Congressman Mark Amodei. This is the link. http://amodei.house.gov/

125 Cannon House Office Building
Washington, DC 20515

Phone: (202) 225-6155

The state of Nevada has approved the formation of a Sagebrush Ecosystem Council and is spending more than $300,000 to try and keep the Greater Sage-grouse off the Endangered Species List.

The $304,000 allocated by the Legislative Interim Finance Committee will be used to implement key recommendations identified by Gov. Brian Sandoval's Greater Sage-grouse Advisory Committee. In addition to the council, the state is creating a “multidisciplinary, interagency Sagebrush Ecosystem Technical Team” and hiring three regional specialists to coordinate on-the-ground efforts to identify and protect crucial sagebrush habitat for the bird.

The population of sage-grouse has plunged from more than 16 million a hundred years ago to less than 500,000 today. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has concluded that both the Greater Sage-grouse, found in 11 Western states and nine Nevada counties, and the Bistate Sage-grouse, a related bird found in five Nevada counties, warrants protection under the Endangered Species Act. The FWS is going to re-examine the Bistate Sage-grouse’s status in September 2013 and the Greater Sage-grouse in September 2015.

Although some Interim Finance Committee member said they were leery of including the $300,000 in the upcoming 2014-15 biennial budget because the state is short of cash, state officials said a listing would have a powerful impact on the state’s economy by putting huge swaths of rural Northern Nevada off limits to such activities as mining, agriculture and outdoor recreation.

"A council, technical team and regional specialists are essential in identifying, prioritizing and implementing both large and smaller-scale projects that protect and improve the sagebrush ecosystem and conserve the Greater Sage-grouse," said Leo Drozdoff, director of the Department of Conservation and Natural Resources. "The primary threats to the species were recently clarified by the Governor's Advisory Committee and a coordinated approach — demonstrating the state's leadership, conviction and commitment — is necessary to produce accomplishments that minimize these threats and underscore Nevada's ability to manage the bird to avoid listing."

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service committed $40,000 to fund the council during the remainder of state fiscal year 2013.

Oddly, the announcement from the Governor’s office made no mention of the Bistate Sage-grouse, which occupies a smaller environment along the Nevada-California border and whose listing deadline is less than a year away.

The approved Sagebrush Ecosystem Technical Team will have five members, including a working team coordinator, a wildlife specialist, a wildfire prevention, suppression and rehabilitation specialist, an agriculture and range invasive weed specialist and a state lands' environmental science specialist. The team will be co-located in Carson City and will provide a single point of focus within state government for all stakeholders and members of the public in relation to Greater Sage-grouse issues. The technical team will coordinate closely with the three regional specialists to be located in Winnemucca, Elko and Ely.

After nearly three years in the making, our nation’s solar energy program reached a culminating milestone when Interior Secretary Ken Salazar adopted the final solar plan through a Record of Decision.

This step advances a plan to develop solar energy on many of the nation’s sunniest public lands, a significant achievement in advancing efforts to produce clean, renewable energy, and enable us to put solutions on the table to address the increasing extremities in weather patterns.

Nevada has five of these designated solar zones, and Nevada Wilderness Project has been working with the federal government, utilities and solar energy developers on the plan for about two years. Although the demand for renewable energy has waned in our state, these areas identified by the Interior Department could one day be the focus on utility-scale solar power facilities that will help us combat the impact of climate change.

According to the Center for Climate Change Solutions at UCLA Institute of the Environment and Sustainability, the federal solar program “offers solutions to address the climate challenge ahead of us in a sensible and economical way. Because climate change is primarily the result of burning fossil fuels, a plan to transform our energy system to rely on clean, renewable sources like the sun is critical.”

The Solar Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement will help us realize our nation’s potential for solar energy development on public lands in Arizona, California, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico and Utah.

The solar plan we helped craft reduces unnecessary and time-consuming obstacles by identifying the public lands that are best suited for large-scale development in that they done harm sensitive wildlife or wild lands and provide mitigate for impacts they do have on our unique desert landscapes.

The plan is a good balance between doing something to battle global warming while protecting public lands from harmful development. It’s not an option to do nothing.

According to Dr. Paul Bunje,in an op-ed in the San Diego Union-Tribune , “Interior’s solar plan will accelerate responsibly sited solar energy development by guiding projects to places where conflicts with wildlife and wild lands are lessened. This plan stands in stark contrast to the shortsighted and contentious approach that has dictated energy development to date.

“We cannot ignore the need for carefully sited solar development to protect America’s precious landscapes. But we also want solar development that will produce jobs and economic growth. Interior’s solar plan aims to balance the two. This represents a unique opportunity for our nation to move closer to meeting our clean energy goals, and that is certainly something to celebrate.”

Hey, just a quick reminder that Gold Butte Days are just around the corner.

The two-day festival designed to showcase Mesquite, Nev.'s proximity to the special landscape is scheduled for Oct. 12-13. It should be a great time to visit the south and enjoy a visit to Gold Butte and Mesquite.

We hope you can join us!

The mining company Nevada Copper and the owners of Desert Creek Ranch in Smith Valley have agreed to a multi-million conservation easement on 555 acres of irrigated pasture near Wellington, Lyon County, Nevada. The private ranchland is important habitat for the Desert Creek-Fales population of the Bi-state Sage Grouse.

The media is reporting that the deal between Nevada Copper and ranch owners Jon and David Park is contingent on the successful passage of the so-called Yerington Land Conveyance and Sustainable Development Act in Congress.

That law would transfer 10,000 acres of Bureau of Land Management land in Lyon County to the city of Yerington and allow Nevada Copper to mine about 38 percent of the area, helping the community by hiring people at generous salaries and paying property taxes. The bill stalled in the Senate when Sen. Harry Reid announced that he wants the bill to designate a wilderness area in southern Lyon County.

It’s still unclear how much is Nevada Copper is paying for the 10,000 acres and how much it’s paying for the conservation easement.

One thing is certain however: Keeping the irrigated pasture on Desert Creek Ranch wet and undeveloped is good for the Bistate Sage-grouse, which is a candidate for the Endangered Species List and could be listed if the federal government decides in the next year or so that the state isn’t doing enough to protect the bird. The Bistate Sage-grouse is found in Nevada and California and is geographically separated from the Greater Sage-grouse, which is found in Nevada and 10 other Western states.

Gregg Tanner, a wildlife biologist for the Nevada Wilderness Project, has been working with other partners to help bring about this conservation easement. He also helped develop the Bistate Action Plan for the Greater Sage Grouse and the Bi-state distinct population segment, and one of the elements of that plan specifically calls for a conservation easement on Desert Creek Ranch.

Tanner’s also worked with the Eastern Sierra Land Trust and the Natural Resource Conservation Service to procure other easements for the Bi-state Sage-grouse.  A 700-acre easement has been completed on the Sweetwater Ranch in Nevada.  He’s also working with private parties and federal officials on a 2,400-acre easement within the range of the Bi-state sage grouse population above Bridgeport Valley in California.

This, however, is the first easement involving a private company putting up the money needed to match funding from the Natural Resource Conservation Service. According to the Mason Valley News, the deal for Desert Creek Ranch was in the works for nearly four years before the mining company got involved and helped parties strike a deal in just a couple of months.

These private, irrigated ranches provide important brood-rearing habitat for sage-grouse, Gregg says, and they are critical for the long term survival of the grouse populations that use them.

The easement, if it goes through, would also keep the ranch a working ranch and not allow it to be split up into  ranchettes, which has happened in neighboring areas of this picturesque area of Nevada.

Why is a mining company suddenly interested in sage-grouse? Fair question.

By tying the easement deal to the land conveyance bill, Nevada Copper is clearly showing how much it wants to purchase the BLM property, which surrounds its Pumpkin Hollow Mine. It’s also fair to say that miners see the value of keeping the sage-grouse off the Endangered Species List. Mining on public land will be drastically affected if the sage-grouse is put on the list, so miners will do what they can to prevent that. Ranching, grazing and many other public land activities would also have to be reviewed by the federal government and controlled if the activity poses any kind of a threat to the sage-grouse.

That’s when the Mesquite Chamber of Commerce will be hosting “Gold Butte Days” – a two-day celebration of one of the most beautiful corners of the American Southwest. The event includes a street fair, exhibits, hikes and off-road vehicle tours, a half-marathon and 5-kilometer road race, and entertainment.

The Nevada Wilderness Project has been actively involved for years in trying to get the 360,000-acre Gold Butte area designated as a National Conservation Area with Wilderness.

We’re hoping this event in Mesquite will help further raise the public’s awareness of the need for special protection for this outstanding area.

A new government survey shows that more than 90 million people hunted, fished or watched wildlife in 2011, spending more than $145 billion on gear, trips, licenses and other items.

The numbers show an increase in these activities for the first time in 20 years. The number of hunters grew 9 percent from a 2006 survey and the number of anglers grew more than 10 percent. The numbers had been declining since 1991.

In a conference call with news reporters, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar sounded elated at the survey results.

"This is great news since hunters and anglers have long been the driving force behind conservation efforts in America," Salazar said.

The survey has been held every five years since 1955. Salazar credited the upturn to efforts by federal and local governments and conservation groups to encourage Americans to get outdoors.

The Oregon Natural Desert Association (ONDA) and Nevada Wilderness Project are excited to announce the return of the Desert Conference this fall, sponsored by the Pew Charitable Trusts and the Sierra Club.

Since 1978, the Desert Conference has served to bring together, inspire and educate those who care about the high desert of the Great Basin and beyond. The conference provides a forum for land-managers, conservation organizations, academics and advocates alike to educate and inspire one another, and collaborate on critical desert issues.

Panel topics include: Sage-grouse management and conservation, beaver recovery and stream restoration, public lands stewardship, renewable energy and habitat conservation.

Desert Conference XXVI will take place where the sagebrush sea meets the mountains in idyllic Bend, Oregon. The Wild & Scenic Film Festival will kick off the conference on the evening of Sept. 20 and panels will run Sept. 21-22.This year’s conference features keynote speaker and Distinguished Professor of Philosophy Kathleen Dean Moore, guest speaker and honored poet Ursula K. Le Guin, music by local bluegrass band Truck Stop Gravy, plus panels on topics covering a variety of desert issues.

For more information and to register, go to www.onda.org/desertconference.