craigdailypress.com

Following years of discussions and hours of meetings covering the use of federal land managed by the Bureau of Land Management's Little Snake Field Office, the public has an opportunity to comment on the draft of the Resource Management Plan.

The 90-day comment period, which began in February, includes three chances to meet locally with BLM officials to discuss the alternatives or to make comments on the proposed draft of the RMP.

Open houses will be held from 4 to 7 p.m. today in Maybell at the school gym, Wednesday in Steamboat Springs at the Community Center, and on Thursday in Craig at the Moffat County Fairgrounds Pavilion.

"This is a good information opportunity," BLM field manager John Husband said. "These meetings are designed to get information from people on the Resource Management Plan."

The RMP provides a framework for managing the approximately 1.3 million acres administered by the Little Snake Field Office in Moffat, Routt and Rio Blanco counties.

A number of BLM personnel will be on hand at the meetings to meet one-on-one with residents who have questions or comments on the plan.

BLM Planning and Envir-

onmental Coordinator Jeremy Casterson said visual displays set up at various stations should help the public understand the differences in the alternative options.

"We have stations to discuss wildlife, travel management for off-highway vehicles, recreation and oil and gas as well as mineral development," he said. "We show baseline information, as well as the preferred and three other alternatives discussed in the plan."

Casterson said the public is encouraged to use laptop computers at the meetings to instantly submit comments to the bureau. Comments also can be mailed to the BLM or submitted online to be included in the public comments section of the plan.

The 90-day public comment period ends May 16, at which time the BLM will use the comments to prepare a final Environmental Impact Statement on the proposed plan.

"Public involvement has been critical to the plan's development so far," Husband said. "We are strongly encouraging anyone interested to participate in this public comment period and attend one of these meetings."

The bureau hopes to have the final RMP completed by November or December of 2007.

Dan Olsen can be reached at 824-7031, ext. 207, or dolsen@craigdailypress.com.

Little Snake Resource Management public meetings

Meetings are from 4 to 7 p.m.

• March 13, Maybell, School Gym, Highway 40
• March 14, Steamboat Springs, Community Center, 1255 Lincoln Ave.
• March 15, Craig, Moffat County Fairgrounds Pavilion, 750 East Fourth St.