BLM briefs Churchill County: grazing pilot in Pleasant Valley, sage-grouse decision expected, wild-horse counts corrected

Mark Mazza, Assistant Field Manager for the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), briefed the Churchill County Board of Commissioners on a slate of public-land projects that involve grazing, wildlife surveys, wild-horse management, geothermal and mineral exploration.

Mazza said the Sand Canyon project and other right-of-way and maintenance-agreement matters remain in baseline study stages. On rangeland management, he described a first-of-its-kind prescribed-grazing fuels-reduction project under the Great Basin Targeted Grazing and Prescribed Grazing Fuels Reduction environmental assessment. The county’s operator is Pleasant Valley Livestock at Eastgate Ranch; the expected grazing period was scheduled to begin Oct. 1 but BLM was awaiting construction of a required fence before issuing a permit and a letter of authorization.

On grazing permits and the B-sixteen grazing decisions, Mazza said those final decisions were issued and entered a 30-day appeal period that closed Oct. 10. He noted the BLM and Bureau of…