FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

June 10, 2002

NEWS RELEASE

Date: Time: Place:

June 21, 2002 10 a.m. Churchill County Administration Building Commission Chambers 155 North Taylor Street Fallon, Nevada

Contact:

Linda Eissmann Committee Staff Director Legislative Committee on Public Lands Carson City, Nevada 89701-4747 (775) 684-6825

PUBLIC LANDS COMMITTEE TO MEET IN FALLON

Senator Dean A. Rhoads (R-Tuscarora) is pleased to announce that Nevada’s Legislative Committee on Public Lands will hold its seventh meeting of the 2001-2002 Legislative Interim at the Churchill County Commission Chambers in Fallon on Friday, June 21, 2002, at 10 a.m. An agenda is attached to this news release.

According to Senator Rhoads, the Public Lands Committee was created in 1983, as a permanent Committee of the Nevada Legislature. Its purposes are to review and comment on federal land management policies and practices, and to provide a forum for the discussion of public lands matters. The Committee holds meetings throughout Nevada during the interim period between sessions of the Nevada Legislature, and looks to local governments and residents to provide information that may be used for future legislation or other legislative actions.

“Managing Nevada’s public lands creates many complex issues, some of which are county‑specific and others are shared statewide,” Rhoads noted. “Either way, the Legislature’s Public Lands Committee wants to know what they are and how we might provide assistance or support to our local governments.” Typical public lands topics may address grazing, mining, public access, recreation, water rights, wildfire suppression, and a variety of natural resource and land use topics.

The Fallon meeting will begin with an overview of public lands issues in the area of Churchill, Eureka, and Lander Counties. Representatives of each county, as well as the Bureau of Land Management and the U.S. Forest Service, have been invited to participate and present information to the Committee. Among the issues of regional interest for the Fallon meeting will be updates of the Stillwater National Refuge Complex Comprehensive Conservation Plan and the status of the Governor’s Sage Grouse Conservation Planning Team activities.

The Committee will hear reports on a variety of public lands issues, including the 2002 Federal Farm Bill, the anticipated 2002 fire season, and the Nevada Native Seed Program, followed by a discussion of weed management activities in Nevada and the status of the State Weed Plan.

“The Farm Bill has a number of components of interest to Nevada, and particularly to our agricultural industry which relies so heavily on our public lands,” Rhoads explained. “I’m also concerned about the toll our current drought will have on our upcoming fire season and how our rangelands can be preserved and improved. The Nevada Native Seed Program and our efforts to control noxious weeds are important State programs aimed at maintaining the health of our range.”

Mining issues will also be a focus of the June 21 Public Lands Committee meeting, with discussions of the permitting time frames for mining in Nevada and the status of the State Reclamation Bond Pool. According to Rhoads, “Mining is another of Nevada’s most important industries and, like agriculture, it relies heavily on the use of public lands. Mining issues and the prosperity of that industry has always been of particular concern to the Public Lands Committee.”

The meeting will conclude with an overview of the federal Rangeland Reform ’94 regulations that changed many of the management policies on public lands, and a discussion of a potential bill to address stockwatering permits on public land.

The other members of Nevada’s Legislative Committee on Public Lands are Senator Terry Care (D‑Las Vegas); Senator Mike McGinness (R-Fallon), Assemblyman Tom Collins (D‑Las Vegas); Assemblyman John W. Marvel (R‑Battle Mountain); Assemblyman P. M. “Roy” Neighbors (D‑Tonopah); and Eureka County Commissioner Peter J. Goicoechea.