The Bureau of Land Management’s (BLM) final Resource Management Plan (RMP) for the Pinedale Anticline in Wyoming mirrors the preliminary proposal, with one addition: more protections in a key migration corridor for deer and antelope, officials said.

The final RMP was issued Wednesday. The plan is close to BLM’s proposed Alternative 4, issued earlier this year, which attempted to meld protections for wildlife habitat while permitting more oil and natural gas exploration in the region (see Daily GPI, Aug. 25; Feb. 21).

The record of decision covers 1,875 square miles of mineral estate owned by BLM in the Pinedale Anticline. The BLM Pinedale Field Office (PFO) administers around 922,880 acres of public surface land and 1.2 million acres of federal mineral estate, and under the final RMP, about 758,000 acres of the region would be available for oil and gas development.

“The BLM, local, state and federal cooperators have worked together to develop a range of reasonable management alternatives for allocation of resources in the planning area,” said BLM PFO Manager Chuck Otto. “This RMP provides future direction for managing the nearly 923,000 acres of BLM-administered surface land and 1.2 million acres of BLM-administered mineral estate in the planning area.”

Following a review of the plan by the public and other stakeholders, Otto noted that the final plan increased protections in a key migration corridor for deer and antelope. Otherwise, the RMP is nearly identical to preliminary proposals.

The approved RMP includes broad land use plan decisions that provide direction for management of resources and resource uses within the PFO planning area, which is spread across Wyoming’s Sublette and Lincoln counties. The RMP is designed to be in place for as long as 20 years, but if circumstances warrant, BLM may revise the plan at any time.

The final RMP is available in the Pinedale section of BLM’s website at www.blm.gov/rmp/wy/pinedale

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