Yerington lands bill will be up for final House vote

The package of six Northern Nevada lands bills introduced by Reps. Republican Mark Amodei and Democrat Steven Horsford are up for a final vote in the House Monday.

Six of the measures were sponsored by Amodei and one by Horsford — including the Yerington lands bill that will enable development of Nevada Copper’s Pumpkin Hollow mine site outside of Yerington,

The bill will transfer 10,000 acres to the city and also designate 48,000 acres in Lyon County as the Wovoka Wilderness Area.

In addition, Amodei’s measure transferring 1,745 acres to Storey County will help Virginia City resolve conflicting ownership and title claims that date to the Comstock days.

A third measure will designate 26,000 acres in the Blue Lakes and Alder Creek area as the Pine Forest Range Wilderness Area and direct BLM to exchange federal land surrounding nearby ranches for privately held parcels within that wilderness area.

The Carlin Economic Self-Determination Act will give Carlin the chance to buy 1,400 acres of BLM land surrounding the city for development.

A similar act for Fernley would let that town purchase 9,114 acres of federal land within the city for development.

The Elko Motocross and Tribal Conveyance Act will allow the western Shoshone tribe to buy 275 acres of BLM land for a racing area and, finally, the Naval Air Station act will transfer 400 acres of BLM land to the Navy to build housing for Navy families.

The two representatives worked on the different pieces of legislation together to build consensus and bipartisan support.