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BLM takes comment on Ring of Fire plan Resource management plan/EIS covers 1.3 million discontinuous acres of 61.4 million acre Aleutians-Southeast planning area Petroleum News
The Department of the Interior’s Bureau of Land Management is taking comments on a draft resource management plan and environmental impact statement for its Ring of Fire planning area, which arcs from the end of the Aleutians to just above the Dixon Entrance in southeast Alaska, a linear distance of some 2,500 miles. The entire planning area is 61.4 million acres, although BLM lands within the planning area are only some 1.3 million acres of discontinuous lands. The agency said the largest tracts exceed 100,000 acres while the smallest tracts vary in size from several hundred acres to less than 10 acres.
The plan also addresses management of subsurface estate held by BLM under privately owned surface lands and under components of the National Wildlife Refuge System and the National Forest System. Within the planning area there are four regions: Alaska Peninsula/Aleutian Chain, Kodiak, Southcentral and Southeast.
Most lands with mineral potential selected by state, Native corporations
While oil and gas exploration and development is an activity considered in the plan, BLM-managed lands in Alaska have been selected by the State of Alaska and Native corporations. The state selected lands under the Alaska Statehood Act of 1959 and Native lands were designated as a result of the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act of 1971, which provided for Native claims to traditional lands.
“Most areas of high mineral potential within the Ring of Fire planning area were selected and conveyed as a result of these actions,” says a mineral potential report prepared for BLM by URS Corp. Four alternatives considered Alternatives being considered include A, No Action; B, Resource Development; C, Resource Conservation; and D, the Preferred Alternative. “Alternative D provides a balance of protection, use, and enhancement of resources. The majority of unselected lands and those selected lands whose selection would be relinquished or rejected, would be open to oil and gas leasing and development and mineral location, though certain unique or sensitive areas would remain closed,” BLM said.
BLM and the URS Corp. are holding open house-public hearings for the draft plan in Palmer Dec. 8 at the Colony High School Theater, in Kodiak Dec. 12 at the Kodiak High School Commons, in Anchorage Dec. 14 at the BLM Anchorage Field Office on Abbott Loop Road and in Kenai Dec. 15 at the Kenai Central High School Little Theater. There is an open house from 6-7 p.m. with a brief overview of the plan, followed by public comments from 7:20-9 p.m.
The draft report and EIS are available in hardcopy and on CD at the BLM Anchorage Field Office.
Call BLM at (907) 267-1246 or (800) 478-1263.
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