Bureau of Land Management's Decision Record and Environmental

Jersey Valley Geothermal Development Project
Environmental Assessment: NV063-EAO8-091
The following is applicable within the transmission line corridor (see Table 11).
Table 11: Transmission Line Corridor Allotment Information
Allotment Operator
Season of
Use
Use Area Kind’ AUMs
Land Status
(acres)
Copper
Canyon
Gary Snow Livestock
and Grain
Chiara Ranch
Ellison Ranching Co.
11/1-3/3 1
1 1/1-2/28
11/1-4/30
N/A
N/A
N/A
S
C
S
1,002
50
384
Public: 61,607
Private: 45,465
Badger Ranch 3/1-2/28 N/A C 3,587
1. Cattle = C; Sheep = S
The Buffalo Valley Allotment, South Buffalo Valley Allotment and Jersey Valley Allotment are
also within the transmission line corridor (see Table 10).
The Buffalo Valley and South Buffalo Allotments combined comprised 388,639 acres and
support 13,135 animal unit months (AUMs) during the year (approximately 30 acres per AUM)
(Darrington 2010). An AUM is the amount of forage needed to sustain one cow, five sheep or
five goats for a month.
There have been several range improvements within and adjacent to the proposed Project area,
primarily, a number of fences exist, as does the Cow Creek Pipeline.
3.12.2 Environmental Consequences
3.12.2.1 Proposed Action
This project could disturb up to 166.28 acres. It would also reduce the 13,135 AUMs within the
allotment by 10 AUMs, or less than one percent of the AUMs within the combined allotments.
(see Table 12).
Table 12: AUM Reductions in the Buffalo Valley and South Buffalo Allotments
AUM Reductions
Buffalo Valley and South Buffalo Allotments
Allotment Operator % of Total Current AUMs AUM Reduction *
AUMs
Buffalo Valley Goemmer L & L
Buffalo Ranch
LLC
28% 3,624 2.45 AUMs
Ellison Ranching
Co.
4% 595 0.35 AUMs
South Buffalo Goemmer L & L
Buffalo Ranch
LLC
68% 8,916 5.94 AUMs
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