Dear Editor, The headline in the EDFP concern sage grouse and our economy was very misleading. Anyone that truly believes that listing of the sage grouse as an endangered species won’t have a negative impact on Elko County as well as the State of Nevada hasn’t been paying very close attention to what has transpired over the last few years. Elko County lost a portion of the China Wind Project that was to be built in the Northeastern part of our county directly due to sage grouse. The deferment of that project cost the tax payers of Elko an estimated $1.8 million a year in tax revenue. The deferment of 160,000 acres of BLM managed land was removed from oil/gas lease consideration for an unspecified period of time due to the sage grouse and sage grouse habitat. Revenue that would have been realized is lost forever, plus any jobs that would have come from the exploration and extraction. We all understand that some type of action will take place concerning the sage grouse. The EIS is out and comments are due by the 29th of this month. If you enjoy the many recreational aspects our county has to offer I ask all of you to make comment on the EIS. Listing the sage grouse will cost many of our industries much more money than it does now to do business on public land. This can have a negative impact on hiring, expansion, ranching and economic development. The Federal Government will manage the sage grouse/habitat when listed, processes to do anything on public land will take even longer than it already does now. Public lands are already under their management and has been for decades. What makes anyone think that all of a sudden they are going to step up to the plate and manage fires any better, habitat any better, recreational use any better or development any better than the way they do business now. They won’t, bottom line. This is in my opinion a land grab to reduce many of the uses that take place on public land, nothing more. There isn’t enough money to correctly reduce fuel load to reduce fire damage especially during drought years, predation isn’t a consideration even though the raven has increased by 600% and is one of the biggest predators of sage grouse eggs and chicks. There has to be a balance between use of public land and sage grouse habitat. But don’t believe for one minute that if the sage grouse is listed it won’t have a direct negative impact on Elko County and you! Charlie Myers
Posted on: Sat, 18 Jan 2014 03:56:41 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015