BLM issues draft Carson City District plan

Residents are being asked to review a draft resource plan and environmental impact statement for the Bureau of Land Management’s 4.8 million acre Carson City District.

A public meeting on the plan and the statement is scheduled for 5-7 p.m. Jan. 22 at the Carson Valley Inn in Minden and from 2-4 p.m. on Jan. 24, at the Carson City Plaza Hotel and Event Center, 801 South Carson St. Additional public meetings are anticipated in coordination with local County Commissions and Boards of Supervisors.

Meetings are also scheduled to take place in Sparks, Fallon, Hawthorne and Yerington during January.

The plan revises the district’s 2001 plan, and addresses areas of critical environmental concern, lands and realty, utility corridors, wind energy, travel management, recreation, fish and wildlife, minerals, wild and scenic rivers, public health and safety, and visual resource management.

Of the 4.8 million acres, 564,200 are presently closed to mineral material entry. That number would increase to 1.778 million acres under the BLM’s preferred alternative.

Areas of right of way exclusion would increase to 605,900 acres. Right of Way avoidance areas, which don’t exist now would increase to 1.448 million acres.

Slightly more land would be identified for disposal. Now there are 179,700 acres set aside for disposal. Under the preferred alternative there would be 267,000 acres.

The Ruhenstroth paleontological site, where mammoth bones were discovered at the beginning of the century would see 2,300 acres set aside. The preferred alternative would not set aside any land for the bi-state sage grouse.

Under the proposal all wilderness study areas would remain at their current size, including the 12,700-acre Burbank Canyon study area on the east slope of the Pine Nuts.

The plan includes 1,400 acres along the Carson River’s East Fork eligible as wild and scenic river study segments.

The comment period opened with the publication of a notice of availability in the Federal Register on Nov. 28. Comments will be accepted during a 120-day period, which closes March 27, 2015.

Written comments related to the Carson City District plan may be submitted to the website http://on.doi.gov/1uYBNGT; to BLM_NV_CCDO_RMP@blm.gov; by fax to 775-885-6147; or by mail to BLM Carson City District, Attn: CCD RMP, 5665 Morgan Mill Road, Carson City 89701.

Copies of the Carson City District Draft plan and statement are available in the Carson City District Office or at http://on.doi.gov/1uYBNGT.