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BLM field manager outlines a slate of mining, grazing and emergency operations in Elko County update
Summary
Elizabeth Buentes of the Bureau of Land Management gave an overview of regional mineral projects, grazing permit renewals to protect Lahontan cutthroat trout habitat, an emergency wild-horse gather after the Jake's Fire, and staffing and sale updates including an upcoming oil and gas lease sale.
Elizabeth Buentes, Bureau of Land Management Field Manager for Tuscarora (acting for the Wells Field Office), told the National Resource Management Advisory Commission that the BLM has multiple mineral and land-management items moving through review.
"So that is now a FAST 41 project," Buentes said of the South Railroad Mine and added that the agency is continuing work on the project's EIS with a record of decision currently scheduled for Aug. 14. Buentes also listed other projects in early planning or EIS stages, including a tailings-storage expansion near Carlin and several exploration proposals in the Wells Field Office.
Buentes described work on term permit renewals focused on allotments that contain Lahontan cutthroat trout habitat and said the Adobe Jackstone environmental assessment is the most advanced of these and is expected to go out for public review "in the next month, month and a half." She said the BLM is coordinating consultation with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service on mitigation and historic-properties treatment plans.
The manager also described operational items: NEPA documents were signed for an emergency wild-horse gather to respond to the Jake's Fire and crews were initiating a gather expected to remove roughly 180 horses from the Oahe habitat-management area because of reduced forage. On staffing, Buentes said a federal hiring freeze remains in place in some form but that seasonal hires and fire positions have continued and that BLM '1hopes budget actions will allow more hiring.
Buentes answered several technical questions from the commission and directed commissioners to the BLM Nevada website for full sale statistics and bidding details. She said there were no nominated geothermal parcels in Elko County for 2026 but that the agency had been notified of an oil and gas lease sale scheduled for September 2026; parcel details were pending.
