The Bureau of Land Management’s Dillon Field Office is conducting a 15-year evaluation of its 2006 Resource Management Plan and welcomes public input as part of the process.

Plan evaluation, required by BLM planning regulations, is the Bureau’s process of reviewing the RMP to determine whether its decisions and NEPA analysis are still effective and being implemented. The Dillon Field Office previously conducted five-year and 10-year plan evaluations in 2011 and 2016 respectively.

“While Land Use Plans are written to last, we also need to keep our management approaches current to reflect changes in conditions and to identify new and emerging issues,” said Dillon Field Manager Amanda James. “We have to ask ourselves the question: ‘What’s changed since the last plan evaluation in 2016 that would create a need for the revision of current decisions, dropping decisions from consideration, or requiring new decisions?’ The answer to that question is at the heart of this evaluation process, which includes input from the public.”

For the 15-year evaluation, the field office is providing a 30-day public information sharing period running through March 7. The type of information that would be relevant for consideration includes:

1) Any information from the past five years revealing substantial changes that would influence the effectiveness of Dillon RMP management decisions.

2) Any information from the past five years revealing substantial changes that would indicate whether the Dillon RMP decisions are effective in achieving or making progress toward achieving desired outcomes identified in the RMP goals and objectives.

To learn more about the RMP plan evaluation, visit the ePlanning page at https://go.usa.gov/xtmfA

To provide input, email comments to MT_Dillon_FO@blm.gov or mail to: 1005 Selway Drive, Dillon, MT 59725.

Data gathered from the public during the information period will be considered by the Dillon Field Office program specialists, the Interdisciplinary Team assigned to complete the RMP Evaluation, and the Dillon Field Manager when developing the evaluation report. The Evaluation Report will then be reviewed and approved the Montana State Director.