BLM to close 1/4 of Sand Mountain, NV?

[Crowdog]

Please go here for latest info from the April 30, 2003 RAC meeting:
Emergency Closure Info (http://www.sandmountain-nv.org/smra_emergency_closure.htm)

[Crowdog]

http://www.sandmountain-nv.org/images/SatelliteImage-Proposed-Closure.jpg

[Crowdog]

Just as a point of clarification. The Nature Conservancy and the Fallon Paiute-Shoshone Tribe are not members of the RAC as stated in the article. They were invited by the RAC to present information just like Friends of Sand Mountain.

Jon

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By CORY MCCONNELL
Staff Writer, Lahontan Valley News

May 2, 2003

Off roaders and area businesses are up in arms as the Bureau of Land Management and environmentalist organizations discuss closing up to 25 percent of the Sand Mountain recreational area.

Vegetation along the north and northwest sides of the mountain are the only known habitat in the world for the Sand Mountain Blue Butterfly. The butterfly, which lives thrives on the mountain's kearney buckwheat, is currently listed as "sensitive" by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

If that listing is upgraded to threatened or endangered, the BLM fears, the USFWS could take complete control of Fallon's most widely known and largest drawing resource. "They might order us to shut the entire area down and we don't want that to happen," said BLM spokesman Mark Struble.

Off-road enthusiasts and area businesses oppose drastic measures, such as a BLM biologist's suggestion to close 1,000 acres of the mountain to public use, in favor of less obtrusive means like educating off-roaders about the butterflies and their habitat.

Jon Crowley, President of the not-for-profit corporation Friends of Sand Mountain, said his organization has been handing out pamphlets urging people to keep off vegetation at their annual Sand Mountain cleanup event. Every year, more than 100 volunteers turn out for the event to beautify the mountain.

More education about the mountain's vegetation and wildlife, off-roaders argue, should curb destruction of the butterfly's habitat. While Struble said the BLM plans to step up educational efforts, the bureau is so far standing behind a temporary ban of off-road-vehicles on 1,000 acres along the mountain's north and northwest portions. The area in question is a pretty much continuous band of plant life, Struble said, except for several trails cutting through what used to be plant life.

"A lot of plants have been torn up over the years," Struble said. Area businesses and city officials worry cutting the recreational area, the same year the BLM has started charging user fees for it, could have an undesirous impact on Fallon's economy.

Drawing 35,000 to 40,000 visitors per year, Fallon's tourism director Rick Gray said, "That resource is vital to Fallon's economy today."According to the BLM, 8.5 out of every ten Sand Mountain users drive in from California.
"Talk about tourism dollars. We know how important it is," Struble said.

The BLM is looking at a temporary closure of vegetated portions of Sand Mountain precisely to avoid losing those tourists permanently. The BLM says the closure won't be impinge a great deal on the mountain's off-roading mecca status. "Let's face it, most of the great riding is on the dunes themselves," Struble said.

Off-roading enthusiasts fear a reduction in the mountain's usable area, while the numbers of the area's users continue to grow, is a safety hazard. "More and more people are enjoying Sand Mountain and they're taking those people and squeezing them into a smaller area," Crowley said, "there's more of a chance somebody's going to hit somebody."

A Resource Advisory Counsel staffed by representatives of various interests including farmers, ranchers, miners, academics, environmentalists and businesses will meet some time this month to try and come up with an agreeable solution. Aside from the counsel's findings, Struble said, the BLM is sticking with its biologist's suggestion.

Fallon's tourism director said he just hope those who live near the mountain get their say in what happens. "It's too important a resource for Fallon for us not to have a voice," Gray said, "I just want to be a part of the discussions."

The other members of the RAC which backed the biologists suggestion are the Nature Conservancy and the Fallon Paiute-Shoshone Tribe.

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[Crowdog]

OK guys, a lot of people have asked what they can do to help fight this closure at Sand Mountain. Here is one easy way to help. If you are going to be near any shops that sell motorcycles, etc., drop a few flyers off for them to pass out.

I have created a two-page flyer that is meant to be printed on one piece of paper (front/back). I print it in color using draft mode.

Download Flyer here (http://www.pirate4x4.com/lance/uploads/sandmtn1.pdf)

The flyer has a map of the closure plus other info about the RAC meeting and why its' important to tread lightly. We need to get as many people informed as possible.


Thanks,

Jon

[Crowdog]

May 5, 2003
Butterfly may cut off-road vehicle engines

By Karl Horeis, Tribune News Service

FALLON -- Environmentalists want to draw a line on Sand Mountain by closing 1,000 acres to vehicles in order to protect a rare blue butterfly.

Immediate closure of 1,000 acres of Sand Mountain to off-highway vehicles was recommended by an ecologist with the Bureau of Land Management, the Fallon Paiute-Shoshone tribe and the Nature Conservancy during an April 30 meeting of the BLM's Resource Advisory Council in Fallon.

The closure would cut 25 percent the area now open to off-road vehicles, though the area would still be open to visitors on foot.

According to Nature Conservancy representatives, vehicles pose a "critical threat to the viability of Sand Mountain and its unique suite of plants and invertebrates."

The problem, they say, is loss of vegetative cover from RV use. The vehicles harm Kearney buckwheat, a food source for the Sand Mountain blue butterfly.

"As far as we know the (Sand Mountain blue butterfly) lives nowhere else and it depends on the Kearney buckwheat," said BLM plant ecologist Dean Kinerson. "We've seen trail increases into Sand Mountain blue butterfly habitat since 1978 -- particularly in the '90s."

Off-highway vehicle enthusiasts like Jon Crowley, president of the nonprofit group Friends of Sand Mountain, acknowledge the species is sensitive, but are not ready to close the dunes.

"As far as we know, it doesn't live anywhere else, but we'd like to see them verify that," he said.

He said there are about 30 sand dune areas in Nevada, and claimed Kearney buckwheat lives in other areas. He would like to see those areas checked for the butterfly before parts of Sand Mountain are closed.

BLM has the authority to make emergency closures if it decides that resource damage is a problem. The decision would ultimately be made by John Singlaub, field manager at the Carson City field office, which covers the Sand Mountain Recreation Area.

The Resource Advisory Council created a subgroup to advise the bureau. It will include off-road vehicle users, environmentalists, biologists and representatives from the tribe. Crowley has applied to be a part of the group.

During the meeting in Fallon, the Friends of Sand Mountain urged the BLM to exhaust other means of stopping vegetation loss before limiting the use of off-highway vehicles at Sand Mountain. The group asks its members, described by the BLM's Terry Knight as "an ad-hoc group of mostly OHV enthusiasts," to tread lightly on the dunes. The first line of BLM's mission is "to keep Sand Mountain clean, safe and open for future generations."

Crowley's group regularly cleans up Sand Mountain. They also distribute fliers and organize programs teaching off-roaders how to tread lightly.

"We'd like to see the BLM be a partner in that as well," Crowley said.

He proposed that BLM take on buckwheat restoration projects like the one to help a sensitive blue butterfly near Los Angeles International Airport.

"That way we can help mitigate any habitat loss," he said.

But butterflies and buckwheat are not the only concerns of ecologists at Sand Mountain.

Kinerson listed the Sand Mountain aphodius scarab beetle, the click beetle and two bee species, perdita hiagi and the perdita sp. nov. 3 as invertebrates living only on the Sand Mountain dunes. Some of these are so newly discovered scientists have yet to name them.

Other invertebrates, including the Hardy's aegialian scarab beetle, the Sand Mountain pygmy scarab beetle, the Sand Mountain serican scarab beetle and the anthophora sp. nov. 1 bee live only on the dunes and in the area just south of there.

"You wouldn't find these invertebrates anywhere else in the world," Kinerson said. "If we lose them, they're gone forever."

Off-road enthusiasts were also represented at the meeting by the Off-Road Business Association, the California Off-Road Vehicle Association, the California Association of Four Wheel Drive Clubs and the American Sand Association.

To serve on the BLM's Resource Advisory Council subgroup, call BLM public affairs officer Mark Struble at (775) 885-6107.

http://www.tahoedailytribune.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?Site=TD&Date=20030505&Category=NEWS&ArtNo=305050106&Ref=AR