Vantage to Pomona FEIS Index 34 - Laserfiche WebLink

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Vantage to Pomona Heights Chapter 3 230 kV Transmission Line Project FEIS Affected Environment PAGE 3-166 include the San Juan Islands (see April 30, 2010, Federal Register notice). On March 25, 2013, the President issued Presidential Proclamation 8947 and established the San Juan Islands National Monument. The new National Monument encompasses the BLM-administered lands in the San Juan Islands that were part of the expanded Planning Area described in the April 30, 2010 Notice of Intent to prepare an RMP. Subsequently, the BLM determined that it would prepare an RMP specific to the San Juan Islands National Monument. On March 2, 2015, the BLM announced its intention to prepare an RMP for the San Juan Islands National Monument and initiated the public scoping process for that effort. The Eastern Washington RMP planning effort does not include BLM-administered public lands in the San Juan Islands archipelago. Some of the current alternatives identify new or consolidated ACECs. Yakima River Canyon and Umtanum Ridge ACEC The consolidation and expansion of the ACEC parcels in the Yakima River Canyon is being considered in the revised RMP/EIS. The combined and expanded ACEC would be called the Yakima River Canyon and Umtanum Ridge ACEC. The values for designating this ACEC include regionally important cultural values, bighorn sheep, golden eagle (Aquilla chrysaetos), basalt daisy, Hoover’s desert-parsley, Hoover’s tauschia, and pauper milkvetch (Astragalus misellus var. pauper). The entire area being considered for the Yakima River Canyon and Umtanum Ridge ACEC consists of 4,720 acres (Boyter 2013). Huntzinger Road ACEC The BLM Spokane District is also considering the designation of a new ACEC. The Huntzinger Road ACEC is located near Wanapum Dam on the Columbia River. This ACEC consists of 135 acres and is being considered for botanical values (Columbia milkvetch, naked-stemmed evening-primrose [Camissonia scapoidea ssp. scapoidea]; Boyter 2013). 3.6.2.13 Washington State Department of Transportation Environmental Buffer The basalt daisy is found exclusively in a 10-mile stretch of the Yakima River Canyon, growing in the Yakima Basalt formation along Selah Creek (which flows below the Selah Rest Area on Washington State Department of Transportation [WSDOT] managed property) and the Yakima River Canyon. In order to provide additional protection to potential basalt daisy habitat on WSDOT-managed property, WSDOT established an approximately 102-acre “environmental management buffer” in 2008. This parcel is located within the western half of Section 15 west of Interstate (I) 82 and north of the Selah Rest Area. The environmental management buffer is non-regulatory in nature, and was created to alert WSDOT and others to the presence of the basalt daisy and, if feasible, to avoid impacts to this species from WSDOT or other projects (WSDOT 2014). 3.6.3 Current Management Considerations 3.6.3.1 BLM Lands under the jurisdiction of the BLM in the Project area are managed in accordance with the Spokane District 1985/1987 RMP and 1992 RMP Amendment/ROD. The Planning Area consists of two field offices: the Wenatchee Field Office and the Border Field Office (see Section 3.4 Land Use and Jurisdiction). The RMP is currently in the process of being updated (Eastern Washington and San Juan RMP). 3.6.3.2 Hanford Reach National Monument The Columbia River Corridor, Wahluke, and Rattlesnake Administrative Units are in the Project area as identified in the Final HRNM Comprehensive Conservation Plan (CCP) and EIS (USFWS 2008). Although the river is open and accessible to the public, the Columbia River Corridor and Rattlesnake Administrative units (adjacent to and south of the river, DOE-owned lands) are closed to public use with the exception of the area north and west of Vernita Bridge. The Wahluke Administrative Unit, located on