WWP overturns Nevada grazing decision on sage-grouse grounds

This week, Western Watersheds Project won its 2013 appeal of a Bureau of Land Management (BLM) decision in Nevada on the Cottonwood and Scotty Meadows allotments! In a sharply worded rebuke to the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), Administrative Law Judge Pearlstein admonished, “BLM’s selection of the proposed action and final grazing decision with no attempt to seriously consider and incorporate any terms and conditions that could benefit sage-grouse habitat was without a rational basis.” The two public land allotments south of Ely, Nevada are leased to the Southern Nevada Water Authority (SNWA) as part of its scheme to pull water from rural Nevada into Las Vegas. The SNWA maintains ranching operations to maintain access to water sources, but seems not to be concerned with its environmental impacts...more

The IBLA decision is here.