Comprehensive Travel Management Planning

The Upper Snake East Travel Management Plan encompasses approximately 126,378 acres of BLM-managed land in a 2.7 million acre area, tying into routes on private, state, Bureau of Reclamation, National Park Service, and U.S. Forest Service-managed lands. This plan includes motorized and non-motorized routes, areas with seasonal human entry or travel restrictions to protect wildlife, and newly constructed routes for both motorized and non-motorized use. This combination of potential restrictions and consideration of existing and newly constructed routes required a complex approach to analysis in the Environmental Assessment. The resulting plan models the effectiveness of our process from route inventory; to interdisciplinary team planning and route evaluation; to writing the environmental analysis; to public involvement and comment analysis; to final decision. 

This travel management plan covers an immense area (1.4 million acres) of BLM-managed land in portions of Garfield and Wayne counties in Utah. The environmental assessment prepared by ARS and the BLM interdisciplinary team was necessarily wide ranging, including detailed analysis of cultural resources, native vegetation, special status plants, threatened and endangered wildlife, soils, water resources, recreation, visual resources, Wilderness Study Areas, and other lands with wilderness characteristics. It also included more brief analysis of a slew of other resources and uses. This travel management plan was one of several plans in Utah prepared by the BLM and ARS in response to the 2017 Settlement Agreement in Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance, et al. v. U.S. Department of the Interior, et al., which includes plans in the Kanab, Moab, Price, Richfield, and Vernal field offices. Each of the Settlement plans are supported by a thorough Administrative Record compiled and maintained by ARS, documenting the planning process in a systematic manner to demonstrate how the BLM arrived at final travel network decisions. 

The Lower Blackfoot Watershed Travel Management Plan covers approximately 47,506 acres of BLM-managed lands and 14,807 acres of lands owned by The Nature Conservancy that are anticipated to be acquired by the BLM in the near future. The plan also includes some routes controlled by the U.S. Forest Service. This multi-agency planning effort will ensure a seamless visitor experience at the landscape scale, assist the Forest Service with adjustments to existing travel management in the area, and protect resources and improve visitor experience in the area. The plan focuses on recreation access, resilient landscape restoration and management, and Reserved Treaty Rights restoration opportunities in this landscape. While this project is currently paused due to current administration priorities, we are proud of our ability to manage complex projects such as this one, using creative strategies to effectively support agencies’ responsible land stewardship and planning. 

The Cross Bar Management Area is the only BLM-managed surface estate in the entire state of Texas. The travel management plan is a comprehensive implementation-level project that identifies, inventories, evaluates, and designates existing and future roads, routes, and trails for recreation, traditional, commercial, educations, and administrative uses. Currently the only public access is via a traverse of the Canadian River, so this plan will be finalized after a public access route is developed. The focus of public use in the area is horseback riding, mountain biking, hiking, and wildlife viewing.  

ARS route evaluation and TMP/EA project work has been specifically recognized by litigants and BLM solicitors for its extensive and thorough documentation and careful attention to the NEPA process. This recognition, combined with our successful litigation history, led to ARS being selected by Utah BLM to develop TMPs subject to the 2017 Settlement Agreement in Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance, et al. v. U.S. Department of the Interior, et al., including TMPs in the Kanab, Moab, Price, Richfield, and Vernal field offices. Each of the Settlement TMPs are supported by a thorough Administrative Record compiled and maintained by ARS, documenting the planning process in a systematic manner to demonstrate how the BLM arrived at final travel network decisions. Our innovative software and experienced facilitators ensure that each Administrative Record includes specific documentation of how the 43 CFR 8342.1 minimization criteria for individual routes in each alternative are addressed. 

ARS performed GPS inventory for routes and site data on BLM lands within the Phoenix District Office and the Kingman, Safford, Arizona Strip, Tucson, and Yuma Field Offices utilizing the Arizona Route Inventory Data Dictionary and following BLM route inventory protocols. This effort required the inventory of more than 6,000 miles of routes utilizing 4WD vehicles and motorcycles. This data collection effort resolved numerous existing inventory data gaps that had resulted from data that was very old and/or that had been collected with inferior or inconsistent inventory techniques.

ARS developed a consolidated GIS-based inventory of recreational routes and facilities to aid future planning efforts in the development of plans that provide recreational opportunities, recreational facility development, and recreational route connectivity between various jurisdictions that comprise the Las Vegas Valley and Clark County, Nevada. Clark County contains approximately 4.95 million acres of Federal lands, primarily administered by four federal land management agencies: Bureau of Land Management, National Park Service, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and U.S. Forest Service. ARS field staff successfully inventoried over 9,000 miles of backcountry routes. The project primarily focused on routes on BLM lands with the field crews utilizing full-size 4WD vehicles, ATVs, and motorcycles to traverse the routes while gathering the GPS data. Data was downloaded daily to the on-site GIS support team for initial processing and data quality control, and then transmitted to the off-site GIS support for final data processing in compliance with agency data quality standards. Maps were created daily for the inventory crews to utilize both for tracking their progress and for quality control. Relevant photo points and field notes were captured by the inventory crews while in the field. The data collected as part of this project will eventually be utilized by the land management agencies to carry out comprehensive travel management planning. 

ARS assisted Dixie National Forest during their working group and public meetings introducing their Motorized Travel Planning project. ARS assisted with defining and refining the agenda for four working group meetings and five public meetings. ARS presented the planning project and the technical processes used and answered a wide range of questions to provide the public with a better understanding of the overall goals and processes. With the feedback gathered from the meetings, ARS assisted Dixie National Forest with further refining the project and possible future public outreach needs. The project was successful in raising public awareness and acceptance of the Dixie National Forest Motorized Travel Planning project. Through this collaborative process, the individuals and organizations were provided with an open opportunity to express their concerns and needs, have their questions answered, and provide Dixie National Forest with their level of interest in participating further in the project. 

The Middle Gila Conservation Partnership (MGCP) is loosely composed of representatives of federal and State of Arizona agencies, BLM Resource Advisory Committee members, recreation user groups, environmental organizations, and ranching and mining interests that have a shared concern for future of approximately 1.2 million acres of public lands southeast of Phoenix, AZ. The partnership originated in September 2001. The first two and a half years were spent addressing the various aspects of disagreement amongst the various stakeholders and ultimately resulted in the development of desired future conditions for the area. Additionally, during this early phase, the stakeholders also agreed upon the collaborative planning activities the Partnership wanted to participate in to help reach these conditions. The overriding goal of the MGCP is to provide information, analyses, and conclusions on motorized access routes to help the land managing agencies and the Counties develop a coordinated access route system for public use in this area.

In January 2004, ARS was hired to facilitate the evaluation of the routes in the MGCP planning area with the MGCP stakeholders and to develop with the MGCP a range of optional route networks that could be shared with the agencies. ARS was selected for this task by the Agency managers that were a part of the MGCP because of their awareness of ARS’ proprietary Route Evaluation Software©, which they felt could significantly help in organizing, documenting, and resolving the various areas of disagreement amongst the stakeholders. Through this facilitation by ARS, the partnership was able to develop a range of route network options that they all supported. These route network options and the extensive supporting environmental, commercial, military, administrative and recreational database were submitted as conclusions of the MGCP to the agencies in October 2005 for their consideration. At this meeting the various federal and state agency leads enthusiastically embraced the work products. Especially poignant were the remarks of BLM’s Arizona State Director Elaine Zelinsky who remarked to the group that she viewed the Route Evaluation Process© and its software as “state of the art.” The results of this effort have been recognized by the Department of Interior and BLM offices as one of the most successful and cost-effective projects of its type. 

ARS began working with the Arizona Strip BLM in 2003 by assisting in the identification of planning criteria and management goals for NEPA documentation. This was followed by ARS staff facilitating the evaluation and designation of motorized and non-motorized routes on approximately three million acres of public lands in northwestern Arizona, including the Grand Canyon-Parashant and Vermillion Cliffs National Monuments. During this phase ARS staff assisted with the facilitation of several public scoping meetings, as well as meetings with the various private and public collaborators on the plan (e.g., local counties from Arizona, Nevada, Utah; NPS; local tribal councils; ranching associations, environmental groups, and various OHV and recreational groups). Following the route evaluation and designation phase, ARS staff facilitated the selection of preferred alternatives for the route networks on the two National Monuments and the balance of the BLM Arizona Strip Field Office administrated lands (approximately 3.5 million acres).This was followed by ARS staff assisting BLM staff in the development and editorial review of those portions of the EIS that related to travel management and recreation. As a result of this project, Travel Management Planning specialists from The Wilderness Society, one of the largest national environmental organizations who have critically examined this plan as well as many other USFS and BLM planning documents, recently complimented Arizona Strip District staff for those aspects of the plan related to the supporting information and data from the route network evaluation and designation process. They specifically commented that the travel management documentation in this planning effort far exceed that in any other plan that they have reviewed nationwide.  

The staff of ARS assisted the BLM Kremmling Field Office throughout the development of its Travel Management Plan for the Wolford Mountain planning area. This assistance occurred at all stages of the planning process. Initially it involved the facilitation of staff in discussions that identified the principal planning issues, travel management areas, planning criteria, management goals, and data necessary to meet agency planning guidance and other various statutory requirements. Throughout the development of the planning documents, ARS assisted in the development of agendas and formats for the various public open houses and as well as assisting in presenting and hosting those public forums. Utilizing the Route Evaluation Process©, ARS facilitated the evaluation of routes and the creation of various route network alternatives, directed the collection of data pertinent to such a planning effort, gave guidance and assistance with data interpretation and GIS analysis, and assisted with the editorial review of the planning documents. This effort resulted in the development of a Travel Management Plan/Environmental Assessment that included a range of alternatives and a preferred alternative for both winter and non-winter uses. The NEPA document was appealed by some public interest groups to the IBLA, but it was upheld. The BLM Solicitor’s Office has shared with the Kremmling Field Office management that they feel very comfortable in defending the EA. 

ARS fielded a GPS field inventory crew of approximately 30 individuals in an area of approximately 5 million acres of the Southern California desert mapping remote unpaved roads and trails to collect data for the BLM WEMO Plan. In addition to inventorying route locations and conditions, point and polygon features were collected (such as mining claim stakes and abandoned mines, campsites, staging areas, overlooks, cabins, utility lines, ranching facilities, etc.). Over 5,000 miles of routes were mapped and inventoried for recreational and commercial access attributes. This data was collected, downloaded, rectified, and converted into an ESRI-based GIS software database for later analysis. This effort was carried out under rigorous conditions, and many routes hadn’t been traveled in decades. This project at the time represented the single largest focused route inventory effort in the Bureau of Land Management in terms of total mileage, acreage (approximately 5 million acres) and use/interest levels of the public (immediately proximate to the 17 million residents in the Los Angeles Basin).