On April 12, the Sierra Front-Northern Great Basin Resource Advisory Council (RAC) went on field tour to two different locations near Fallon.
It was hosted by the Bureau of Land Management.
The BLM Sierra Front-Northern Great Basin RAC is composed of 15 members who serve in an advisory capacity related to land use planning and public land resource management for BLM's Winnemucca, Elko, and Carson City Districts.Â
The first stop was at the Fallon Range Training Complex which is a part of the Fallon Navy Base.
The training complex was designed and built in 1986 and needs to be updated to accommodate today's advanced weapon systems.
The expansion will have various sections, including a training area for Navy SEAL ground operations. The range will expand from around 260,000 to 900,000 acres.
Learn more:Â Fallon Range Training Complex Modernization
"The Navy needed to modernize the FRTC to address significant gaps in its training capabilities, both in the air and on the ground. The size of the Bravo (B) Ranges and the Dixie Valley Training Area severely restricted the extent to which the Navy could use its various weapons systems to train, resulting in aircrews and special operations forces being unable to train in sufficiently realistic conditions. In August 2016, the Navy initiated an Environmental Impact Statement to assess the potential environmental impacts of modernization of the FRTC, and a Record of Decision was signed March 2020. The National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for Fiscal Year 2023, enacted into law on Dec. 23, 2022, approved the Navy’s proposed expansion of land ranges and modernization."
Bureau of Land Management (BLM) is collaborating with Naval Air Station Fallon to greatly expand and modernize the training range complex. They are also updating Sand Mountain Recreation Area. @Josh Meny attended the BLM field tour.Â
The second stop was at Sand Mountain Recreation Area, where they are beginning to upgrade the facilities to accommodate an influx of visitors.
"It's a very popular off-highway vehicle area. It's a big sand dune where we've got a lot of members of the public that like to go and play and so we're going to look at that and the issue there is a lot of people in a small space and so how we accomplish that and how do we improve the user experience," said BLM Carson City District Manager Kimberly Dow.
We caught up with an all-terrain vehicle driver Landon Mahoney at Sand Mountain Recreation Area. He travels to the recreation area with his family from Sacramento about five times a year.
"This is awesome! There's nothing too much like this on the West Coast. There is only a few other sand dunes in the area and this is the closest one for us," said Mahoney.
Learn more: Sand Mountain Recreation Area
