Manager of BLM’s Four Rivers Field Office gives update on resource management plan

A draft resource management plan that was years in the making and covers thousands of acres of public land in Washington County is out for public comment through Aug. 22.
 Brent Ralston, Four Rivers Field Office manager for the BLM, told county commissioners that the agency has been managing the district “fairly effectively” under the current plan, which is 30 years old. It has been a lengthy process to craft a new management plan, he said.
 The land use plan analyzes four alternatives in the Environmental Impact Statement for managing  780,000 acres of public land in the Four Rivers BLM district, an area that stretches from Glenns Ferry, northwest to Weiser and north to McCall.
 The Four Rivers BLM office put the land use plan on hold in 2012 to discuss sagegrouse and habitat issues within the district. Once that was completed in 2015, the sage grouse conservation plans were implemented in Idaho starting in 2015.
 There are no habitat priority areas for sage grouse in Washington County. Most of the sagegrouse habitat on public land in southwest Idaho is south of the Snake River, Ralston said.
 The management plan contains updated rules and regulations on oil and gas leases on public land in the district. Most of the drilling activity has occurred in Payette and Gem counties. To date, there are no active or producing gas wells in Washington County.
 Ralston said the interest in natural gas wells and leases on public lands “waxes and wanes.”
 There was a lot of interest in leasing public land in the 1980s for oil and gas resources, but then activity was put on hold due to issues over sagegrouse habitat. The agency issued a number of leases that were never developed and reverted back to the agency after 10 years.
 The new management plan streamlines oil and gas leases on public land in the district. Some BLM leases that are currently not developable will be in the future with new stipulations on land use and disturbances. The management plan also simplifies the leasing process, he said.
 “As soon as the plan is done, all the leases offered in 2015 would be updated with new stipulations,” he said.
 While there is no prime sagegrouse habitat in Washington County, there are areas of priority habitat for the sharp-tailed grouse, a relative of the sage grouse.
 Within the past five years the BLM bought 540 acres of private land in Washington County south of Sage Creek for habitat and protected another 1,480 acres of grouse habitat in the area through a conservation easement.
 County commissioners previously said they opposed the purchase of private property north of Sage Creek for sharp-tailed grouse habitat.  The county disagreed with taking the land off the county tax roll.
 The large Keithly Creek fire north of Weiser last summer burned through some of the sharp-tailed grouse habitat in the Hixon-sharptail grouse management area in Washington County.
 This year, the BLM is working with a grazing permittee in the Sage Creek allotment to rebuild fences lost in the fire to protect sharp-tailed grouse habitat. The BLM is supplying some of the fencing materials.
 A reservoir in the Sage Creek allotment area that washed out over the past 20 years also is undergoing some repairs. When completed, the reservoir will provide more water in the summer months, Ralston said.
 Commissioner Nate Marvin asked Ralston about the state of livestock grazing activities on public land within the Four Rivers Field Office.  
 Ralston said overall cattle numbers were down slightly but not because of any action taken by the BLM. For whatever reasons, livestock operators are running fewer animals on the range. Grazing permit holders are not putting out as many animals as in years past.
 The land use management plan also clears up a couple of trespass and encroachment problems within the district, mostly in Elmore County.
 There are three situations, two in Elmore County and one in Payette County, where private buildings ended up on public land, Ralston said.