BLM

SHOSHONE, Idaho -- As he squinted into a sea of native grasses, Joe Russell pointed to a cluster of tightly packed sagebrush.

Russell stood on the east side of a dirt road that winds up from the Kimama Fire Station, east of Shoshone. He quickly swept his arm to the other side of the road, pointing out the contrast between the plants on both sides.

"Can you see the difference?" he asked. "Do you see how the sagebrush is dispersed on this side?"

On the road's western side, the sagebrush was scarce for the first few hundred feet out from the road. Green grasses filled the gap. The arrangement is a designed effort to deter the spread of wildfires, and one that's quickly gaining attention from state and wildlife officials.

As a fire ecologist for the U.S. Bureau of Land Management, Russell usually spends his time trying to repair the damage made by a wildfire on public lands. However, his job also includes finding ways to suppress wildfires.

SALT LAKE CITY -- State officials say Box Elder and nine other Utah counties have sued the federal government over title to thousands of miles of roads that cross public land in the state, and 12 more counties are expected to follow suit next week.

RENO, Nev. -- Extended drought in parts of Nevada and the West may force a delay in the U.S. Bureau of Land Management's plans to cut back on wild horse roundups and place more emphasis on fertility control to keep herd populations in check.

RENO, Nev. — Federal land managers are stepping up their use of an alternative method to remove “excess” wild horses from the range in Nevada and other western states.

SALT LAKE CITY — A prominent environmental activist has been released from an isolation unit at a federal prison and placed back into a minimum-security camp after choosing an ill-advised word in an email about one of his legal-defense donors, his lawyers said Thursday.

WASHINGTON -- With a focus on outdoor recreation, renewable energy, environmentally-sound oil and gas development, sage-grouse conservation, and other key priorities, President Obama today requested $1.1 billion in appropriations for the Department of the Interior's Bureau of Land Management in Fiscal Year 2013. This request is essentially level with the FY 2012 enacted level for the BLM, which employs 10,365 full-time equivalent staff.

SALT LAKE CITY — Federal biologists say a strip mine at the backdoor to Utah’s storybook Bryce Canyon National Park will wipe out the southernmost population of sage grouse, even as their agency resists a broader effort to protect the bird across the West.