Draft Purpose and Need

The Draft EA will be a concise document that the BLM prepares 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 will include a brief discussion of the purpose and need for the Gold Butte National Monument Implementation Plan.

The Draft Purpose and Need was made available for public review and comment on the NEPA Register website.

Need for the Implementation Plan:

The need for an implementation plan is to integrate the management decisions already provided in the Record of Decision (ROD) for the 1998 Approved Las Vegas Resource Management Plan (RMP) and Final Environmental Impact Statement (BLM 1998) with the decisions established in the Presidential Proclamation. The proclamation specifies “...the Secretary, through the BLM, shall prepare and maintain a management plan for the monument and shall provide for maximum public involvement in the development of that plan including, but not limited to, consultation with State, tribal, and local governments.”

Purpose of the Implementation Plan:

The purpose of this implementation plan (IP) is to provide goals, objectives, and management direction to guide the Bureau of Land Management’s (BLM’s) management of the monument. These goals, objectives, and management direction would protect the objects and values in the monument, as identified in Presidential Proclamation 9559. The IP would provide future site-specific actions while tiering off of the land use planning decisions in the Approved Las Vegas RMP, 1998, and adhering to the established Presidential Proclamation. The monument consists of BLM-administered lands with cultural, natural, and scientific significance, which are to be protected for the benefit of all Americans. The IP would provide management direction that would preserve and protect the rich cultural tradition that is expressed in the biological, archaeological, historic, and cultural sites and values that occur throughout the monument. These resources include, but are not limited to, vital plant and wildlife habitat, significant geological formations, rare fossils, remnants of the western mining and ranching heritage, recreation, lands and realty, water resources, and prehistoric sites from Native American heritage.