Incorporation of the Bureau of Land Management Programmatic Biological Assessment and the resulting Biological Opinion for Blowout Penstemon (Penstemon haydenii) into the Casper and Rawlins RMPs

United States Department of the Interior
BUREAU OF LAND MANAGEMENT
Wyoming State Office
P.O. Box 1828
Cheyenne, Wyoming 82009-1828
IN REPLY REFER TO:
6840 (930) P
August 19, 2013
EMS TRANSMISSION: 8/23/2013
Instruction Memorandum No. WY-2013-041
Expires: 9/30/14
To: District Managers and Deputy State Director, Minerals and Lands
From: Associate State Director
Subject: Incorporation of the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) Programmatic
Biological Assessment (BA) and the resulting Biological Opinion (BO) for
Blowout Penstemon (Penstemon haydenii) into the Casper and Rawlins Resource
Management Plans (RMPs)
Program Area: Special Status Species Management – Threatened and Endangered Species
Interagency Consultation
Purpose: The purpose of this Instruction Memorandum (IM) is to direct BLM Wyoming Field
Offices to maintain the Casper, Green River, Lander, and Rawlins Field Office RMPs. To
ensure all subject RMPs continue to operate in accordance with the provisions of the Endangered
Species Act of 1973 (ESA), authorized officers in the Casper, Rawlins, Rock Springs and Lander
Field Offices are directed to maintain their RMP with this information and to implement the
associated measures for protection of blowout penstemon as applicable. The blowout penstemon
BA and BO (Attachments 1 and 2) can also be found on the on the internet at
http://www.blm.gov/wy/st/en/programs/Wildlife.html and
http://www.blm.gov/wy/st/en/programs/pcp/species/t-e.html.
Policy/Action: Attached to this IM are the final BLM Statewide Programmatic BA for blowout
penstemon (Penstemon haydenii) (Attachment 1) and the resulting U.S. Fish and Wildlife
Service (FWS) BO (Attachment 2). The information provided in the BA and BO collectively
represents substantial new information that BLM must update the appropriate RMPs through
Maintenance Action as defined in 43 CFR 1610.5-4. The Casper, Lander, Rawlins, and Rock
Springs Field Offices should review their respective existing RMP, the programmatic BA, and
the resulting programmatic BO. Documentation of such maintenance action should be
forwarded to the Wyoming State Office Threatened and Endangered Species Program
Leadership for ease of future reference. If after review of the documentation you believe that

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this action may require further action to be taken, please contact Pam Murdock of the Wyoming
State Office of BLM, at (307) 775-6259.
Timeframe: This IM is effective immediately. Please maintain the official hard copy of your
RMP within 30 days of the date of this IM. Please also maintain the web-based copy of your
RMP during this same timeframe.
Budget Impact: None.
Background: The BLM Special Status Species Manual 6840 encourages the completion and use
of programmatic level consultation and conference proceedings to address broad-scale programs
or wide ranging species or crucial habitats (6840.1F12(a)). The use of these programmatic
documents serves to streamline Section 7 Consultation proceedings and to typically shorten
timeframes in establishing BLM’s compliance with provisions of ESA. The program level BLM
consultation document, or BA, is complete and it provides plan-level description of the potential
activities of the BLM and provides all the BLM-committed conservation measures for the
protection of blowout penstemon and associated important habitats. Attachment 2, or the BO,
provides the resulting opinion of the FWS based on their review of the BA. The BA described
just one activity as having a “Likely Adverse Affect” on blowout penstemon. All other remaining
activities of the BLM were determined as “Not Likely to Adversely Affect” the penstemon or its
habitats and Attachment 2 includes the documentation of FWS’s written concurrence to these
determinations in accordance with section 7 of the ESA, as amended (16 U.S.C. 1531 et. seq. and
50 CFR §402.10).
Manual/Handbook Sections Affected: None.
Coordination: This IM was coordinated with the Field Offices of Casper, Rawlins, Rock
Springs and Lander. This effort was coordinated with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service,
Wyoming Ecological Services Office in Cheyenne, WY and the Wyoming State Office of
Resources and Planning WY930.
Contact: If you have any questions regarding the actions described in this IM, please contact
Chris Keefe at (307) 775-6101.
Signed by: Authenticated by:
Mary Jo Rugwell Sherry Dixon
Associate State Director Administrative Assistant
2 Attachments:
1 – Bureau of Land Management Statewide Programmatic Biological Assessment: Blowout
Penstemon (Penstemon haydenii) (56 pp)
2 – U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Memorandum (06E13000/WY12F0386) “Formal
Statewide Programmatic Consultation for the Impacts from the Wyoming Bureau of Land
Management Resources Management Plans and Their Effects to the Blowout Penstemon”
(48 pp)

Distribution:
Director (200) Rm. 5644, MIB 1w/o atch.
Field Manager, Casper 1 w/atch.
Field Manager, Rawlins 1 w/atch.
CF 2 w/atch.