Elko County Public Land Use & Natural Resource Management Plan
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Elko County Public Land Use & Natural Resource Management Plan 2010 0 2010 Elko County Public Land Use & Natural Resource Management Plan Executive Summary: The Elko County Public Land Use and Natural Resource Management Plan was created in the effort to maintain and promote traditional multiple uses in unison with conservation measures of publicly managed lands within Elko County. The directives of the plan are intended to promote active progressive leadership from all levels of our local, state and federal land management agencies. The directives provide directions in developing and improving cooperative relationships between federal public land management and local government and its citizens. The directives also provide insight to help maintain existing uses and establish diversified multiple uses of Elko County’s federally managed public lands. Promotion and implementation of education plans are the keys for the users of our public lands as well as the federal land management agencies to cohesively work for continued and expanding multiple uses and conservation. The plan addresses conservation, preservation and land stewardship that has been the custom and culture of the citizens of Elko County for much of man’s existence in the west. The plan offers detailed history and current science related to the local area conservation and preservation measures, policies and methods implemented by many ranchers, mining operations, recreationist and the general public. The plan also addresses regional and local economics and economic diversity. The plan identifies the need for the development of cooperative agreements and active progressive planning on all levels of public land management to provide the diversity that our economy will require to continue to expand and sustain current levels. It also directs the need to revitalize and expand historical uses that prove to be beneficial to the public lands and requires the re-evaluation of current policies that promote and encourage prohibition of multiple uses on public lands. The Elko County Public Land Use and Natural Resource Management Plan is a directive to consider changes to the federal economic and extreme conservation philosophies and policies that infringe and damage’s local and regional economies. The federal land management agencies, in coordination with local government must initiate a progressive planning effort for the full realization of multiple uses and natural resources on federally managed public lands within Elko County. The implementation and continual review of this plan will preserve Elko County’s rich history, culture and heritage as well as identify and develop economic potential opportunities. In consideration of its vast resources, it is foreseeable that Elko County could serve as a model for all rural America. i 2010 Elko County Public Land Use & Natural Resource Management Plan ELKO COUNTY APPROVALS: The Elko County Public Land Use and Natural Resource Management Plan has been developed from a culmination of several public workshops and hearings as per N.R.S. 371 and 278, under the direction of the Elko County Board of Commissioners and the Elko County Natural Resource Management Advisory Commission. ELKO COUNTY NATURAL RESOURCE MANAGEMENT ADVISORY COMMISSION The Elko County Public Land Use and Natural Resource Management Plan is formally approved and adopted by the Elko County Natural Resource Management Advisory Commission, on this the _____________ day of _______________________, 2010. __________________________________________ Craig Spratling, Chairman __________________________________________ Witness: Scott R. Brown ELKO COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS The Elko County Public Land Use and Natural Resource Management Plan is formally approved and adopted by the Elko County Board of Commissioners, on this the _____________ day of _______________________, 2010. __________________________________________ Charlie Myers, Chairman __________________________________________ Attest: ii 2010 Elko County Public Land Use & Natural Resource Management Plan INDEX EXECUTIVE SUMMARY .................................................................................................................... i ELKO COUNTY APPROVAL ............................................................................................................. ii INDEX ............................................................................................................................................. iii APPENDIX ....................................................................................................................................... vi REFERENCES ................................................................................................................................. vii I. PLAN BACKGROUND ....................................................................................................................1 Location ....................................................................................................................................1 Land Ownership ......................................................................................................................2 Climate .....................................................................................................................................4 Population .................................................................................................................................4 II. PLAN PURPOSE ...........................................................................................................................5 III. PUBLIC LAND USE MANAGEMENT PLAN GOALS .....................................................................6 IV. PUBLIC LAND USE AND NATURAL RESOURCE MANAGEMENT PLANNING PROCESS ..............8 V. HISTORICAL BACKGROUND ........................................................................................................9 VI. PUBLIC LANDS & RECREATION ..............................................................................................13 VII. WILDERNESS .........................................................................................................................16 VIII. ECONOMIC & SOCIO ECONOMIC ACTIVITIES ....................................................................17 Cattle, Sheep, Livestock and the Farming Sector ..................................................................19 Historic Trends in Livestock Production ................................................................................20 Livestock Economics .............................................................................................................21 Humboldt – Toiyabe National Forest .....................................................................................22 Basic Concepts of County Economics and Income and Employment Multipliers ................23 Economic Importance of Public Lands Grazing in Elko County ...........................................25 Impact of Federal Grazing on Ranch Production ...................................................................26 IX. RANGE AND GRAZING MANAGEMENT ...................................................................................27 X. FEDERAL LAND POLICIES AND THE IMPACTS ON PUBLIC LAND USES ...................................29 ENVIRONMENTAL, HISTORICAL, & CULTURAL FINDINGS ...................................................29 History of fire in the Great Basin ...........................................................................................29 Allen Savory, Steve Rich and the Testimony of Jedediah Smith ................................29 History of vegetative cover in northern Nevada ....................................................................30 History of affects of livestock grazing in Nevada ..................................................................31 iii 2010 Elko County Public Land Use & Natural Resource Management Plan The Yager Journal........................................................................................................31 Lewis and Clark, Peter Skeen Ogden and John Work .................................................32 Spanish Colonization in California .............................................................................32 Customs, Culture, Settlement and Predator Control ..............................................................34 History of mule deer in the Great Basin .................................................................................36 History of Bighorn Sheep in Nevada .....................................................................................37 History of Sage Grouse within the Great Basin .....................................................................38 History of bitter-brush, then and now ....................................................................................39 Affects of wildfire on Nevada bitterbrush communities and mule deer populations .............40 Significance of private land stewardship and ownership .......................................................40 Necessity of solar reception on plant life ...............................................................................41 Historical affects of grazing on riparian areas ........................................................................41 The Starkey Experimental Studies ...............................................................................42 Recently acquired scientific data and knowledge concerning