CANYON CITY Work is continuing on the John Day Basin Resource Management Plan (RMP), with a record of decision possible by early winter, Bureau of Land Management officials said last week.

Chip Faver, field manager in the BLMs Prineville office, and Monte Kuk, planning and environmental specialist for the RMP, offered an update on the process to the Grant County Court at its July 17 meeting.

Their visit was prompted in part by the countys recent adoption of an ordinance that requires agencies to consult with the County Court and sheriff on any road closure plans, they said.

But were not out here just to pay lip service, Faver said, adding its important to make people aware of the public processes involved in the planning effort.

Once final, the RMP will govern the full range of activities on the basins BLM lands, but there has been particularly strong local interest in travel management the fate of roads on the public lands.

Under the RMP, even when final, the travel management portion will go into effect as an interim plan. The BLM will have up to five years to begin work on the final travel management plan, a process that will entail a new round of public input.

Faver and Kuk said the agency opted for an interim plan to give users a chance to live with the roads proposal and see how it works what they like, and what they dont.

Kuk noted that the RMP has been in the works since 2006. The agency asked the County Court to be a cooperator in 2006. At this point, the process has spanned the tenures of three county judges in Grant County, from Dennis Reynolds to Mark Webb and, now, Scott Myers.

Kuk said the process has included community meetings throughout the region, including several in John Day, and distribution of information on a website and by mail.

Its been a really long process, and weve really worked hard to involve the public and the cooperators to get to where we are now, he said.

Kuk acknowledged that road closure proposals have been a hot topic, for the BLM as well as other agencies. He said the concerns emerge on both ends of the spectrum, from those who want every track to remain open to those who want to end motorized use entirely.

In Grant County, the BLM has identified a total of 429 miles of roads including state, county, federal routes on the 156,714 acres of BLM-managed land in Grant County.

In the interim plan, the agency proposes to close about 130 miles of BLM roads.

Kuk said many of those are user-made tracks set down by an ATV or other vehicle blazing its own trail and have never been maintained or managed.

Kuk told the Court that of 94.88 of those miles are roads the public cant access legally, because they extend from private lands.

A little over 35 miles of the roads proposed for closure do have legal public access but are redundant, existing in an area with high road density. Those tend to be situations where multiple tracks lead through the same area to the same destination.

Despite the closures, the interim plan allows for administrative access for certain users such as miners with valid claims and ranchers with grazing permits – to reach the BLM-managed lands to exercise their rights.

The BLM also proposes to create a couple of new roads. One would replace a track that winds in and out of a creek bed with a better alternative, and the other is needed to skirt some private land and continue a link between two county roads.

Sheriff Glenn Palmer noted his concerns about access for emergency and search and rescue efforts in rugged and remote areas. Gated or blocked roads pose challenges to public safety, he said.

Faver suggested an arrangement similar to one already in place in Wheeler County, where the sheriffs office has been given keys to open gated roads on BLM lands.

Kuk noted that the scattered nature of the BLM lands here is a challenge not just for public access, but for management and planning.

Commissioner Boyd Britton asked if the BLM would consider divesting some of the small parcels of land that are isolated by private ownership, calling them a a management nightmare. He offered the Courts assistance in approaching the congressional delegation to help get that worked out.

Faver welcomed the idea and said he always urges citizen groups to speak out and act in what they see as their best interests.

Kuk said the RMP identifies Zone 3 lands that BLM would like to sell because they are difficult to manage. He said if the Court find parcels that have been missed, they should bring them to his attention so they can be assessed for a possible plan amendment.

Land consolidation is one of our bigger issues, he said.