Section 1610.7-2 - [Effective 6/10/2024] Designation of areas of critical environmental concern(a) An area of critical environmental concern (ACEC) designation is the principal BLM designation for public lands where special management is required to protect and prevent irreparable damage to important historic, cultural, or scenic values; fish or wildlife resources; or natural systems or processes or to protect life and safety from natural hazards. The BLM designates ACECs when issuing a decision to approve a resource management plan, plan revision, or plan amendment. ACECs shall be managed to protect the relevant and important values for which they are designated.(b) In the land use planning process, authorized officers must identify, evaluate, and give priority to areas that have potential for designation and management as ACECs. Identification, evaluation, and priority management of ACECs shall be considered during the development and revision of resource management plans and during amendments to resource management plans when such action falls within the scope of the amendment ( see §§ 1610.4-1 through 1610.4-9 ). Proposed and existing ACECs that will be addressed by a resource management plan, plan revision, or plan amendment will be identified in all public notices required by this part ( see, e.g., § 1610.2 ).(c) The authorized officer must facilitate the identification of eligible ACECs early in the land use planning process by: (1) Analyzing inventory, assessment, and monitoring data to determine whether there are areas containing important historic, cultural, or scenic values; fish or wildlife resources; natural systems or processes; or natural hazards potentially impacting life and safety that are eligible for designation;(2) Reevaluating existing ACECs in order to determine if the relevant and important values are still present and special management attention is still necessary; and(3) Seeking nominations for ACECs, during public scoping, from the public, State and local governments, Indian Tribes, and other Federal agencies (see§§ 1610.2(c) , 1602.5(b)(4) through (6)).(d) To be designated as an ACEC, an area must meet the following criteria:(1)Relevance. The area contains important historic, cultural, or scenic values; fish or wildlife resources; natural systems or processes; or natural hazards potentially impacting life and safety.(2)Importance. A historic, cultural, or scenic value; a fish or wildlife resource; a natural system or process; or a natural hazard potentially impacting life and safety has importance if it has qualities of special worth, consequence, meaning, distinctiveness, or cause for concern; national or more than local importance, subsistence value, or regional contribution of a resource, value, system, or process; or contributes to ecosystem resilience, landscape intactness, or habitat connectivity. A natural hazard can be important if it is a significant threat to human life and safety.(3)Special management attention. The important historic, cultural, or scenic values; fish or wildlife resources; natural systems or processes; or natural hazards potentially impacting life and safety require special management attention. "Special management attention" means management prescriptions that: (i) Protect and prevent irreparable damage to the relevant and important values, or that protect life and safety from natural hazards; and(ii) Would not be prescribed if the relevant and important values were not present. In this context, "irreparable damage" means harm to a value, resource, system, or process that substantially diminishes the relevance or importance of that value, resource, system, or process in such a way that recovery of the value, resource, system, or process to the extent necessary to restore its prior relevance or importance is impossible.(e) The authorized officer may designate an ACEC research natural area if the area:(1) Meets all of the criteria identified in § 1610.7-2(d)(1) through (3) ; and(2) Is consistent with one or more of the primary purposes found at § 8223.0-5 of this chapter. A designated ACEC research natural area will be subject to the use restrictions at § 8223.1 of this title in addition to the special management attention prescribed by the authorized officer through land use planning.(f) The boundaries of proposed ACECs shall be identified for public lands, as appropriate, to encompass the relevant and important values and geographic extent of the special management attention needed to provide protection.(g) During a planning process, the planning documents must analyze in detail any proposed ACEC that has relevant and important values. Where the BLM has received ACEC proposals that do not have relevant and important values, the agency is not required to review those proposals in detail in planning documents. Through land use planning, the BLM will evaluate the need for special management attention to protect the relevant and important values, which could include other allocations and designations being considered, in order to provide for informed decision-making on the trade-offs associated with ACEC designation.(h) The approved resource management plan, plan revision, or plan amendment shall list all designated ACECs, identify their relevant and important values, and include the special management attention, including management prescriptions for other uses, identified for each designated ACEC.(i) ACEC nominations typically should be evaluated during a planning process. If a nomination for an ACEC is received outside of the planning process, the following provisions apply.(1) The State Director will evaluate whether the relevant, important, and special management criteria identified in paragraph (d) of this section are met. The State Director will determine the appropriate time to complete this analysis. If the criteria identified in paragraph (d) of this section are met, then the State Director shall, at their discretion, either: (i) Initiate a land use planning process; or(ii) Provide temporary management consistent with the applicable resource management plan to protect the relevant and important values from irreparable damage. Any temporary management that is implemented would be in effect until the BLM either completes a land use planning process to determine whether to designate the area as an ACEC or, through periodic evaluation, finds designation is no longer necessary. The BLM will publish a public notice if temporary management is implemented.(2) The State Director may defer evaluating the nomination to an upcoming planning process.(j) The State Director shall:(1) Determine which ACECs to designate based on:(i) The presumption that all areas found to require special management attention will be designated;(ii) The value of other resource uses in the area;(iii) The feasibility of managing the designation; and(iv) The relationship to other types of designations and protective management available.(2) In the decision document for the resource management plan or plan amendment, provide a justification and rationale for both ACEC designation decisions and decisions not to designate a proposed ACEC.(3) Administer designated ACECs in a manner that conserves, protects, and enhances the relevant and important values and only allow casual use or uses that will ensure the protection of the relevant and important values. This paragraph (j)(3) does not apply to those ACECs designated for natural hazards potentially impacting life and safety.(4) Prioritize acquisition of inholdings within ACECs and adjacent or connecting lands identified as holding relevant and important values related to the designated ACEC.(k) The State Director, through the land use planning process, may remove the designation of an ACEC, in whole or in part, only when:(1) The State Director finds that special management attention is not needed because another legally enforceable mechanism provides an equal or greater level of protection; or(2) The State Director finds that the relevant and important values are no longer present, cannot be recovered, or have recovered to the point where special management is no longer necessary. The findings must be supported by data or documented changes on the ground.(l) As used in this section, the terms casual use, conservation, ecosystem resilience, intactness, landscape, monitoring, protection, and restoration have the same meanings as in § 6101.4 of this chapter.48 FR 20368, May 5, 1983, as amended at 81 FR 89661, Dec. 12, 2016; 82 FR 60555, Dec. 21, 2017 82 FR 60555, 12/21/2017; 89 FR 40337, 6/10/2024