Eastern Nevada Land Implementation Improvement Act

(This measure has not been amended since it was reported to the House on April 25, 2016. The summary of that version is repeated here.)

Eastern Nevada Land Implementation Improvement Act

(Sec. 2) This bill amends the Lincoln County Land Act of 2000 (LCLA) to require implementation of a multispecies habitat conservation plan in Lincoln County, Nevada.

Both the LCLA and the Lincoln County Conservation, Recreation, and Development Act of 2004 (LCCRDA) are amended to make certain amounts available for comprehensive, cost-effective, and multijurisdictional hazardous fuels reduction projects and wildfire prevention planning activities (particularly for pinyon-juniper dominated landscapes) and other rangeland and woodland restoration projects within the county, consistent with the Ely Resource Management Plan or a subsequent amendment to it.

The bill requires cooperative agreements between the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) and Lincoln County for certain county-provided law enforcement and planning related activities approved by the Department of the Interior.

Certain portions of land sale proceeds returned to the County under the LCLA and the LCCRDA shall be used in part for the Lincoln County Regional Development Authority.

Under the LCCRDA Interior shall realign a specified portion of a 2,640-foot wide utility corridor.

The bill:

• affirms and validates patent number 27-2005-0081 issued by the BLM on February 18, 2005, as having been issued pursuant to and in compliance with specified law for the benefit of the desert tortoise, other species, and their habitat to increase the likelihood of their recovery; and
• ratifies the processes used by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the BLM in reconfiguring the land covered by the patent.

Interior may issue a corrective patent for 7,548 specified acres of land in Lincoln County.

(Sec. 3) The bill amends the Pam White Wilderness Act to adjust the boundary of the Mt. Moriah Wilderness to include specified lands, and the boundary of the High Schells Wilderness to include and exclude specified lands.

The bill amends the Nevada Wilderness Protection Act of 1989 to adjust the boundary of the Arc Dome Wilderness to exclude specified land.

(Sec. 4) The bill amends the Mesquite Lands Act of 1988 to require the proceeds of the sales of certain parcels of land by Interior to the city of Mesquite, Nevada, to be made available for use for the development and implementation of a conservation plan to benefit fish and wildlife species of the Virgin River in Clark County (rather than, as currently, for development of a multispecies habitat conservation plan).

Written by the nonpartisan Congressional Research Service. All summary versions on Congress.gov