BLM buys wildlife habitat acreage

RENO -- The U.S. Bureau of Land Management has completed the purchase of more than 17,000 acres in northern Washoe County, putting the scenic and prime wildlife habitat under public ownership.

The acquisition involving property in the Granite Range, Buffalo Hills, Twin Peaks and Poodle Mountain wilderness study areas was purchased for $7.25 million, using money from public land sales in Southern Nevada, officials said.

The property had been owned by Todd and Sam Jaksick of Reno.

"Our family spends a tremendous amount of time in northern Washoe County," Todd Jaksick told the Reno Gazette-Journal. "We're honored to be a part of protecting these lands for future generations."

State BLM director Ron Wenker called the acquisition involving more than 100 parcels one of the largest and most important wildlife initiatives under the Southern Nevada Public Lands Management Act.

Public ownership, he said, will protect "what many consider to be the healthiest mule deer and California bighorn sheep herds in Nevada."

The area also includes critical sage grouse breeding grounds and the only known population of endangered Wall Canyon sucker fish, Wenker said.

The Nevada Land Conservancy helped negotiate the sales and began work on the project in 2003.

The land ranges from high alpine meadows to sagebrush lowlands and has a spring, wet meadows or a stream to support wildlife for hundreds of square miles, said Alicia Reban, conservancy executive director.

She described the Granite Range, which towers over Gerlach at 8,973 feet, as an "amazing oasis of water and wildlife."