BLM Hosting Meetings on Vegetation Restoration and Monitoring of Wildland Fire Burn Sites in Red Rock Canyon
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Las Vegas - The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) Red Rock/Sloan Field is seeking input regarding issues related to revegetating, recovering and reducing future fire risk for two wildland fire sites within Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area.
BLM will host meetings April 6 from 2 – 3:30 p.m. and April 7 from 6 – 7:30 p.m. Both meetings will be held at the Sahara West Library at 9600 West Sahara and will include a brief presentation from the BLM followed by an open house. Written comment forms will be available at the meetings.
The BLM is in the process of preparing an Environmental Assessment regarding proposed follow-up treatments of Loop and Scenic Fires – which burned 2,566 acres of desert tortoise habitat within the 13-Mile Scenic Drive in 2005. Previous treatments in response to this fire included fencing and herbicide application to reduce the dominate presence of red brome. Unfortunately, the native vegetation has not recovered as anticipated so the proposed follow-up treatments were designed.
Project goals include configuring and installing fuel breaks using imazapic-containing herbicide to reduce brome grasses, applying locally-adapted seeds of early-colonizing species to rapidly establish native cover for use by tortoise, creating habitat islands to promote the establishment of long-lived native shrubs important for tortoise habitat and monitoring effectiveness of the treatments using a scientifically robust sampling strategy.
If you need additional information, please contact Melissa Sanders, Arid Land Restoration Specialist, at 702-515-5034 or msanders@blm.gov.
The public will also have additional opportunities to comment on the proposed project when the draft Environmental Assessment is released in May 2016.
Before including your address, phone number, e-mail address, or other personal identifying information in your comment, you should be aware that your entire comment – including your personal identifying information – may be made publicly available at any time. While you can ask us in your comment to withhold your personal identifying information from public review, we cannot guarantee that we will be able to do so.
The BLM manages more than 245 million acres of public land located primarily in 12 western states, including Alaska, on behalf of the American people. The BLM also administers 700 million acres of sub-surface mineral estate throughout the nation. Our mission is to sustain the health, diversity, and productivity of America’s public lands for the use and enjoyment of present and future generations.