The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) Mojave-Southern Great Basin Resource Advisory Council (RAC) will meet at the BLM Tonopah Field Station, 1553 South Main Street, Tonopah, Nev., Friday, August 12, 2005, at 10 a.m. The RAC is scheduled Thursday, Aug. 11, 2005, to tour public lands administered by the BLM Tonopah Field Station.

Discussion items at the Friday meeting include, but are not limited to, the Clark, Lincoln, and White Pine Counties Groundwater Development Project Environmental Impact Statement, potential recreation opportunities at Rhyolite, and the Ely Resource Management Plan and Environmental Impact Statement.

The Federal Land Policy and Management Act directs the Secretary of the Interior to involve the public in planning and discussion of issues related to management of BLM-administered public lands. The Mojave-Southern Great Basin RAC is one of three such councils in Nevada that accommodate this community participation directive. Represented on the council are elected officials and state agencies, as well as environmental, livestock, mining, Native American, and wild horse and burro interests.

The RAC advises and makes recommendations to the BLM on land-use planning and public land management. The meetings are open to the public and public comment periods are included in each meeting. The forum provides the public an excellent opportunity to ask questions of the citizen-based council or to make comments that may assist the RAC in its planning efforts. A public comment period is scheduled at 11 a.m., Friday, Aug. 12.