Another battle over land use in Nevada appears to be on the horizon. This time it doesn’t involve the desert tortoise – but rather a chicken-sized game bird the federal government wants to place on the endangered species list.
The long-term survival of greater sage-grouse that lives in sagebrush throughout much of Northern and central Nevada could soon become the next big fight between ranchers and the federal government. The decision whether to name the grouse as an endangered species could harm economic activity across 11 Western states, including 17 million acres of Nevada.
The Nevada Agriculture Department reported in 2011 that cattle and calves were Nevada’s leading agricultural industry, totaling $732 million, or 62.5 percent of all farm receipts. The agency said there were 470,000 cattle and 29,000 dairy cows in Nevada in 2012.
The Nevada Department of Wildlife estimated grouse numbers in the state at 85,778 in 2012, while the 2013 number is 10 percent to 15 percent lower due primarily to drought conditions. Despite the declining populations, hunting is allowed in Nevada in areas with enough populations with the limited to late September and early October.
As part of the season, hunters provide the state Wildlife Department with a wing from each harvested bird, which has given the agency a database to help it in monitoring the birds. In 2010 — 7,355 birds were harvested out of an estimated fall population totaling 141,996.
The birds, about two feet tall and weigh as much as 7 pounds, occupy about 56 percent of their historical range in Nevada, which includes much of Northern Nevada and central Nevada. There are also populations along the Nevada-California border.
Nevada Senator Dean Heller said it would make the battle over Cliven Bundy’s cattle and his use of the U.S. Bureau of Land Management grazing lands pale by comparison.
“Wait till they list the sage-grouse,” he said. “I’ll tell you, every cattleman here knows that their life span, their occupation, is short. Wait till the sage-grouse comes.”
That showdown came to a temporary end after hundreds of Patriots and Minute Men arrived at the ranch in Bunkerville to support the Bundy family. Heller also said ranchers have seen the lands they can graze on reduced by half over the past 30 years.
Nevada’s Congressman Mark Amodei recently introduced a bill to make federal agencies fund their conservation efforts.
“The number one threat to sage hen habitat in Nevada is wild land fire,” Amodei said. “Yet the federal land management agencies, who own the vast majority of the habitat, have not prioritized funding needed to undertake the necessary work to conserve the resource and prevent the ESA listing.”
“Instead, they point fingers in an attempt to saddle state and private landowners with the responsibility for funding projects that are absolutely the responsibility of the federal government,” he added. “This is nothing short of extortion and sadly adds another chapter to the war on the West story.”
A decision on how to proceed must come by September 2015 as a result of a court-ordered settlement between the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and environmental groups.
Meanwhile, Senator Harry Reid claimed climate change has decimated the range with wildfires, which is why there is less grazing land available in Nevada. However, National Interagency Fire Center statistics show only 163,000 acres in Nevada were blackened in 2013, while two years before, 226,853 acres burned.
It was July 4th, 2013, when the ‘Bison Fire’ erupted in the Pine Mountains, south of Gardnerville. Now experts are saying the fire helped the grouse, by clearing the tree and opening the land to sage brush.
Furthermore, for years, the BLM knew about the need to thin the stands and applying a prescribed fire, but politics, policies and limited funding prevented that from happening.
“It needed to be done, but it was never able to be done,” Nevada Department of Wildlife biologist Carl Lackey told the Las Vegas Review Journal on July 21st. “Only recently has it started to happen, and only on a small scale.”
Lastly, newly appointed BLM director Neil Kornze is from Elko, Nevada. His father is the geologist who discovered major gold deposits near the which is now an open-pit mine operated by mining giant Barrick.
Kornze is a former senior adviser to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid. He joined the BLM in 2011 and has been leading the agency as principal deputy director since March 2013.
He replaced acting director Mike Pool, who stepped in after Bob Abbey retired in May. But unlike other BLM directors, Kornze doesn’t have decades of natural resource experience, like Abbey who worked in various land management agencies for close to 30 years, as had his predecessor, Jim Caswell.
The BLM oversees more than 245 million acres of public lands nationwide, including 48 million acres in Nevada.
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