Thursday, March 21, 2024 | 10:58 a.m.
A $350,000 plan to rebuild a battered boardwalk at Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area is one small part of $27 million in federal funds earmarked for Nevada’s public lands.
The money comes from about $455 million in Bipartisan Infrastructure Law funding for recreation projects and fire prevention measures on Bureau of Land Management territory nationwide.
Bureau of Land Management Director Tracy Stone-Manning and state Director Jon Raby explained the bureau’s plans for funding from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and the Inflation Reduction Act during a Wednesday news conference at Red Rock Canyon.
“Because as the landscape changes before our very eyes, getting drier, hotter, fires increasing in intensity, we need to do as much as we can to ensure that we’re building health and resilience into the landscape,” Stone-Manning said.
The $350,000 of IRA money will fund the reconstruction of Lost Creek Boardwalk. The IRA will also fund 40 new recreation manager and park ranger positions at BLM sites, including between eight and 10 recreation positions in Nevada, Raby said.
“We’ve been adding a number of positions here in Red Rock,” Raby said. “The professionals here, they know the staffing that they need to have… We’ll be able to take those positions, fund them and get the capacity we need.”
Last year, the BLM announced federal funding for a $2 million water and habitat restoration project in the Humboldt and O’Neil river basins in Elko County and in Idaho.
The area is an important habitat for threatened species like the Lahontan cutthroat trout, sage-grouse and other species.
The bureau will also spend $6 million in IRA funding to restore 3 million acres of habitat in the Montana Mountains in Humboldt County.
Other projects will include efforts to reduce fire risk on BLM land by making firebreaks and clearing vegetation that could fuel a blaze.
“That kind of investment for us is a game changer, because we’re able now to think at landscape scale like we’ve never been able to do before,” Stone-Manning said.
The Bureau of Land Management owns 48 million acres in Nevada, just over 60% of the state.
Some 4 million people visited Red Rock Canyon last year.
