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TESTIMONY OF FRED WRIGHT, NEVADA WILDLIFE FEDERATION, June 30, 1987 



The Nevada Wildlife Federation feels the issue of reserved water 

 is moot as it relates to this Act, due to Nevada's circumstance where- 

 by the Truckee, Carson, and Walker rivers which rise on National 

 Forest lands are fully adjudicated. Due to the physical location of 

 most of the lands to be transferred to the National Forest (down- 

 stream of existing forest land) , the Act should be silent on that 

 issue, rather than set a presumed precedence for other states' 

 Enhancement Acts. 



Our other concern is the exclusion of most of the BLM lands 

 around Peavine Mountain, Washoe County, just north of Verdi-Truckee 

 Meadows. This area was included in the 1986 proposed Act. Based upon 

 the boundary associated with S. 59, only one half of one section is to 

 go to the USES. While this is an important one-half section that 

 includes the head of Bull Ranch Creek and associated riparian areas 

 containing a good stand of aspen and some white fir, it raises the 

 serious question of why the rest of the BLM. lands were excluded in the 

 1987 Enhancement Act. 



We have to assume that a request for exclusion was made by 

 several local patented mine claim holders on the east side of Peavine 

 Mountain. Several gentlemen having mining interests there appeared 

 last fall before the Washoe County Planning Commission to express 

 concern over the Reno Ranch Resort project that would develop 

 approximately 460 acress of its 7,000-plus acre holdings around 

 Peavine Mountain. They pointed out that a proposal in Congress (the 



