[marron]

I’ve sat in on meetings of this kind, and have seen that BLM knows very well how to get the answers they want from this kind of “public hearing”.

Seriously, the federal government has no business owning millions of acres of land. The land and should be deeded back to the states, and BLM itself should be divided up and handed off to the states as well. They can make the decision if they want to have some kind of state-level BLM, or shut it down completely.

Actually, it would be better to privatize the land altogether. But thats another conversation perhaps. I’d settle for handing it off to the states.

I’m waiting for the politician with the grit to demand the elimination of BLM.

[george76]

Sage Grouse may turn into the son of spotted owl .

http://www.rgj.com/article/20120606/MVN01/306060167/Heller-announces-Sage-Grouse-Stewardship-Project?odyssey=tab%7cmostpopular%7ctext%7cMVN

[Flycatcher]

Odd as it may sound, this is actually VERY big news in the Great Basin. There's been talk about listing the Greater Sage-Grouse as an endangered species for many years. Happily there seems to be a reluctance on the part of many Govt agencies to take this drastic step. Why? The range of the sage-grouse is large, localized, and fragmented. It is almost logistically impossible to list this bird. It would mean huge and sweeping prohibitions on land use all across the Great Basin, and it would involve many states.

Again, happily, the leftists seem to be listening to the people (and politicians) of this vast region, and are reluctant to list this bird. Let's hope it stays this way.

By the way, as many biologists are pointing out, it isn't man that is threatening the sage-grouse in any real meaningful way. It's an invasive plant: Cheatgrass. Bromus tectorum. Once a sage steppe is burned by natural causes (fire), this invasive grass takes over. Drive I-80 in northern Nevada. It's no longer the beautiful big sagebrush valleys and hills of the past. It's cheatgrass grassland -- and nearly monolithic.

And unuseable for Greater Sage-Grouse.

I don't know what the answer is. As one professional (and state-hired) weed eradicator told me: "Cheatgrass is here to stay."