State Office
| Contacts: | Justin Abernathy | , 775-861-6504 | , jabernathy@blm.gov |
BLM Defers Parcels due to Sage-Grouse Concerns for Competitive Geothermal Lease Sale
Reno, Nev.—The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) Nevada is holding a competitive geothermal lease sale on Tuesday, Jan. 24. The sale room opens at 8 a.m. for registration and bidding numbers and the sale begins at 9 a.m. The sale will be held at BLM State Office, 1340 Financial Blvd., in Reno.
To comply with the BLM’s Greater Sage-Grouse Interim Management Policies and Procedures, Instruction Memorandum No. 2012-043, the BLM Nevada collaborated with the Nevada Department of Wildlife. As a result, one parcel is deferred and two parcels are partially deferred because those areas are within sage-grouse population management units and overlap priority habitat area. Additionally, there are active sage-grouse leks in or in very close proximity to these parcels. Another parcel was reconfigured due to a boundary of a Wilderness Study Area that was not well defined at the time the sale notice was posted. The boundary has since been surveyed and the boundary defined resulting in the reconfiguration. Accordingly, an amendment to the sales notice reduces the number of parcels from 34 to 33 and reduces the number of acres from 99,469 to 94,829 acres. The parcels offered are located around the state: eight in the Carson City District; two in the Battle Mountain District; two in the Elko District; and 21 in the Winnemucca District.
The notice, a parcel list, associated stipulations, and amendment are available in the Information Access Center at the BLM Nevada State Office at 1340 Financial Blvd., and online at the BLM Nevada website at: www.blm.gov/nv. The website also provides a Geographic Information System shapefile of the parcels.
The BLM manages more than 245 million acres of public land, the most of any Federal agency. This land, known as the National System of Public Lands, is primarily located in 12 Western states, including Alaska. The BLM also administers 700 million acres of sub-surface mineral estate throughout the nation. In Fiscal Year (FY) 2011, recreational and other activities on BLM-managed land contributed more than $130 billion to the U.S. economy and supported more than 600,000 American jobs. The Bureau is also one of a handful of agencies that collects more revenue than it spends. In FY 2012, nearly $5.7 billion will be generated on lands managed by the BLM, which operates on a $1.1 billion budget. The BLM's multiple-use mission is to sustain the health and productivity of the public lands for the use and enjoyment of present and future generations. The Bureau accomplishes this by managing such activities as outdoor recreation, livestock grazing, mineral development, and energy production, and by conserving natural, historical, cultural, and other resources on public lands.
State Office 1340 Financial Blvd. Reno, NV 89502