Friends of Idaho Watersheds Project

BLM BACKS DOWN IN NEVADA!

The Elko Field Office of the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) has
rescinded a grazing decision for the 65,000 acre YP Allotment in
north-west Elko County at the Idaho border after Idaho Watersheds
Project and the Committee for Idaho's High Desert filed a 17 page
appeal and a petition for stay with the Interior Board of Land Appeals
on October 30, 1998.

The rescinded Final Multiple Use Decision failed to adequately address
the documented negative impacts of cattle grazing on significant
portions of 22 miles of the South Fork of the Owyhee River in Nevada
which is recommended for wild and scenic river status. The decision
also failed to provide consultation with the Shoshone-Paiute Tribes of
the Duck Valley Reservation, proposed several miles of illegal fence in
a wilderness study area, and proposed no management for most upland
riparian resources on the allotment all of which are in degraded
condition because of cattle abuse

The BLM has committed to rewrite its decision to bring it into
compliance with the law (or, reading between the lines, to create a new
decision which they believe might survive an appeal!)

IWP appreciates the involvement of the Nevada State Office of the BLM
(in particular, Brad Hines) in helping change the mind of the Elko
Field Office in this fiasco.