News.bytes, Issue 692

Title: Untitled Document

Wild Horses protected under the Wild Free Roaming Horse and Burro Act of 1971

ISSUE 692- SEPTEMBER 17, 2015

- Wild Horses and Burros
- National Public Lands Day
- California Wildfires
- September is National Wilderness Month
- Headlines and Highlights
- BLM and DOI Highlights
- Wildlife Question of the Week
- Upcoming Events

WILD HORSES AND BURROS

Gentled and Trained Wild Horses visit the Nevada County Fair

The Wild Horse and Burro Program participated in the Nevada County Fair in Grass Valley from August 12 -16.  Eight volunteers from the area brought their adopted wild horses for the public to meet.  The volunteers showed off their horses to hundreds of visitors to the fair during half hour demonstrations, where they presented how the wild ones can be gentled and trained for any discipline. (BLM News.bytes)

Adopt a Wild Horse or Burro at BLM Redlands Facility at Sundance Ranch

Join us for our wild horse and burro adoption event at Sundance Ranch, in Redlands, CA; 20 horses and 5 burros, mixed gender, will be available to approved adopters. (BLM News Release)

Adopt a Wild Horse or Burro in Salinas, CA

Residents of the Salinas area will have the opportunity to add a horse or burro to their families when the Bureau of Land Management brings its Wild Horse and Burro Adoption Program to the Monterey Sheriff's Posse Grounds, 395 Old Natividad Road, Salinas, on Saturday and Sunday, Sept. 19 and 20. The BLM will offer 30 wild horses, from yearlings to four year olds, and seven burros for public adoption. The horses will include a halter gentled gelding. (BLM Facebook)

Celebrate National Public Lands Day with a Volunteer Project

Our first volunteer National Public Lands Day trail project is this coming weekend, September 19, at the Bizz Johnson Trail! Learn more and see all events.

National Public Lands Day Event Planned for Keyesville

The Bureau of Land Management is hosting its second annual National Public Lands Day volunteer event in Keyesville Special Recreation Management Area on Saturday, Sept. 26.  Volunteers are needed to help install new interpretive signs and  clean-up Keyesville’s Slippery Rock Boat Launch and plant native trees and shrubs. The projects represent interim actions in BLM’s larger ongoing planning effort to improve recreation opportunities in the area and highlight Keyesville’s history. (BLM News Release)

Volunteers Help at Bishop OHV area

This is not a National Public Lands Day event, but we thought you would like to see some of the excellent work our volunteers from the Eastern Sierra Four-Wheel Drive Club did recently with the Bishop Field Office staff at the Poleta OHV Open Area. (BLM News.bytes)

CALIFORNIA WILDFIRES

1 killed and 13,000 displaced by raging Valley fire in Northern California

Los Angeles Times, 9/14/2015
The Valley fire, which broke out in Lake County on Saturday, has already devastated hundreds of homes and businesses and overwhelmed firefighters with its unpredictable nature.  “We’re really in a battle with nature, and nature is more powerful than we are,” said Gov. Jerry Brown who declared a state of emergency in Lake and Napa counties after the Valley fire broke out in the area Saturday afternoon. (Read Full Story) 

RELATED:  Valley Fire Incident Information (Cal Fire website) 

NEWS.BYTES NOTE:  As of 9/17/15, the Valley Fire has burned approximately 1,886 acres of public lands managed by Bureau of Land Management. 

BLM Closes Knoxville Due to Valley Fire

The Knoxville management area is closed to all public use and access, including hunting and off highway vehicle use, until further notice due to the Valley Fire burning in Lake, Napa and Solano counties. (BLM News Release)

Current fire updates are available at the CAL FIRE Incident Information website, http://cdfdata.fire.ca.gov/incidents/incidents_current.

Butte Fire scorches 71,523 acres, containment increases

KCRA Channel 3, 9/14/2015
Fire crews made “good progress overnight” in a massive wildfire burning in Amador and Calaveras counties as containment increased Monday morning, but so did the number of acres burned. (Read Full Story/Watch Video)

RELATED: Butte Fire Incident Information (Cal Fire Website)

NEWS.BYTES NOTE: As of 9/17/15, the Butte Fire has burned approximately 12,133 acres of public lands managed by Bureau of Land Management.

As wildfires rage in West, ranchers lose cattle, rangeland

The Sacramento Bee, 9/13/2015
The historic fire season has also re-kindled a long-running debate.  Ranchers say the federal government should have allowed more grazing to reduce the severity of the wildfires. Environmental groups say more grazing would have increased soil erosion and riparian damage, removed native grasses and increased fire risk.  Federal officials stand in the middle: grazing, they say, may help slow some fires’ spread, but it won’t make a difference in extreme weather. (Read Full Story)

SEPTEMBER IS NATIONAL WILDERNESS MONTH

Welcome to the September #CONSERVATIONLANDS15 Social Media Takeover!

In recognition of Wilderness Month 2015, our social media takeover will feature wilderness areas and wilderness study areas on BLM’s National Conservation Lands. Follow along all day for our monthly “Top 15” list and two stunning locations for your bucket list. (BLM Tumblr)

See #4 on the Top 15 WILD FACTS about BLM Wilderness and Wilderness Study Areas

4. Just five acres, the Rocks and Islands Wilderness off the coast of California is BLM’s smallest. View all 15 Wild Facts!  (BLM Tumblr)

ICYMI: #Wilderness Wednesday

Inyo Mountains ‪#‎Wilderness‬ comprise a vast high-elevation desert range along the east side of America’s deepest valley, the Owens Valley.  Over 103 miles of unmaintained trails – holdovers from the historic mining period – are available for adventurous explorers. (BLM Facebook)
‪#‎WildernessWednesday‬ ‪#‎SeeBLM‬ ‪#‎mypubliclands‬ ‪#‎DiscovertheDesert‬

The September #CONSERVATIONLANDS15 Social Media takeover brings you Geologic Hikes for your Bucket List!

The Mecca Hills Wilderness is near the town of Indio, about an hour southeast of Palm Springs, California. The dramatic and colorful Mecca Hills were formed by the convergence of the North American Plate and the Pacific Plate along the San Andreas Fault. The powerful fault system there has pushed up and overturned layers of rock—some over 600 million years old—which provide important information to scientists about the impact of earthquakes on the Earth’s crust. (BLM Tumblr)

HEADLINES AND HIGHLIGHTS

Fall Road Trip: Eastern Sierra, Day 1

Sunset Magazine, August 10, 2015
For the next seven days, we’re taking you on a fall road trip through the Eastern Sierra of California and Nevada. We’ll go behind the scenes of our September issue’s cover story, “The Road to Gold,” with bonus photographs and videos. Follow along and use our daily itinerary to plan your own trip up quiet, gorgeous U.S. Highway 395.(Read Full Story)

RELATED:  Alabama Hills (BLM Website)

Alabama Hills #TrailsTuesday

#‎TrailsTuesday‬ “Alabama Hills A whimsical maze of rounded boulders, golden-hued arches, and badland gullies, the Alabama Hills have been the ideal backdrop for dozens of westerns. Take a walk on the Arch Loop Trail to snap photos of 14,505-foot Mt. Whitney, highest peak in the contiguous United States, framed within the twisted span of Mobius Arch. (BLM Facebook)

National Seed Strategy: Mojave Desert Seed Transfer Zones

Recent large-scale wildfires, driven by exotic annual grass species, have increased the need for shrubland restoration and the demand for native plant materials throughout the Mojave Desert. In addition, the escalating interest in alternative energy development is expected to disturb large tracts of land to accommodate solar and wind technology. While suitable restoration practices to mitigate disturbances are emerging from on-going research, information is still lacking on the appropriate species and ecotypes for landscape-scale restoration projects. (BLM News.bytes)

Survey: Voters support Cotoni-Coast Dairies National Monument proposal

Santa Cruz News Sentinel, 9/11/2015
Voters strongly support giving national monument status to Coast Dairies, the scenic 5,843-acre expanse near Davenport, according to a new survey paid for by the environmental group spearheading the campaign. (Read Full Story)

RELATED: Discover the Coast @ Davenport (BLM Website)

BLM to Initiate Temporary Closure of Public Lands for Permitted Race

The Bureau of Land Management, El Centro Field Office, announces the temporary closure of selected public lands in Imperial County from September 21 to September 27, 2015. The temporary action is being taken to ensure public safety and prevent unnecessary environmental degradation during the official permitted running of the SCORE Imperial Valley 250 Off-Highway Vehicle race events. Temporary closures include the Plaster City East, Plaster City West, and Superstition Mountain Off-Highway Vehicle Open Areas. (BLM News Release)

Acres Added to Weaverville Community Forest; New Partnership Agreement Signed

The Trinity County Resource Conservation District and the Bureau of Land Management have signed a new 10-year Stewardship Agreement to continue a partnership managing BLM-administered public lands within the Weaverville Community Forest. Under this agreement BLM will be adding approximately 2,100 acres to the Weaverville Community Forest, increasing the amount of BLM-managed lands in the forest to just over 3,000 acres. (BLM News Release)

Opinion: A Mojave Solar Project in the Bighorns’ Way

The New York Times, 9/11/2015
TWO important environmental imperatives, ecosystem protection and renewable energy development, are squared off against each other in the Soda Mountains of California’s Mojave Desert.  The area is home to a resurgent population of bighorn sheep...It is also where the Bechtel Corporation is seeking to build a 264-megawatt photovoltaic facility on about 1,900 acres of federal land along Interstate 15 near Baker, Calif.(Read Full Story) 

RELATED:  Soda Mountain Solar (BLM Website)

BLM AND DOI HIGHLIGHTS

A friendly Bureau of Land Management bureaucrat defies expectations – and gravity

Los Angeles Times, 9/14/915
Mike Tupper is just happy to be back here in the Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area, where he cut his professional rock-climbing teeth. Recently, he was one of a few Bureau of Land Management officials from Washington to give a climbing tutorial here to children of U.S. service members killed in action, a lesson on how to enjoy the Western lands the federal agency is tasked to protect. (Read Full story)

What’s It Worth To Save The Sage Grouse?

WKBW, 9/16/2015
The greater sage-grouse is disappearing, and conservation officials hope it doesn’t come down to listing the species as endangered because this little bird could get expensive. A hundred years ago, there were 16 million sage grouse running around the western U.S. and parts of Canada. Now, the peculiar-looking ground bird — that sounds a bit like a coffee percolator — numbers in the hundreds of thousands. (Video via the Bureau of Land Management) (Read Full Story) (Read Full story)

Interior boss hopes sage grouse won’t make endangered list

Salt Lake Tribune, 9/15/2015
The head of the Interior Department said Tuesday she hopes a pending decision on the greater sage grouse will find it does not need federal protection. Sally Jewell, whose department includes the Fish and Wildlife Service, says she hasn’t been involved in the process but praised locally driven efforts to find suitable habitat to help revive the bird’s population. (Read Full story)

The $5.6 Billion Bird: How Will The Sage Grouse Fight End?

NBC News, 9/13/2015
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service must decide by Sept. 30 whether to add the bird to its endangered species list, and it is a decision with billion-dollar consequences. The Bureau of Land Management is one of many agencies, both federal and state, that has worked tirelessly for the past several years to rehabilitate the landscape and preserve habitat to prevent an endangered listing. Through the Sage Grouse Initiative, which partners with ranchers and businesses, the agencies have imposed land restrictions that are less harsh than the ones that would be in place if the endangered designation is approved, but still protect sagebrush. (Read Full Story)

Interior boss hopes sage grouse won’t make endangered list

NBC News, 9/12/2015
U.S. Secretary of the Interior Sally Jewell explains why saving the sage grouse represents keeping the American West ecosystem healthy. (See Video)

Secretary Jewell: US fracking inspectors are ‘under-resourced’

The Christian Science Monitor, 9/16/2015
Speaking to reporters during a Monitor-hosted breakfast on Tuesday, Secretary of the Interior Sally Jewell painted a picture of Interior’s Bureau of Land Management (BLM) as an agency that is underfunded and overextended. (Read Full Story)

Feds backlogged on well inspections

ABC News, 9/15/2015
The U.S. Bureau of Land Management lacks sufficient resources to inspect high-risk oil and gas wells on federal land as a drilling boom continues in Wyoming, Colorado and other states, Interior Secretary Sally Jewell said Tuesday. The land bureau faces a “major backlog of inspections” as it tries to keep pace with a drilling boom that has sharply increased U.S. oil and gas production in recent years, Jewell said. (Read Full story)

Inventory of Abandoned Mines Is Incomplete and Unreliable, GAO Says

The Wall Street Journal, 9/11/2015
Federal agencies have no reliable way of assessing how many abandoned mines exist on federal lands, even though there are likely thousands of sites that are contaminated or pose a threat to human health, the U.S. Government Accountability Office found in a report Friday. The sharply critical report by the GAO, the nonpartisan investigative arm of Congress, also found that federal agencies had not fully assessed the pollution levels of thousands of abandoned sites they had already identified, delays that hampered the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s ability to determine whether those sites should be placed on Superfund cleanup lists. (Read Full Story)

RELATED: Abandoned Mine Lands (BLM Website)

WILDLIFE QUESTION OF THE WEEK

How In recognition of Sea Otter Awareness Week, September 20-26, what are sea otters doing near BLM's Piedras Blancas Light Station Outstanding Natural Area??
a) Playing with each other
b) Wrapping themselves with kelp
c) Sleeping on their backs in the water
d) Using rocks to break open shells

Keep reading for answer below

UPCOMING EVENTS

September 19-20: Adopt a Wild Horse or Burro at BLM Redlands Facility at Sundance Ranch

Join us for our wild horse and burro adoption event at Sundance Ranch, in Redlands, CA; 20 horses and 5 burros, mixed gender, will be available to approved adopters. (BLM News Release)

September 19-20: Adopt a Wild Horse or Burro in Salinas, California

Add a horse or burro to your family when the Bureau of Land Management brings its Wild Horse and Burro Adoption Program to the Monterey Sheriff's Posse Grounds.  The BLM will offer 30 wild horses, from yearlings to four year olds, and seven burros for public adoption. The horses will include a halter gentled gelding. (BLM Facebook)

September 19: Night Adventures in the Monument

Discover the Desert at night with an adventure at the Santa Rosa and San Jacinto Mountains National Monument. ‪ (BLM News.bytes)

September 26: National Public Lands Day:  Keysville Cleanup

Volunteers needed to help install new interpretive signs highlighting some of the rich cultural and historical heritage at the Keysville Special Recreation Management Area, clean up Keysville's Slippery Rock Boat Launch and plant native trees and shrubs in the area as part of a restoration and beautification effort. (BLM News Release)

WILDLIFE QUESTION OF THE WEEK ANSWER

In recognition of Sea Otter Awareness Week, September 20-26, what are sea otters doing near BLM's Piedras Blancas Light Station Outstanding Natural Area?

ANSWER: All of the answers are correct!

Research has long stated that: "Sea otters spend the majority of their time in the water. In fact, they usually only come onto shore to wait out a storm."

SOURCE: Sea Otter - Enhydra lutris (BLM California wildlife database)

Sea Otter Awareness Week, September 20-26, 2015 (seaotterweek.org)

Sea Otter Coloring Sheeting (courtesy of USGU)

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