USDA Forest Service

This experience demonstrated that reclamation requirements and bonds for mining operations on federal lands in the Western United States were inadequate in some cases.

Establishes new authority sections that include a cross-reference to FSM 5430.1 and lists additional laws, executive orders, and departmental regulations applicable to land exchanges.

Chapter 2380 - Landscape Management

FSM 5400 - Landownership

Chapter 5430 - Exchanges

This action is necessary to ensure that National Forest System roads provide for public uses of National Forest System lands; provide for safe public access and travel; allow for economical and efficient management; to the extent practicable, begin to reverse adverse ecological impacts associated with roads; and meet all other current and future land and resource management objectives.

Objectives, policy, responsibility, soil characteristics, and monitoring techniques

Sonoran scrub oak grows in semiarid, lower elevation chaparral, pinyon-juniper (Pinus-Juniperus spp.), shrub deserts, oak woodlands, ponderosa pine (P. ponderosa) and riparian communities of the Southwest.

The Scenery Management System presents a vocabulary for managing scenery and a systematic approach for determining the relative value and importance of scenery in a national forest.

The proponent proposes to test drill in 4 locations for mining exploration.

Creosote bush occurs throughout the Mojave, Sonoran, and Chihuahuan deserts.