Battle Mountain District Office
| Contacts: | Josh Tibbetts | , 775-635-4109 | , jtibbett@blm.gov | |
| Chad Lewis | , 775-635-4102 | , clewis@blm.gov |
BLM to Conduct a Public Scoping Meeting on the Battle Mountain Wildland-Urban Interface Fire Defense System
Battle Mountain, Nev. - The Bureau of Land Management (BLM), Battle Mountain District Office (BMDO) invites the community to learn about a planning proposal to reduce hazardous fuel loadings and to create a defensible buffer from catastrophic wildfire in and around Battle Mountain, Nev. The BMDO will host a public scoping meeting at the Battle Mountain Civic Center, 625 S. Broad St., on March 6, from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m., to present the proposed project and meet with interested parties to further develop the project.
“The goal is to create a fire defense system to make an established or emerging wildfire easier and safer to manage,” said District Manage Doug Furtado. “Reasonable and feasible options will be discussed at the meeting, including brush-beating, green-stripping and the use of prescribed grazing. We expect the meeting to provide the community with a good understanding of what we intend to accomplish to provide defensible buffers from wildfire,” Furtado added.
Staff from the Battle Mountain District Fire Program will facilitate the meeting in order to gain feedback on the most favorable options for protecting at-risk resources in the Battle Mountain Assessment Area.
The BMDO has completed a fire risk and hazard assessment for the Battle Mountain area and has identified approximately 22,000 acres of wildland-urban interface public lands that are at an overall moderate risk of experiencing catastrophic wildfire.
As a result of implementing the proposed action, buffers would be created in strategic areas which would serve to moderate fire behavior within the treated areas, reducing the likelihood of a wildfire entering (or leaving) the community of Battle Mountain and creating a safer environment for firefighters to engage in suppression operations. Further benefits include local watershed protection, improvement of stand structure and increased opportunities for ecological diversity within the wildland-urban interface. In addition, areas within the wildland-urban interface would be more resistant to fire. Upon completion of this project, monitoring, and further maintenance (mechanical, chemical, and/or biological) treatments will be utilized to maintain the project area.
A combination of mechanical, chemical and/or biological treatments are a cost-effective and eco-friendly way to address the hazardous fuel conditions occurring within the Battle Mountain Fire Defense Systems Assessment Area.
For further information please call Josh Tibbetts, prescribed fire/fuels specialist at (775) 635-4109, or email jtibbett@blm.gov, or Chad Lewis, fuels program manager at (775) 635-4102, or email clewis@blm.gov.
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.
Battle Mountain District Office 50 Bastian Rd. Battle Mountain, NV 89820