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on:752 CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION This document consists of a draft resource management plan (RMP) and a draft environmental impact statement (EIS) analyzing the effects of the management actions and alternatives within the plan. The draft RMP lEIS has been prepared in accordance with the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) planning regulations (43 CFR 1600) and the NalioTUlI Environmental Policy Act (NEP A) of 1%9 (40 CFR 1500). PURPOSE AND NEED The primary purpose of this RMP lEIS is to update and integrate BLM land use planning for the San Luis Resource Area (SLRA) into a single, comprehensive land use plan. This will provide the overall framework for managing and allocating public land resources and uses in the San Luis Planning Area over the next 15 to 20 years. The EIS analyzes the preferred and three other alternatives. The approved RMP (ARMP) will meet the BLM statutory requirement for a master land use plan as mandated by Section 202 of the Federal Land Policy and Management Act (FLPMA) of 1976 and the requirements of the Wild and Scenic River Act (16 V.S.C. 1271). The ARMP will update and supel5ede all land use planning in the Saguache and San Luis Management Framework Plans (MFPs) of 1973 and 1975 respectively. MFP decisions are re-analyzed in the Existing Management Alternative in Chapters 3 and 4. Significant rationale was developed for this updated plan during the plan monitoring process. In May 1984, a San Luis and Saguache MFP Monitoring Report was completed. The report stated that ", , . the area does not have a current plan on which to base Federal actions taken by BLM in the San Luis Valley. From a consistency, conformity, policy, and workability standpoint, the area is without effective planning documentation." PLA]'Ij'NiNG AREA LOCATION The San Luis Resource Area (SLRA) of the Canon City District encompasses 520,677 acres of BLM surface estate land in the San Luis Valley, which is in the south-centra1 part of Colorado (see Maps I-I and 1-2). The valley is approximately 122 miles long and about 74 miles wide extending from the Continental Divide on the northwest to the New Mexico State line on the south. Also, there are an additional I 0 1,926 acres of subsurface mineral estate managed by BLM in the resource area for a total of approximately 621,000 acres (Map 1-3). For plll')lOSeS of analysis in this draft RMP, a planning area has been designated, which is bordered on three sides by the Rio Grande National Forest 'aDd is within all or part of Saguache, A1amosa, Rio Grande, Conejos, and Costilla Counties. Of the total 1,971,000 acres in the planning area, approximately 54 percent is privately owned, less than I percent is managed by the V.S. Forest Service, about 4 percent is managed by the V.S, Park Service, about 2 percent is managed by the V.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, about II percent is administered by various state agencies (i.e., Colorado Division of Wildlife, Colorado Land Board Commission, etc.), about 2 percent is managed by other Federal agencies, and about 27 percent is managed by BLM. In addition, the BLM manages an additional 101,926 acres or about 5 percent as subsurface mineral estate, which underlies state and private surface land ownership. Fluid mineral leasing decisions for Federal mineral estate within the Rio Grande National Forest boundary will be the responsibility of the VSFS in coordination with BLM and will be addressed in their planning and environmental process. I-I