Wells Field office reports on Swift North, Beacon Hill and DEATH allotments

Melissa Fisher, Wells field manager for BLM, updated the commission on several active projects and studies in the Wells field office. She said Swift North remains in a holding pattern pending a communications plan from LS Power and ethnographic consultation with tribes; the office is awaiting a comp plan and a letter from the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation to finalize how the two shippers will coordinate. "That's kind of still up in the air until we receive that comp plan," she said.

Fisher reported that the Beacon Hill exploration project (pozzolan) has a draft EA in hand; BLM has completed internal comment and expects to issue the draft for public review in one to two weeks. She also said the Juniper load plan operations application falls within a wilderness study area boundary and may require a notice of proposed action; chapters 1 and 2 of the DEATH allotments are out for cooperator review and the state office is preparing a biological assessment for Lahontan cutthroat trout. Fisher said the Wells office lacks a dedicated fish biologist and the state office has assigned one to help with the assessment.