A publication of Bureau of Land Management in California
Issue 592 - August 29, 2013
THIS WEEK IN NEWS.BYTES:
- Marijuana news
- On our Facebook pages
- On our other social media pages
- Wildlife trivia question of the week
- Renewable energy
- Wild horses and burros
- Oil and Gas
- Headlines and highlights: Assorted topics from your public lands in California
- Selected upcoming events
- National and Department of the Interior items
If this message does not show up properly in your email, you can see it online at:
www.blm.gov/ca/news/newsbytes/2013/592.html
MARIJUANA NEWS
"Calls for Legalization: Huffman, Downey Agree Pot Legalization is Logical Path Forward" (Times-Standard, 08/27/13)
In opening the meeting -- which was attended by folks from local timber companies, local biologists, and representatives from the U.S. Bureau of Land Management, the California Department of Fish and Wildlife and the Hoopa Valley Tribe -- Downey offered a brief overview of the issue in
Humboldt County.
http://www.times-standard.com/news/ci_23956023
"2 Charged with Growing Pot in Lassen" (Daily News, 08/24/13)
A federal grand jury returned a two-count indictment charging Cathedral City residents Antonio Perez-Cardenas, 35, and Jose Luis Barrios- Rodriguez, 25, with conspiring to cultivate marijuana and cultivating marijuana, US Attorney Benjamin Wagner announced. According to court documents,
Perez-Cardenas and Barrios- Rodriguez were working in a marijuana garden in the Biscar Wildlife Area that is administered by the Department of Interior, Bureau of Land Management.
http://www.redbluffdailynews.com/business/ci_23933431/2-charged-growing-pot-lassen
"Raw: Four Thousand Marijuana Plants, 350 Pounds of Processed Marijuana Seized from Lone Pine Area Backcountry" (Mammoth Times, 08/23/13)
Assisting in the eradication operation were Inyo County Sheriff's Department, Bureau of Land Management, Forest Service, California Department of Fish and Wildlife, Bishop Police Department, California Highway Patrol, and the United States Drug Enforcement Administration.
http://www.ca.blm.gov/19kd |
|
WILDLIFE TRIVIA QUESTION of the WEEK:
What is a chuckwalla?
(a.) a desert lizard
(b.) a burrowing mammal
(c.) a snake that can travel long distances by scuttling sideways
(d.) a bat
(e.) short for Chucky Wallawalla, a dangerous invasive doll species from southern Washington state
See answer near the end of this News.bytes. |
 RENEWABLE ENERGY
"Native Group: Feds Not Following Consulting Rules on Blythe Solar Project"
(KCET Rewire, 08/28/13)
In a formal comment letter sent to the Bureau of Land Management, Alfredo Figueroa, founder of the Blythe-based group La Cuna De Aztlán Sacred Sites Protection Circle, charged that the agency had failed to notify local tribes of a July meeting in Blythe to discuss the Blythe and McCoy solar
projects, both of which are proposed by NextEra energy for a desert plain west of the Colorado River.
http://www.ca.blm.gov/39kd
RELATED: "Blythe Solar Project" (Palm Springs Field Office)
http://www.blm.gov/ca/st/en/fo/palmsprings/Solar_Projects/Blythe_Solar_Power_Project.html |
 WILD HORSES AND BURROS
"BLM Seeks Comments on Environmental Analysis for Grazing Use, Wild Horses" (BLM, 08/29/13)
The Bureau of Land Management is seeking public comment on an environmental assessment analyzing forage allocations for livestock grazing and proposed wild horse population limits on public land managed by the Surprise Field office in far northwest Nevada.
http://www.blm.gov/ca/st/en/info/newsroom/2013/august/massacre-ea.html
 "BLM to Test 3 Shade Options for Wild Horses at Palomino Valley
Facility" (RGJ.com, 08/26/13)
The Bureau of Land Management's Palomino Valley National Wild Horse and Burro Center will begin testing three different shade options for the wild horses and burros over the next two months. http://www.ca.blm.gov/x9kd
|
OIL AND GAS
"Fracking rules proposed for public lands" (SF Gate, 08/23/13)
The vast majority of fracking in California has taken place on private, not public, land. Drilling on those properties is regulated by a state agency, the Division of Oil, Gas and Geothermal Resources, which is developing its own regulations on fracking. The Bureau of Land Management does,
however, manage nearly 15 percent of all land in the state and has held several lease sales for companies interested in developing the Monterey Shale, a vast rock formation that could hold 15.4 billion barrels of oil.
http://www.ca.blm.gov/49kd |
HEADLINES and HIGHLIGHTS
"Students Collect 40,000 Bitterbrush Seeds, Continue Partnership with BLM" (News.Bytes Extra)
A group of volunteer students from Surprise Valley High School in Cedarville, Calif. chose to spend a day of summer vacation investing in the future of public land wildlife habitat. In a single-day field trip to public lands in northwest Nevada, they collected an estimated 40,000 antelope
bitterbrush plant seeds that will be germinated and nurtured in the school's greenhouse and eventually transplanted to public land areas needing restoration.
http://www.blm.gov/ca/st/en/info/newsbytes/2013/591extra-bitterbrush.html
"Volunteers Set their Sites" (News.Bytes Extra)
BLM El Centro Field Office staff assisted the U.S. Forest Service and the Society for California Archaeology in teaching volunteers how to help protect archaeological and historical resources. Nearly 30 volunteers attended the California Archaeology Site Stewardship Program (CASSP) workshop at
Laguna Mountain in the Cleveland National Forest. http://www.blm.gov/ca/st/en/info/newsbytes/2013/592_extra_-_cassp.html
"Baker Creek Project Subject on KMUD Radio Hour" (Redwood Times, 08/27/13)
Please tune in to KMUD on Thursday, Aug. 29 at 7 p.m. for the Sanctuary Forest quarterly radio hour. Hosts Tasha McKee and Galen Doherty of Sanctuary Forest will be speaking with Michael Pollock, NOAA fisheries ecosystem analyst, and Sam Flanagan, Bureau of Land Management
geologist, about the health of the Mattole River during this drought year, and how the drought is impacting both the people and the fish that dwell in its environs.
http://www.ca.blm.gov/y9kd
"FATAL PLANE CRASH UPDATE: Feds, Sheriff's Department, Coroner Release More Details on Incident Near Desert Center" (Palm Desert Patch, 08/27/13)
A single-engine aircraft that crashed near the First Solar energy site (Desert Sunlight)outside Desert Center, resulting in two fatalities, was being moved Tuesday to an undisclosed location, where an NTSB investigator will examine it, a spokesman for the National Transportation Safety
Board tells Patch.
http://www.ca.blm.gov/w9kd
RELATED: "Desert Sunlight Solar Project" (Palm Springs Field Office)
http://www.blm.gov/ca/st/en/fo/palmsprings/Solar_Projects/Desert_Sunlight.html
 "San Diego Zoo: No Euthanasia of Threatened Tortoises, Despite AP Report"
(Examiner, 08/26/13)
The private agency that manages a Nevada facility dedicated to conservation of the threatened desert tortoise has denied an Associated Press report that hundreds of the animals that are housed there may be euthanized in coming months as a result of reduced financial support from the federal
government. The Desert Tortoise Conservation Center is partially financed by funds provided by the U.S. Bureau of Land Management, which manages a large proportion of the public land within the desert tortoise's range. http://www.ca.blm.gov/z9kd
"BLM to Implement New Fee Schedule for the Imperial Sand Dunes" (BLM,08/23/13)
The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) announced a decision to implement a new fee schedule that would increase fees for the Imperial Sand Dunes Recreation Area (ISDRA) starting in the 2013-2014 season. The new fee schedule received extensive public review and input from stakeholders and partner
organizations, including a unanimous recommendation by the California Desert Advisory Committee (DAC) to proceed with a fee increase for the ISDRA. http://www.blm.gov/ca/st/en/info/newsroom/2013/august/isdranewfees.html
"CDFW Sponsoring Pheasant Hunts" (Corning Observer, 08/27/13)
All of the hunts will be held on CDFW wildlife areas and Bureau of Land Management properties in northern California (Del Norte, Siskiyou, Shasta, Lassen, Tehama and Modoc counties).
http://www.corning-observer.com/articles/hunts-14637-apprentice-cdfw.html |
NATIONAL, OTHER STATE AND DEPARTMENT of the INTERIOR ITEMS
"This Week at Interior" (DOI, 08/23/13)
This week: the National Multi-Agency Coordinating Group has elevated the fire preparedness level to 5 for the fifth time in the last ten years, as Secretary Jewell calls on the nation to prepare to fight wildfires and protect our homes and communities; work to remove a controversial quote
from the statue of Martin Luther King Jr. is complete, just in time for ceremonies recalling the 1963 March on Washington; the National Park Service celebrates its 97th birthday this Sunday with free admission to all NPS sites; Bureau of Reclamation Commissioner Michael Connor tours irrigation
sites in New Mexico; and biologists rescue baby sea turtles in Florida.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uTT30meTzmI
|
--------------------
- If your e-mail program does not allow you to click on the above links to visit that Web page, copy and paste the URL into your browser's "Location" or "Address" bar.
- Some online news sites require free registration to view their content online. Some news sites remove news stories from the Web soon after publication. If you plan to keep a story, you should print a copy or save the Web page to your computer.
DISCLAIMER: By linking to Web sites, the BLM does not imply endorsement of those sites, or of products or advertisements on those sites.
News.bytes published by
Bureau of Land Management
California State Office
2800 Cottage Way, Suite W-1834
Sacramento, Ca 95825
(916) 978-4600
www.blm.gov/ca/
We appreciate feedback. Send comments to the News.bytes team at:
mailto:canewsbytes@xxxxxxx
To subscribe to News.bytes, visit our News.bytes subscription page at: www.blm.gov/ca/caso/getnewsbytes.html.
|
