News Release

For Release: July 25, 2006
Contact: Heather Tiel (208) 736-2352

Seasonal Bureau of Land Management Staff Gather Important
Data and Pertinent Work Experience

TWIN FALLS, ID – The Bureau of Land Management (BLM), Twin Falls District, Jarbidge Field Office has over 70 people working this summer preparing a Resource Management Plan (RMP). The current Jarbidge RMP was completed in 1987. The revised RMP will provide broad, multiple-use guidance for managing 1,366,000 acres of public lands managed by the BLM in portions of Twin Falls, Owyhee, and Elmore Counties, Idaho, and Elko County, Nevada, for the next 15 to 20 years.

This planning effort is the result of the September 2005 Stipulated Settlement Agreement in the case of Western Watersheds Project v. Idaho BLM State Director K Lynn Bennett.

Field crews are monitoring grazing allotments and inventorying rare plants and animals and riparian and fire rehabilitation areas; they are also assessing roads, trails and facilities.

This work is not only providing valuable information to the BLM, it is also providing the opportunity for over 30 natural resource undergraduate and graduate students to hone their field skills while gaining on-the-ground experience within their discipline. For additional information regarding the Jarbidge RMP, please visit the website: http://www.blm.gov/rmp/id/jarbidge .

For further information, please contact Heather Tiel, BLM Public Affairs Specialist, at (208) 736-2352.

—BLM—