Temporary Closure and Restriction Orders

<RULE> DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR <SUBAGY>Bureau of Land Management</SUBAGY> <CFR>43 CFR Part 8360</CFR> <DEPDOC>[BLM_HQ_FRN_MO4500179077]</DEPDOC> <RIN>RIN 1004-AE89</RIN> <SUBJECT>Temporary Closure and Restriction Orders</SUBJECT> <HD SOURCE="HED">AGENCY:</HD> Bureau of Land Management, Interior. <HD SOURCE="HED">ACTION:</HD> Final rule. <SUM> <HD SOURCE="HED">SUMMARY:</HD> The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) is revising its regulations to modernize and streamline how the agency notifies the public of temporary closure and restriction orders; clarify that such orders may be issued to avoid conflicts among public land users and ensure the privacy of Tribal activities for traditional or cultural use; require that all orders specify the date and time that a temporary closure or restriction becomes effective and terminates; and harmonize the penalties for violating temporary closure and restriction orders consistent with current statutory authority. </SUM> <DATES> <HD SOURCE="HED">DATES:</HD> This final rule is effective on September 6, 2024. </DATES> <FURINF> <HD SOURCE="HED">FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:</HD> Kevin Oliver, Division Chief, BLM Headquarters Division of Recreation and Visitor Services at (801) 450-3134 or via email at <E T="03">koliver@blm.gov.</E> For questions relating to regulatory process issues, email Brittney D. Rodrigues at: <E T="03">brodrigues@blm.gov.</E> Individuals in the United States who are deaf, blind, hard of hearing, or have a speech disability may dial 711 (TTY, TDD, or TeleBraille) to access telecommunications relay services. Individuals outside the United States should use the relay services offered within their country to make international calls to the point-of-contact in the United States. For a summary of the final rule, please see the final rule summary document in docket No. BLM-2023-0007 on <E T="03">https://www.regulations.gov.</E> </FURINF> <SUPLINF> <HD SOURCE="HED">SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:</HD> <EXTRACT> <HD SOURCE="HD1">I. Background</HD> <FP SOURCE="FP-2">II. Response to Comments on the Proposed Rule</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP-2">III. Discussion of the Final Rule</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP-2">IV. Procedural Matters</FP> </EXTRACT> <HD SOURCE="HD1">I. Background</HD> The Federal Land Policy and Management Act (FLPMA) (43 U.S.C. 1701-1787) establishes the BLM's multiple use and sustained yield mandate. In managing the public lands in accordance with FLPMA, the BLM occasionally issues temporary closure and restriction orders under 43 CFR 8364.1 to protect persons, property, public lands, and resources. The need to temporarily close or restrict the use of public land arises in various situations, including in response to an emergency or unplanned event such as a flood, fire, hazardous material incident, discovery of unexploded ordnance, public health emergency, or change in public land use that creates a public safety hazard. For example, the BLM has issued temporary closure or restriction orders to protect the public from unsafe conditions in a community rock pit in Doña Ana County, New Mexico (88 FR 42984 (July 5, 2023)); close 9 acres of public land near Rowley, Utah, that were inundated with a hydrochloric acid spill (79 FR 26265 (May 7, 2014)); close approximately 31,000 acres of public land in California to protect the public from exposure to airborne asbestos (73 FR 24087 (May 1, 2008)); and close a recreation site near Challis, Idaho, to protect the public from dangerous flooding and ice jams (87 FR 25523 (April 29, 2022)). The BLM also occasionally issues temporary closures or restrictions to protect resources or avoid conflicts among visitor use activities. In such situations, the BLM may restrict an area to certain types of travel to facilitate resource restoration or close an area to public access to facilitate special recreation events, such as the Burning Man Project (88 FR 39863 (June 20, 2023)); the King of the Hammers off-road race (87 FR 69300 (November 11, 2022)); the Reno Air Races (84 FR 31337 (July 1, 2019)); the Mint 400 off-road race in Las Vegas (88 FR 7994 (February 7, 2023)); and the Desert Classic racecourse (87 FR 20457 (April 7, 2022)). As resource uses and demands for access to public lands have increased, the need for the BLM to issue temporary closure and restriction orders under 43 CFR 8364.1 to protect persons, property, and public lands has also increased. However, some aspects of 43 CFR 8364.1—such as the requirement to publish temporary closure and restriction orders in the <E T="04">Federal Register</E> and the absence of a provision authorizing the BLM to issue such orders with immediate full force and effect—can hinder the BLM's ability to respond effectively to exigencies that arise on public lands. Streamlining and modernizing how the BLM notifies the public about temporary closure and restriction orders, as well as providing managers with the ability to issue such orders with immediate effect, will enhance the BLM's ability to perform its mission to responsibly manage public lands and protect public safety. Revising §  8364.1 will also make the BLM's temporary closure and restriction authorities more consistent with those of the U. S. Forest Service (USFS), U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS), and the National Park Service (NPS) (agencies with which BLM-administered public lands often share a common boundary) and will allow the BLM to be a more effective cooperator with other Federal and local agencies when responding to multijurisdictional demands, including emergency incidents or unforeseen events. Section 310 of FLPMA, which authorizes the Secretary to promulgate regulations to carry out the purposes of that Act and other laws with respect to public lands, authorizes this revision of the BLM's regulatory authority for temporarily closing and restricting the use of public lands. Other statutes, such as the Archaeological Resources Protection Act (16 U.S.C. 470aa-470mm), also authorize the Secretary to promulgate regulations relating to closures and use restrictions in certain contexts. <HD SOURCE="HD1">II. Response to Comments on the Proposed Rule</HD> The BLM published a proposed rule on November 21, 2023 (88 FR 81022), soliciting public comments for 60 days. The BLM received 79 submissions from members of the public, including individuals, State and local governments, regional law enforcement groups, livestock grazing organizations, recreation groups, and wilderness organizations. The BLM considered each comment in developing the final rule. Some comments fully or partially supported the proposed rule. Other comments were critical of the proposed rule and expressed concern regarding, among other issues, its scope, how the BLM would notify the public about temporary closure and restriction orders, how such orders would comply with the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), the BLM's ability to exempt certain persons from temporary closure and restriction orders, the lack of a mandatory public participation requirement, and the length of time that temporary closure and restriction orders could remain in place. Additional comments expressed a desire for the BLM's temporary closure and restriction authority to align more closely with the temporary closure and restriction authorities of other Federal agencies. Comments that are similar in nature have been categorized by subject and, in some instances, have been combined with related comments. <HD SOURCE="HD2">A. Scope of the Proposed Rule</HD> <E T="03">Comment:</E> Several commenters expressed concern about the language in the proposed rule providing that the BLM could issue temporary closure and restriction orders to “provide for implementation of management responsibilities.” Some commenters described this language as too vague, while others expressed concern that it impermissibly expanded the situations in which the agency could issue temporary closure and restriction orders. <E T="03">Response:</E> The BLM originally proposed to include the clause regarding the implementation of management responsibilities in § 8364.1 to make the BLM's temporary closure and restriction authority align more closely with the NPS's analogous regulation, which permits temporary closures and public use limits “based upon a determination that such action is necessary for. . .implementation of management responsibilities” (36 CFR 1.5(a)). The BLM also intended to clarify that the agency may currently close or restrict the use of public lands temporarily to facilitate construction, demolition, resource monitoring, invasive species control projects, and other typical management responsibilities in which the BLM regularly engages. However, while this clause would be consistent with the BLM's authority to manage public lands under FLPMA, the BLM understands how it could be misinterpreted to broaden the scope of the agency's temporary closure and restriction authority. Accordingly, the BLM has excluded the clause “provide for implementation of management responsibilities” from the text of the final rule. Excluding this clause from the text of the final rule should not impair or otherwise affect the BLM's ability to perform typical management responsibilities, as activities such as construction, demolition, resource monitoring, and invasive species control projects are already typically accompanied by a temporary closure or restriction order under the existing regulations where necessary to protect persons, property, public lands, or resources. As a result, the BLM expects to continue to be able to issue temporary closure and restriction orders to facilitate such activities under the final rule. <E T="03">Comment:</E> Several commenters expressed concern that the proposed rule would allow the BLM to implement large-scale conservation leasing without adequate public input. According to the commenters, ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Preview showing 10k of 106k characters. 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