Date: May 22, 2002

The Bureau of Land Management has decided to delay the development of the Colville River Special Area Multiple Use Activity Plan until it completes ongoing planning for the northwest portion of the National Petroleum Reserve - Alaska.

The agency's decision came partly in response to public comment letters, according to Bob Schneider, BLM's Northern Field Office Manager. He said a number of people requested that the agency delay the plan until the Colville River could be addressed on a watershed basis, rather than as separate planning areas.

The agency now plans to incorporate the Colville plan into an oil and gas leasing plan for the southern portion of NPR-A. BLM altered the boundaries for that planning area so that it contains nearly all of the Colville River watershed not currently covered by a land use plan.

"Now we can take a watershed approach to planning for the Colville River, rather than constraining ourselves only to those portions of the river within the Special Area's boundaries," Schneider said.

The delay and revised boundaries for the NPR-A South plan will also help BLM better address important resource issues such as wilderness and wild and scenic rivers, he said.

The lower part of the Colville River watershed will remain covered by the ongoing NPR-A Northwest plan, due to be completed in 2003. "The NPR-A Northwest plan was already far enough along that we didnĚt want to delay it by removing additional areas," Schneider said.

Field work will continue on the Colville River this summer, Schneider said. BLM specialists will collect data related to wilderness, wild and scenic rivers, recreation, archaeology, paleontology, wildlife and subsistence resources. BLM maintains a mailing list of those interested in the Colville River planning effort. Anyone interested in being placed on the list is encouraged to write to: