Kathryn Ataman (2) Archaeology
John Ellison (3) Elected Official
Art Gale (1) Grazing Permit
Vince Garcia (3) Native American
Richard Hankins (2) Wildlife
Leslie Hansen (2) Dispersed Recreation
Barry Perryman (3) Academic
Patsy Tomera (3) Public At Large
Bill Upton (1) Energy/Minerals
Jeff White (1) Energy/Mineral

 

Bureau of Land Management (BLM) Representatives Present:

Bob Abbey State Director, Nevada State Office
Mike Brown Public Affairs Officer, Elko Field Office
Steve Dondero Recreation/Cultural, Elko Field Office
Helen Hankins Field Office Manager, Elko Field Office
Diane Hendry Public Affairs Officer, Battle Mountain Field Office
Gene Kolkman Field Office Manager, Ely Field Office
Maxine Perrine Range Clerk, Elko Field Office
Jerry Smith Field Manager, Battle Mountain Field Office

 

Other Attendees:

 

 

I. APPROVAL OF MINUTES OF PREVIOUS MEETING-Minutes from the prior meeting were reviewed and two corrections need to be made. Replace Kent Benson with Ken Buckingham and Vince Garcia was not present at the meeting as indicated in the minutes.Art Gale made a motion to approve the minutes with corrections. The motion was seconded by John Ellison. All in favor.

- Helen Hankins summarized that at the Eureka RAC meeting there was a panel discussion which included Tom Porta who made a presentation about state law and water quality. Porta discussed the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between Nevada and BLM.

-The MOU will be revised to address concerns about making sure that language is there to define what the State role and the BLM role is. Currently, the document has been retyped and all BLM offices have provided comment. Meg Jensen is going to meet with Tom Porta and they will put together a final draft and it will be circulated to the RAC. It maybe first submitted to the Department of Justice to make sure what is revised is consistent. By the next RAC meeting we should be able to give it to the RAC for review

- A second issue was the language BLM uses in conformance determinations for Standards and Guidelines. At a BLM range program meeting in Elko yesterday it was discussed using the language of "Significant Progress" made towards meeting Standards and Guidelines not "Met or Not Met." Guidance will come out of the Nevada State Office that will streamline evaluations – combining the Environmental Assessment and the Allotment Assessment into the same document.

- There was a request from the Eureka County Public Lands Advisory Committee for BLM in Battle Mountain to meet with the Committee. John Winnepennikx and Doug Furtado met with the County and discussed grazing allotments.

- Patsy Tomera asked what best management practice book does the Elko Field Office use?

- Gene Kolkman stated we use the State’s book and then we comply with that.

- Jerry Smith added that we use the guidelines from the RAC.

- John Ellison asked if the MOU will be posted on BLM’s website.

- Helen Hankins said after BLM makes the revisions we will send that out to the RAC members. We welcome comments, but it is an agreement between the BLM and State of Nevada.

 

III. SAGE GROUSE CONSERVATION PLANNING UPDATE- Gary Back of SRK Consulting in Elko, gave a power point presentation on sage grouse conservation planning focusing on Lincoln, White Pine, and Elko Counties.

- Back reviewed how the Governor started the sage grouse conversation team and the team came up with a strategy in 2001 forming sub-teams. Each team has developed a strategy and the drafts have submitted to the Governor’s team.

- In Elko County, the Northeastern Nevada Stewardship Group’s sub-team started their analysis on a watershed basis. The Eastern Nevada Landscape Coalition in Ely are also using a watershed approach. All groups have identified sage grouse management areas.

- Back discussed sage grouse population numbers that are listed in the handout. There are about 50,000 birds total on the low end. The largest populations are in the Humboldt-Pershing area. Around the state we are coming down in numbers but staying steady.

The birds are well distributed.

- Resource issues affecting sage grouse populations include juniper replacing pine – pinion juniper encroachment; climate getting warmer and drier; fire-caused changes in vegetation; noxious weeds; livestock; wild horses; wildlife; conversion of sagebrush plant communities to cheat grass; decadent sagebrush stands; and disturbance.

- Vince Garcia noted the impact of population and growth on sage grouse and gave the example of the Spring Creek area.

- Gary Back noted we are going to have population growth. We still have a lot of checkerboard land that will be developed and will bring in disturbance. That will be looked at in the zoning land status there a lot more risks then what is on the slide.

There are different communities and the areas are different

- Gene Kolkman commented that we have a new issue, southern Nevada well pumping water and the relationship to the aquifers, and the impact of that on these. This needs to be added to the water impact on sage grouse.

- Gary Back added we are using 500 as an average on population viability from a priority stand point. If there are 500 or less birds out there is there a place to improve and make more habitat? If we can get the system that works we can provide the right conditions for a lot of things. Once we do that we can get more specific. We will do assessments first.

We still don’t know where all the birds are. We need to get out and look at what’s out there.

- Gene Kolkman remarked we are doing a study to find out if native plants will work. We should have the information in the next year.

-Gary Back continued that we have 19 watersheds and if we can get 3 a year we should be okay .

- Pat Irwin asked to what do you attribute the large populations in the 1970s?

- Gary Back responded that once the timber in Tuscarora was cut down, it took the habitat out and the high numbers of livestock. Also contributing was killing of animals because of rabies, i.e. the predator control and the change of management. The habitat was coming back so. The stuff that got old in the 1970s was the 40 year-old sage is dense that’s been part of the decline. To get back to the numbers from the 1970s can we get to those numbers. We might not be able to get that high; we have to quite using the numbers from the 1970’s

- Patsy Tomera asked about the effect of predators and hunters.

- Gary Back stated that hunting is an issue and has been addressed, if you take down to % maintain at the 5-7% range. If we are going to list the bird then why are we still hunting it?

- Patsy Tomera asked if you do your study in the spring time? Do the birds migrate?

- Gary Back responded that we do have study going on in the state and where do they go, where do they move around to, and the habitat that they use. In the spring they are in the strutting ground. We go out and tag, and we know how many males to female ratio. Once we get the males in better conditions the leks will go up. This will help chicks to survive.

- Gary Back gave an update on the Governor’s plan – the deadline is June 10^th. The science review team for the State has identified risks. Other states have been doing studies, they were localized like in Colorado. Wyoming and Nevada have the most birds. There is a petition that came in December and the results should have been out in March, if the petition had merit - that process is going on right now. There are two other petitions that have been combined into this one. We may know if the 9-month review will be required.

- Gary Back summarized that the guidelines that have been done by the RACs - if you have health rangelands then you have a good habitat for the sage grouse. We have done things in the past and we need to look at making systems that work and not patches that work.

- Barry Perryman noted that the specific RAC standards are in the State’s guidelines. There has been ignoring of the guidelines in the initial drafts that have been cleaned up. The standard and guidelines have been used.

 

10:30 a.m. Chairwoman Tomera announced the Public Comment period is open

- Steve Dondero, BLM Elko Field Office Recreation Program leader, gave a power point presentation on Tourism Partnerships in Rural Nevada.

- Dondero described that his presentation was put together by Ralph McMullen (Director of the Elko County Visitors Authority) and Bill Van Bruggen (District Ranger for the Forest Service in Elko). They applied to give a presentation at a national recreation partnership convention in San Diego in 2003 and were on of 30 applicants selected. 1800 people from around the world attended the convention, including Gail Norton, Secretary of the Interior.

- He described BLM’s longstanding partnership for the California Trails which began as a Back Country Byway in 1991. In 1989, partners marked and mapped over 400 miles of trail in Elko County. This partnership was started as national level. Kiosk structures were placed with the help of the national level. We have a cooperative agreement with Elko County for the Byway program.

- Dondero described the role Paul Sawyer played in getting the partnership established for the California National Historic Trail Interpretive Center. The City of Elko pledged $2 million, Elko County $1 million in in-kind services, and the Nevada State Legislature $3 million. Then Sawyer and other interested citizens approached Senator Reid for a two to one match of federal dollars. Maggie Creek Ranch is donating the land for the center.

- Dondero also discussed partnerships with the South Fork Recreation Area, Nevada State Parks, and Barrick. He discussed the planned OHV trail partnership for the Spruce Mountain area. He talked about the need for coordinating NEPA requirements with the partnerships and the need for proper planning and staffing.

- Helen Hankins pointed out that although Steve works for BLM, he was elected to serve on the Elko Convention Board for two consecutive terms.Noon - Chairwoman Tomera called for the lunch break.

 

1:20 p.m. Chairwoman Tomera called the meeting back to order

- Bob Abbey noted that a news release had been received since Gary Back gave his presentation in the morning and the Secretary of Interior decided there will be a 12 month time frame for sage grouse instead of 9 months.

 

V. MINING UPDATE
- Bill Upton gave the Mining Update. A couple of things to bring up are that last year we had a meeting about impact of mining in Elko County. There is a package that goes into the mining impact for the counties. The other thing is the new Instruction Memorandum on the 3809 Regulations - we continue to deal with bonding. The Instruction Memorandum requires that bonds be reviewed. I think the bonding market has hit the bottom. Although it remains to be seen, I haven’t heard of a bond being cancelled.

- John Ellison stated that we have received an information package that it is hard for them to get bonded or the bonds are too expensive.

- Jeff White commented that it’s a problem where the staff is limited. Cortez has started NEPA analysis on the South Pipeline Expansion Report. The Phoenix Mine Notice of Availability was published. The Emigrant Mine Project is underway and NDEP is a cooperator.

- Helen Hankins noted that we have a 12 month schedule for the Emigrant Mine Project EIS and we don’t have some of the difficult issues there we have in other areas.

- John Ellison noted there is going be a more aggressive approach for old mining sites. There are 300-400 sites (abandon mine sites).

- Helen Hankins commented that it’s an on-going program; there are thousands of sites in Nevada, only a few are funded each year. Each district does one each year

- Bob Abbey it’s an excellent program. The population increase in Nevada is 7000 people each month, the development has grown and we are actively looking at areas where people are coming to.1:50 p.m. Chairwoman Tomera called for a break

1:55 p.m. Chairwoman Tomera called the meeting back to order

 

VI. ELY RMP UPDATE
- Gene Kolkman gave the Ely Resource Management Plan (RMP update. We haven’t done anything yet with the RAC, the process, it’ll take some time to review and comments. Perhaps we can discuss more at the June meeting. We may meet with NDOW and NDOM in May.

- We expect changes between the Draft and Final; right now the staff is going through the Areas of Critical Environment Concern. Sites are nominated and evaluated for relevance and significance. I am approaching this liberally; I believe there are a lot of resources in Nevada, i.e. wet areas, wildlife areas, grazing areas we need to protect. There will be between 20-30 of them.

- For visual resource management, we are trying to manage the ACECs where considerable resources exist. We have a pretty good watershed analysis, 61 watersheds. Implementation will have to meet the standards and guidelines. After the standards and guidelines are meet then, the grazing, wild horses, and the natural maintenance through fire.

- Vince Garcia noted there needs to be minimal protection if you have a culture site.

- Gene Kolkman said the site may be historical, or may be fenced. We may want to withdraw the site – with oil and gas you have a spacing off from the site, restoration, it depends on the mix on the site.

- The allocation process can be complicated - we need a discussion about this; we are allocated at the limit. The drought has caused allotment closures and mortality. We need to look at when we restore the site, we need to look at the rainy day. I feel strongly about wild horses where we have AML set - we increase numbers we have an expectation to gather. With livestock there are three scenarios (AUMs in Ely Field Office). The activation is less then what we have. The production level is fluctuating, we take the average and set our licensed use. The performance is such that the feed is there and we are not meeting our standards, we need a management of flexibility to react if we need we need to measure performance.

- Art Gale commented that those times will come, when we don’t have any water

- Helen Hankins asked how are you factoring for wildlife?

- Gene Kolkman stated we don’t specifically factor for wildlife but we do for watershed. The concern would be through the elk planning. We could allocate money to chase an elk around, but that’s not going to work. Look at elk numbers in Nevada, when we have good production we have more numbers.

- When we talk about fire as a way to management, we can’t manage with controlled burns. We have 24 herd management areas, and move into six large herd areas.

- For land disposal there are 90,000 acres of land that may be up for disposal. Right now it can take one to two years to do a land action. There is a perception that less public land is better. When I started talking about disposal the private owners came in with a problem with it and what it costs. Economic development will be discussed.

If we have 5000 acres it doesn’t mean we will sell it all at once, we will be market based.

- Bob Abbey commented about the expense with land disposals in the clearances area; big ticket items, the endangered species are not that big of a ticket item. One of the things we are doing is working with the archaeologists to do less inventory. The biggest cost is the cultural resources. There has to be some way to streamline the inventory. We are working with the cultural advisor.

- Bob Abbey noted that with Dean Rhoads committee, we can use the revenue up to 20% for the land disposal. We have some of that going on. We have spread the money to other offices throughout the state to off set the land disposal cost.

- Patsy Tomera asked will there be a point range exchange?

- Bob Abbey noted that Senator Reid doesn’t want to do interstate land exchange.

- Gene Kolkman discussed miscommunications with OHV closures. If we say 100,000 acres are closed, it doesn’t mean we have closed it, it’s just closed to ohv.

-General discussion about outfitters, allocating permits, grandfathering permits, and out-of-state outfitters.

 

- Kolkman discussed that Ely is trying to turn over the pinion nut harvest over to the native Americans. We may make 10,000 a year, we are looking at letting the tribes take this over. General discussion about pinion nut picking, the tribes, and commercial versus private permits.

- Kolkman discussed the fire management plan. The last action is to have a fire management plan in place; before we get the watersheds done we have to have a plan. For the country on the Utah border, it would be hard to manage a fire in that area.

We need to update the current fire management plan before we start on the watersheds.

The Draft RMP will be open to public review in July, if you want to wait and look at plan, then you will have time to provide comments to the State Director.

 

- Mike Brown updated the RAC on the Standards and Guidelines brochure. The Vegetation Guidelines have been approved. The language from the original RAC Standards and Guidelines has been added in. The Field Office page has been updated. We are going to try to put some color in. Brown will be working with Debra Kolkman on this. We need to consistent with the other RACs.

 

- Bill Upton asked for streamlining on the minerals (Forest Service); are any of them transferable?

- Pat Irwin commented that what we are referring to is the fuels management. What the forest service has been working on is to streamline the process within the regulations.

- Patsy Tomera asked if the Forest Service will be getting a new district ranger?

- Pat Irwin commented that they have recruited, but not hired.

- Vince Garcia asked about ground breaking for the California Trails Center?

- Helen Hankins noted we have been close to but there has been an escrow instruction problem with Maggie Creek Ranch. Then the ranch did not to give the BLM exclusive use of the easement, so we made adjustments. We should be able to proceed with Elko County and put in an access road. The Trail Center is at 95% on the building and 65% on the exhibits. By late this fall or early winter we hope to issue a contract for construction in January 2005. The Center will open in Summer 2006. We will receive money in the 2005 appropriation. We will only be short $3 million. Once we get the money we will be in good shape to proceed. Some of the construction will be phased to go along with the money. The road will be funded by Elko County

- Helen Hankins announced that the Proper Functioning Condition Workshop is set for May 24^th and 25^th at Great Basin College and on the 26^th, 27^th and 28^th it will be it will be in the field on the Current Creek on the Mary’s River Ranch.

- Pat Irwin discussed the Duck Creek Evaluation Plan, trails planning, and rural assistance grants (three were received) . She also discussed personnel hiring’s and vacancies on the National Forest. The new District Ranger in Tonopah is Steve Williams. The Ely District has been running at a 50% staffing level.

- Irwin also discussed Healthy Forest Restoration Act. We are getting productive on the fuels reductions, but the cultural resource costs are killing us. Where we are focusing in the next few years includes thinning in Shell Creek, another area on Ward Mountain and on Current Creek. We think we can go in and do big scale restoration. We are hoping to get a fire management plan. The forest will be coming out with a rule for all forest service areas about roads on forest lands.

- General discussion about the roads in the forests issue, enforcing the rule, and travel plans. It will come out in the Federal Register and with a comment period.

- Pat Irwin discussed law enforcement – there are no law enforcement rangers in Elko and Austin. When there is funding there may be one position. There has been a huge shortage.

- Patsy Tomera announced there is a Conservation District camp for ages 14-18 and the district will pay for two kids to go. The last girl that went won the camp and then second in the national competition.

- Discussion about the next meeting in Elko on June 10^th and 11^th, beginning at 9:00 a.m. on Thursday June 10^th. Jeff White said Newmont will host the tour which will include surface mining and dewatering. Other people (spouses) may attend with RAC members. We will go to the Interpretive Center site. Mike Brown will work with Jeff White for the details.

- Patsy Tomera discussed attending the RAC Chairs meeting in Phoenix in May and asked if there is anything the RAC would like her to carry forward to the meeting.

- Vince Garcia commented he would like to know what they have done with Sustaining Working Landscapes since the last time they got together.Bill Upton motioned to adjourn the meeting. Leslie Hansen seconded the motion. All in favor.

 

Meeting adjourned at 3:20 p.m.

 

Approved by: Patsy Tomera, Chair