BLM land management meeting draws crowd

More than 50 people — some from regions far off the Hi-Line — attended a meeting in Havre to hear about plans on how the U.S. Bureau of Land Management will manage its land on the Hi-Line.

BLM held a meeting in Havre Wednesday to present its draft — and to request comments on that draft — of its plan for resource management on BLM land across the Hi-Line from Valley through Glacier counties.

Brian Hockett, BLM project manager on the drafting of the plan, stressed that nothing is final in the proposal, which is available online at http://www.blm.gov/8qkd.

“This is a draft document,” he said. “There haven’t been any decisions made. We’ve got the preferred alternative out there to give you folks something to chew on, but I can guarantee that preferred alternative is going to change, it’s going to look a little different. Hopefully not much, but you are the folks who can tweak that alternative.”

The Havre meeting was the third this week, with public meetings already held in Glasgow and Malta and continuing tonight in Chester starting at 6 p.m., and wrapping up Monday in Great Falls.

Hockett said the bureau hopes to have the final draft of the plan — work on which started in October 2006 — out by spring of 2014 and a final decision in place by the early fall of 2014.

Part of that deadline is driven by a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service deadline — whether to list the greater sage grouse as a threatened or endangered species.

“They have to make the big decision whether to list that bird by 2015,” Hockett said.

Fish and Wildlife Service is asking BLM to have its management plan in place to consider how the sage grouse habitat is being managed before it makes its decision.

The plan lists five alternatives: continuing with the exact same management as is in place — set in 1988 for the western part of the region and in 1994 for the Judith-Valley-Phillips portion — or setting a high conservation and preservation management plan in place; setting a plan focused on development; setting a plan that blends conservation and development; and the bureau’s preferred alternative, which Hockett said also is a blend of the two extremes.

He said the process — which has heavily relied on public meetings at the start, with collaboration with other agencies and county and tribal governments in the region — depends on comments from the public, including if people see something they think has been left out, or included incorrectly.

“Let us know if you find anything that doesn’t look right,” Hockett said.

It is not a popularity contest, however — Hockett said people have to have reasons why the draft needs to be changed.

“This is not a voting process, so we need a substantive amount of comments,” he said.

The plan includes some compromises. Hockett said, for example, Fish and Wildlife Service and other agencies wanted complete exclusion of oil and gas development in some areas, such as for sage grouse protection, but the plan instead recommends no surface occupancy, but would allow horizontal drilling to the area.

The preferred alternative also recommends adding about 10,000 acres of land to be managed as wilderness areas, and maintaining restrictions already imposed in some areas.

When several people disputed findings that chances of oil and gas exploration and development are low in areas of Phillips and Valley counties, which are main regions for greater sage grouse habitat, the BLM officials said that determination was made by BLM geologists and through consultations with oil and gas companies that work in Montana. But nothing is definite.

“If you guys have information, we need to hear it,” Hockett said.

One audience member asked if the public comment period could be extended. Hockett said part of the time frame is to meet the Fish and Wildlife Service deadline, but if people want more time, they should make that comment.

Under the current schedule, for comments to be considered, they must be postmarked or delivered to BLM by June 20.

People must include their name and return mailing address in their written or electronic messages.

Public comments can be emailed to [email protected], faxed to 406-233-3650 or mailed or hand-delivered to the BLM Havre Field Office, 3990 Highway 2 West, Havre, MT 59501.