BISHOP, Calif. — The Bureau of Land Management Bishop Field Office plans to conduct prescribed fire operations as soon as Feb 24 in areas of the Bodie Hills, northeast of Lee Vining, in Mono County. Pile-burn operations will only be conducted when weather and fuel moistures allow for safe and successful burning.

Prescribed burning helps to reduce hazardous fuels, moderate the potential negative effects of wildland fire, and increase firefighter and public safety. Burning may continue through mid-March depending on weather conditions.

Slash piles, composed of limbs, branches and trees will be burned on approximately 500-acres of BLM-managed public lands in the Sinnamon Cut and Rancheria Springs areas. During burn operations, smoke may be visible from locations throughout the Mono Basin, including Lee Vining, Mono City, Conway Ranch Estates, U.S. Route 395, State Route 120 south of Mono Lake, and State Route 167 north of Mono Lake. All prescribed fire operations are conducted in close coordination with the Great Basin Unified Air Pollution Control District.

More information is available from the BLM Bishop Field Office at 760-872-5000. Updates will be provided by the BLM through the BLM California Fire Information Facebook and X.

BISHOP, Calif. — The Bureau of Land Management Bishop Field Office plans to conduct prescribed fire operations as soon as Nov. 1 in areas of the Bodie Hills, northeast of Lee Vining, in Mono County. Prescribed burning helps to reduce hazardous fuels, moderate the potential negative effects of wildland fire, and increase firefighter and public safety.

Pile-burn operations will only be conducted when weather and fuel moistures allow for safe and successful burning and may continue periodically through the fall and winter.

“The BLM is committed to keeping public lands healthy and productive; these prescribed burns are part of a larger strategy to improve sagebrush habitat conditions throughout the Bodie Hills and reduce treatment related fuels on the landscape,” said Bishop Field Manager Sherri Lisius. “Trees have been cut and piled in historically open sagebrush areas to increase ecosystem resiliency and restore habitat for several species, including sage grouse and migratory mule deer.”

Slash piles, composed of limbs, branches and trees will be burned on approximately 1,500-acres of BLM-managed public lands in the Sinnamon Cut and Rancheria Springs areas. During burn operations, smoke may be visible from locations throughout the Mono Basin, including Lee Vining, Mono City, Conway Ranch Estates, U.S. Route 395, State Route 120 south of Mono Lake, and State Route 167 north of Mono Lake. All prescribed fire operations are conducted in close coordination with the Great Basin Unified Air Pollution Control District.

The Bodie Hills are in central eastern California near the Nevada border. This vast landscape includes rounded volcanic mountains and colorful alpine meadows, lakes, and streams. Because the region serves as the transition zone between the Sierra Nevada mountains and the western edge of the Great Basin, it hosts a unique diversity of plant and animal species. More information is available from the BLM Bishop Field Office at 760-872-5000. Updates will be provided by the BLM through the BLM California Fire Information Facebook and X.

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First Amendment

4th Circuit upholds ordinance requiring gun sellers to distribute suicide prevention information

By Debra Cassens Weiss

January 24, 2024, 2:02 pm CST

A federal appeals court has upheld a county ordinance requiring gun dealers to distribute literature on suicide prevention and conflict resolution to buyers of guns and ammunition.

The 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals at Richmond, Virginia, ruled Tuesday that the Anne Arundel County, Maryland, ordinance does not violate the First Amendment rights of gun dealers.

Bloomberg Law has coverage.

The ordinance was passed in 2022 after the county created a task force to address how to reduce gun violence. The task force, appointed after the 2018 mass shooting at the Capital Gazette newspaper in Annapolis, Maryland, found that suicide deaths had increased, and guns were the most often means used.

In response, the county adopted the ordinance requiring the health department to prepare informational literature for gun dealers. The department used a pamphlet created by a collaboration of the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, a national nonprofit organization, and developed a flyer on county conflict-resolution resources, including a suicide prevention toolkit.

The plaintiffs in the case were four Anne Arundel County gun dealers and Maryland Shall Issue Inc. They claimed that the literature conveyed the message that guns cause suicide and was intended to discourage gun sales.

A federal district judge rejected the challenge, and the 4th Circuit affirmed in a Jan. 23 opinion.

The appeals court analyzed the issue using the standard governing compelled commercial speech established in the 1985 U.S. Supreme Court decision in Zauderer v. Office of Disciplinary Counsel of the Supreme Court of Ohio.

The 4th Circuit said the compelled speech is constitutional under Zauderer because it is commercial, it is factual and uncontroversial, it is reasonably related to the county’s interest in preventing suicide, and it is not unduly burdensome.

“We conclude that the pamphlet is simply, and no more, a public health and safety advisory that does not discourage the purchase or ownership of guns,” the appeals court said in an opinion by Judge Paul V. Niemeyer, an appointee of former President Ronald Reagan.

“And we are confident that gun purchasers in Anne Arundel County will recognize it as such. While such an advisory surely does not discourage gun ownership or undermine Second Amendment rights, it does encourage generous responses to a serious public health issue, and gun dealers might well find it admirable to join the effort,” the 4th Circuit said.

The case is Maryland Shall Issue Inc. v. Anne Arundel County, Maryland.