Commission delays vote on BLM ‘no’ resolution

Nye County Commissioners on Tuesday decided to postpone until next month voting on a resolution to not participate in any future U.S. Bureau of Land Management resource management plan processes.

County Commissioner Butch Borasky said he wanted to see a clean copy of the bill after some last-minute changes by Commissioner Donna Cox and wanted the district attorney’s office to review it.

Cox had requested the original resolution before making changes.

Borasky liked the resolution. But he added, “there was a statement made that it would take us out of the cooperating agency status and I think if we did that we’d have to have our heads examined because we’d be abdicating that position of power over to the BLM.”

The resolution proposed Tuesday said the BLM enacted and enforced rules and regulations that have caused Nevada to suffer severe economic and environmental damage, causing the loss of tens of millions of dollars and thousands of jobs as a direct result of the sage grouse management plan.

“The county is a cooperating agency to the RMP update process, whose comments and requests have been largely ignored by BLM,” the resolution states. It added the public at a Dec. 1 commissioners’ meeting expressed disapproval of the revised plan, which includes the addition of 20 Areas of Critical Environmental Concern (ACECs) in a couple of options and restricted areas for visual management. Only one alternative mentions the Pahrump Airport project.

“Now therefore, be it resolved by the Nye County Board of Commissioners that BLM does not have the authority to manage land or perform federal land planning on lands within the borders of Nye County,” the resolution said defiantly.

County Commissioner Frank Carbone said he only wants a few words changed.

“Most of the people are probably worried we’re not going to get something on the table. But the majority of the things we’ve seen, from the redlining and changing, they’re pretty spectacular,” Carbone said.