By Mark Waite

TONOPAH — Sage grouse habitat and designated solar energy zones do not overlap in Nye County, according to official comments approved by the county commission for a planning strategy for the bird.

The Amargosa Valley Solar Energy Zone, Gold Point SEZ and the Millers SEZ are all southwest of desert tortoise habitat, which is mainly in northern Nye County northeast of Tonopah. The U.S. Bureau of Land Management estimates greater sage grouse occupy as much as 47 million acres of land it manages and about 9 million acres of U.S. Forest Service land.

The county seemed to focus their comments about impacts to right-of-way permits.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service said a listing of the greater sage grouse on the Endangered Species List was “warranted but precluded,” meaning the bird won’t be an endangered species yet.

Nye County Commission Chairman Lorinda Wichman said the claimed threats to the sage grouse are expansion of pinyon and juniper trees, wild- fires and predation. The analysis will evaluate habitat management, coal and hard rock mining, renewable energy development, wildfires, invasive species, grazing, off-highway vehicle management and recreation.

Wichman said, “if and when the sage grouse becomes listed it would criminalize permitted, non-public land activities. So we all need to be paying attention to what’s going on with that.” Nye County will use an agreement that prevented the listing of the Amargosa toad as an example of efforts that can be taken to protect the sage grouse, without additional costs in implementing interim measures.

In written comments approved by county commissioners Tuesday, Nye County wants to clarify whether the Gunnison Sage Grouse, which is a population in California and Nevada, as well as a Washington state population, are covered by a BLM interim memorandum.

The county states impacts to sage grouse should have been analyzed in all National Environmental Policy Act NEPA documents required for every right-of-way permit on BLM land.

“Requiring additional review for previously authorized ROWs requiring amendment of renewal places undue burden and expense on the permit holder and can significantly and adversely impact current operations, such as mining, grazing, recreation, etc. and the communities that support those activities,” the county states.

Nye County feels past uses and current leases should be grandfathered in under the rules. Biological surveys were conducted as part of the NEPA review when BLM approved those applications and sage grouse impacts would have been included in those surveys, the county said.

Draft environmental impact statements issued by the BLM would have identified sage grouse habitat and populations, the county letter said. In a prepared statement, the BLM said as many as 98 resource management plans already address the greater sage grouse while the forest service expects to evaluate conservation measures into as many as nine land and resource management plans considered a high priority for conservation of the sage grouse.

The county states: “Requiring after the fact implementation of additional policies and procedures can have significant monetary and timeline impacts to projects e.g. mining, grazing, etc. potentially making them economically infeasible. This could cause current proponents and lease holders to lose funding sources and/or incur economic costs which could result in the loss or withdrawal of the application.”

Off-site mitigation the BLM determines would avoid or minimize impacts to sage grouse habitat needs to be clarified and released for public comment as it can significantly increase the cost of a right-of-way permit, the county said.

Forwarding right-of-way decisions to the BLM state director, USFWS director or state wildlife director reduces the authority of field offices and consideration of local issues, the county said. Right-of-way applications must take into account beneficial as well as detrimental socioeconomic impacts, not just be approved or denied based on impacts to sage grouse alone, the county said.

Final decisions on applications shouldn’t be deferred until completion of the land use process, which could take years, the county said.

Nye County Code requests federal agencies coordinate with the county commission when pending actions affect local communities. Coordination is also required under the Federal Land Policy and Management Act of 1976 FLPMA , the county states.

The BLM and forest service have extended the public comment period through March 23 for an environmental impact statement evaluating greater sage grouse conservation measures in 10 western states.

Comments may be submitted to: Western Region Project Manager, BLM Nevada State Office, 1340 Financial Blvd., Reno, 89502. They can be sent by fax to 1-775-861-6747 or by e-mail to <a href=sagewest@blm.gov.

>sagewest@blm.gov

While attention is focused on the sage grouse, Wichman said Tuesday a bill in front of Congress would increase the number of wild horses and burros allowed on the range from 26,500 in the 1971 Wild Horse and Burro Act to numbers estimated to be on the range today, close to 39,500.