions relevant to each resource or resource use. Following the affected environment is a description of the environmental effects relative to each alternative and in consideration of the three previously mentioned issues and each relevant each resource or resource use. This portion of the Draft Calico Basin RAMP/EA provides the reader with an understanding of how the alternatives could impact various resources or activities.
Recreation in Calico Basin
An interactive map below shows a 2020 inventory of the current trails, recreational facilities, land status, and usage in the Calico Basin Recreation Area. This information can also be downloaded as a PDF map or a Google Earth KMZ file. Please note that viewing the KMZ requires the user to have Google Earth, which is available here. This map should provide a visitor with a general sense of the Calico Basin Recreation Area.
Notes on map use
You can access the map legend by toggling it on or off with the arrow in the upper left corner
Map layers can be turned on and off in the legend
You can click on a layer in the map to find out more information
Local residents can search for their address in the upper right corner
Frequently Asked Questions
1. What did the BLM do with the input from the early planning and information gathering?
The BLM completed public outreach as part of the early planning and information gathering comment period that ran from February 23 to March 25, 2021. The BLM conducted this public comment period to identify issues to be addressed and to help determine the appropriate scope of the NEPA analyses. The BLM also held two virtual meetings with stakeholders on March 8 and 9, and conducted a virtual meeting with the public on March 11, 2021. During these meetings, the BLM presented an overview of the proposed RAMP/EA and requested public input. To summarize the comments received during the 30-day comment period, the BLM developed a comment report for the public that identified preliminary issues the BLM used to help formulate a reasonable range of alternatives and the scope of analyses for the Draft Calico Basin RAMP/EA.
2. What is a RAMP (Recreation Area Management Plan)?
A RAMP is a document the BLM prepares to guide the agency’s management of a specific recreation area. A RAMP contains focused management for recreation activities, sites, and facilities within the recreation area. In the Calico Basin, a RAMP will provide coordinated management and implementation strategies to support popular day-use recreational activities, such as rock climbing, bouldering, hiking, horseback riding, nature viewing, and picnicking within the area. The Calico Basin RAMP will help the BLM to more effectively manage the unique recreation opportunities and settings in the Calico Basin.
3. Why is a RAMP necessary at Calico Basin?
The Red Rock National Conservation Area (NCA) includes the Calico Basin, which had more than 700,000 visitors in 2020. This amount of visitation had the potential for impacting important resources, which led to the establishment of a reservation system for the Scenic Drive. Visitation at Calico Basin is also anticipated to continue to increase. The BLM is therefore preparing the Draft RAMP to accommodate current and anticipated future level of recreational use in this area while avoiding, minimizing, or mitigating the potential for recreational user conflicts, resource impacts, and undesirable conditions for the residents of the Calico Basin community.
4. What is analyzed in the Draft EA?
The Draft EA is a concise document that the BLM prepared to determine whether to prepare an environmental impact statement or a finding of no significant impact as required by the NEPA process. The Draft EA includes brief discussions of the purpose and need for the RAMP, alternatives for management in the RAMP, and disclosure of the environmental impacts of the proposed action and alternatives. The analysis was driven by the issues identified during the early planning and information gathering period.
5. How can the public provide their input on the Draft RAMP/EA?
The public has opportunities to comment on the Draft Calico Basin RAMP/EA in several ways. They also were able to provide verbal comments at the virtual public information held on November 18, 2021 from 6 to 8 p.m. PST. Stakeholders and the public can also provide written comments by mail or email as described in more detail here during the 30-day comment period from November 8 to December 8, 2021. Comments will be accepted at any time, but those submitted prior to December 8, 2021 would be most helpful in development of the Final RAMP/EA.
6. What will the BLM do with the input received from the public during the 30-day comment period on the Final RAMP/EA?
The BLM will consider substantive comments received from the public on the Draft Calico Basin RAMP/EA. As appropriate, the BLM will refine the analysis or proposed management in the Final RAMP/EA based on this feedback from the public.
Next Station: Providing Comments
For more information on the Calico Basin RAMP/EA or to be added to the mailing list, please email the BLM.