BLM to conduct inventory of plant, animal life on public land

Monday, Oct. 15, 2001 | 9:54 a.m.

The Bureau of Land Management is preparing to inventory plants, waters and wildlife habitat on the 264 million acres it supervises for multiple uses in 16 Western states, including Nevada.

The BLM announced on Friday it will study environmental impacts and changes to its lands devastated in recent years by forest fires, range blazes and invasion of alien plants. After the study is completed in 2003, the bureau could remove dead trees and brush to prevent future fires and restore acres already burned.

Locations and dates for public meetings have not been scheduled. Preliminary hearings are expected to begin in November.

In Nevada the BLM is responsible for 47.9 million acres -- or 67.8 percent of the state -- for uses ranging from recreation to grazing and mining. The federal government owns 70.7 million acres of Nevada, or 87 percent of the state.

In Clark County the BLM oversees 2.9 million acres, or 57 percent of the 5.12 million acres of county lands.

Under the Southern Nevada Pubic Lands Act, the BLM is selling its parcels for urban development in the Las Vegas Valley.