Coyote Springs trustee board drafts letter to congressman

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A letter drafted on behalf of the Board of Trustees of the Lincoln County Coyote Springs General Improvement District has been sent to the Nevada Congressional delegation in support of a bill being proposed regarding the BLM?s issuance of a patent to reconfigure 7,548 acres of land in the Coyote Springs Valley pursuant to a Final Environmental Impact Statement for the Planned Development Project, and the reconfiguration provided for in Special Condition 10 of the Army Corps of Engineers permit, and for the benefit of the desert tortoise and other species.

Emilia Cargill, legal counsel for CSI, said the Section 10 Take Permit had required CSI to move the lease land, ?a rectangular shaped section of some 7,458 acres, we call ?the donut hole?, in the middle of our Lincoln County property and move that property so it was on the far eastern side and abutted against the already existing BLM area of Critical Environmental Concern, and we were willing to do that.?

She explained further, that in 2008, when CSI received their permits on the Lincoln County side of the property from U.S. Fish and Wildlife, Army Corps of Engineers, BLM, the habitat conservation plan was formed, and the environmental assessment was completed, BLM called for the reconfiguration of the land. She noted, ?The agency demanded that we do this for the preservation of species and wildlife corridors, so that the conservation land is not in the middle of the property, but over on the eastern edge of our property.?

However, Cargill said, since 2008 and for a of variety of reasons, the Bureau of Land Management has not wanted to perform the reconfiguration transfer without a bill being passed in Congress, and none has.

So, it was thought to bring the bill up in the current session and the Nevada delegation has said they would try to do that, but they also requested some sort of a letter be submitted showing that Lincoln County supported this project as well.

The Board of Trustees readily approved sending the letter.

When and if Congress will act is as yet unknown.