BLM issues decision record for Desatoya Mountains restoration project

CARSON CITY - The Bureau of Land Management (BLM), Carson City District, Stillwater Field Office has issued a Decision Record (DR) for the Habitat Restoration Phase of the Final Environmental Assessment (EA) for the Desatoya Mountains Resiliency, Health, and Restoration Project.

The DR for the Habitat Restoration Phase will implement restoration treatments over a 10-year period on approximately 32,000 acres of public land in the Desatoya Mountains within Churchill and Lander counties of central Nevada.

This is the second of two DR's issued for this project; the first DR was for a wild horse gather and maintenance program.

The restoration treatments are needed to restore balance between sagebrush, riparian and woodland plant communities, all of which provide certain resource values to the landscape, including habitats essential for a wide variety of wildlife.

Sagebrush habitats required for sage grouse and other important wildlife species are being lost or degraded due to a shift from sagebrush to woodlands and are at risk from potential large, intense fires. The greater sage grouse, a BLM Sensitive Species, is also a candidate species for listing under the Endangered Species Act.

In December 2011, the BLM issued Interim Management Policies and Procedures and a Land Use Planning Strategy to guide management for the greater sage grouse. The BLM and U.S. Forest Service, meanwhile, are embarking on a two-year, 10-state process to conduct analyses through Environmental Impact Statements to incorporate greater sage grouse conservation measures into land use plans and land management plans. This project will help to meet these and BLM's National Sage-grouse Habitat Conservation Strategy objectives.

Links to the EA and related documents are located on the BLM website at: http://www.blm.gov/nv/st/en/fo/carson_city_field/blm_information/nepa/nepa_archives.html.

For further information please contact John Wilson, project lead, at (775) 885-6191.

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