This week the Nevada Farm Bureau played host to the 13 Western State Farm Bureau Presidents, Administrators and Directors of Government Affairs.  This conference, held at the Grand Sierra Resort in Reno, began Monday evening (June 29^th) with a reception and wound up with a tour to Lake Tahoe on July 2^nd.  June 30^th and July 1^st schedules included presentations and discussions on a wide range of Western Issues.

One of the major speakers participating in the Western State Farm Bureau Conference was Karen Budd-Falen.  She serves as the Associate Deputy Secretary, Office of the Secretary to the United Stated Department of Interior.  While the Department of Interior covers a number of different agencies, the Associate Deputy Secretary have a very complete overview of the proposed Bureau of Land (BLM) livestock grazing regulations.  She offered the number of improvements that the proposed regulations offer over the existing set of regulations.  The top of the list in her list of highlights was the change offered to reset where rangeland health standards will be located and how the new system will be based on including all BLM land uses in the evaluation of whether health standards are being met.  Up until these proposed changes livestock was the only multiple-use user was held accountable for health standards not being met.

She also stressed the importance of having a strong turn-out of public comments being sent in by individuals who will be affected by the proposed rule changes.  It is important that ranchers weigh, through their comments, on the impact these proposed regulations will have in maintaining the stability of the livestock industry, as the Taylor Grazing Act intended.

During the Western Farm Bureau Conference the participants were show one of Bureau of Land Management (BLM) Nevada’s four Wild Horse and Burro facilities.  Alan Shepherd from Nevada’s BLM State Office presented some background on the operations that BLM is involved with in the state and assisted with the tour of the Palamino Wild Horse and Burro Facilities.  Along with the details of how the facilities are used, the tour group also had the chance to see a few of the burros and horses currently in the facilities.  The number of animals in the corrals with soon increase as the summer gathers get underway.

Two knowledgeable speakers shared their background and experience with data centers at the Western State Farm Bureau conference.  Jay Bragg, Associate Director, Commodity and Regulatory Affairs from the Texas Farm Bureau and Nevada Governor’s Office of Economic Development (GOED) Tom Burns offered the insights that they’ve gained in working with the development of data centers in their two respective states.  Although note the state with the most data centers at this point (Virgina has 326 in operation) – Texas has 228 already online with an announced projected 749 when completed.

Tom Burns estimated that Nevada currently has about 60.

Bragg’s report on Texas noted the siting and other considerations that he and other Texan counties have been considering when it comes to siting data centers.

• Data Centers are paying more than 3x Market Values for land
• Aesthetics/Property Values
• Noise – Impacts to livestock/wildlife
• Traffic/Safety
• Maintenance of county roads/highways
• Workforce (limited number of permanent jobs)
• Taxes/Abatements
• Property Rights
• County Zoning
• Preservation of Agricultural Lands
• Transparency/Disclosure Requirements
• Groundwater Regulations
• Transmission Line/Grid Consideration/Eminent Domain

Burns agreed that these are all points that need to be completely examined with strong community engagement in the process.

Nevada Farm Bureau already has some policy on data centers, but should further discuss in the policy development process guides to provide important protection components for water, electrical power and community impacts.

The final day of the Western Farm Bureau States Conference included a visit to the Tahoe Basin, offering some of the Western Farm Bureau leaders their first visit to Tahoe, and also an on-the-ground view of fire prevention activities that the U.S. Forest Service is doing in this area.  The Forest Service representatives stressed the strength of their program built on collaboration with a number of groups and agencies.

The site the tour saw was a major thinning project that focused on clearing trees and undergrowth in a power line corridor.  A number of the states attending this portion of the conference noted the challenges they were facing in their homes states where such forest management was not taking place and the consequences that came with the neglect.