In an effort to provide a more comprehensive report on water, land and development issues, this “beat sheet” will break down the news of the week with a peek into the future. Let me know whether you have any tips, suggestions, criticisms or story ideas at [email protected]. If you want to receive Indy Environment in your inbox, you can sign-up here. If you want to help our mission of providing nonprofit reader-supported journalism, please support us here. And if you’d like to place an ad in Indy Environment, please contact [email protected] for rates.

On Tuesday afternoon, the Walker Basin Conservancy made a call for water.

Technically they sent an email. In any case, it was a turning point for the conservation group that has, for years, worked to purchase water rights along the Walker River, which rises in California, runs into Western Nevada and eventually empties into Walker Lake. The conservancy’s goal is to restore habitat at the receding lake near Hawthorne. Over the past century, the lake has shrunk with more water being diverted for human use. And as less water went to the lake, water quality worsened, destroying habitat for fish and migratory birds.

With federal funding, the Walker Basin Conservancy has used a market-based approach to purchase water rights from landowners in the basin. Their goal is to retire those rights, leaving more water in the river system to flow to the lake, eventually improving its environment.

After years of legal wrangling (the river has been litigated since the early-1900s), a federal court said Monday that the conservancy could “call” on its water rights, send water down the river and deliver it to the lake.

That, however, is only one of several interesting dynamics playing out in the Walker Basin.

At the same time, the Supreme Court is poised to rule on whether the public trust doctrine, a legal concept dating back to the Roman legal system, applies to Nevada water law and Walker Lake. Mineral County has long argued that Nevada has a legal responsibility to restore a healthy environment at the lake as a trustee of the state’s resources.

It is a complex and highly-charged question that could have big ramifications. Almost everyone connected to water in Nevada is watching it closely — ranchers, farmers, tribes, irrigation districts, state regulators, wildlife biologists. Water users from around the state filed amicus curiae briefs last week with the Nevada Supreme Court.

Together, those dynamics make Walker an interesting basin to look at for gauging the future of water in Nevada and the arid West. I’ll be writing more about the public trust issue later. Until then…

In 2016, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders argued about a lot of things, fights that would embody the post-mortem tug-of-war for the Democratic Party. One of the most telling (and ongoing) conflicts had to do with tackling climate change.

The riff was typical of Clinton and Sanders. The Washington, D.C. insider offered a long-term approach that included natural gas as a “bridge” fuel toward clean energy. The tribune of the people was already pushing a bill to block future oil, gas and coal extraction on federal land.

Flash-forward to 2020… er 2019. The Democrats are about to have a similar debate.

And it’s not only going to be Sanders talking this time. On Monday morning, Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren announced that if elected, she would ban future federal oil and gas leasing on Day 1. Warren advocated the policy in a Medium post laying out her platform on public lands. The Warren campaign is already targeting Facebook ads in Nevada (including at yours truly) on the issue.

Although Nevada has little active oil and gas production — and less to lose than other states — it matters because a) the state is not immune from the effects of climate change, b) Nevada has a lot of public land and c) part of Warren’s goal is to boost renewable development on public land.

This is going to get reporters asking questions and other candidates talking (or running).

Point c) is where things get interesting for Nevada. As Western states look at ambitious renewable requirements and contemplate a regional grid, there is more and more demand for large-scale solar and wind farms. Given that the federal government manages about 85 percent of the state’s land, many of those projects will have to get the blessing of federal land managers.

What that looks like is a complicated process replete with challenges.

As with any development, wind and solar projects can affect habitat, wildlife, recreation and cultural sites on federal public land. And in some cases, it has split the environmental community. Many environmental groups want renewable energy to tackle climate change, but they don’t want it at the cost of harming wildlife.

“It's really tempting to pit green versus green on projects like this,” Pasha Feinberg, a research associate for Defenders of Wildlife, told me this week. “Any utility scale energy project is going to have wildlife impacts, and that includes wind energy and solar projects. However, climate change is such an incredible threat to wildlife and renewable energy is such an important part of mitigating that threat, these are actually really complementary goals."

Defenders of Wildlife opposed the siting of a $5 billion solar plant in Nye County. The company behind the project, SolarReserve, pulled its application with land managers. The company said it made the move, first reported by the Pahrump Valley Times, because it didn’t want to rush the permitting process. SolarReserve told the paper that it could re-start the process in the future.

It will be interesting to see what the 2020 candidates have to say about striking a balance.

RELATED: The Nevada Senate unanimously passed a bill increasing the renewable standard to 50 percent by 2030. The cross-party politics are interesting and reflect many polls on the issue.

Some good news for a change. Nevada is drought free.

Zinke joins Nevada-based U.S. Gold Corp. On Tuesday, Nevada-based gold exploration firm U.S. Gold Corp announced its newest board member: former Secretary of Interior Ryan Zinke. The ex-Montana congressman said in a statement:  “U.S. Gold Corp. has attractive exploration and development projects in two mining friendly jurisdictions of Wyoming and Nevada. I am confident that my prior experience can add tremendous value to the company. I am excited to work closely with management and the Board to help make mining great again in America.”

The Associated Press quoted an ethics group saying the announcement raises questions about federal lobbying freezes. Zinke told the AP he would not lobby as part of his work for U.S. Gold.

At the end of last week, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announced it would re-start public comment on whether to list the bi-state sage grouse under the Endangered Species Act. I’ll be writing more about this. But the bi-state sage grouse, which rely on sagebrush habitat in western Nevada and California, are a distinct population segment of the Greater sage grouse, a bird that lives in 11 Western states and has come to symbolize the tension between development and conservation.

The Associated Press has more on the legal battles playing out for this population of the grouse.

Clips from the news:

• The fight over homes at Red Rock National Conservation Area churns on. The Clark County Commission this week voted down a waiver for the developer. (LVRJ)

• Consider the pupfish. High Country News has a riveting story on the investigation and imprisonment of an Indian Springs man who killed an endangered Devil’s Hole pupfish.

• A state wildlife biologist recently published research on mercury in peregrine falcons, including those in Southern Nevada, in the Journal of Raptor Research. (LVRJ)

• Clark County wants to designate 100,000-plus acres of off-highway vehicles (LVRJ). The Center for Biological Diversity says such a move would harm the desert tortoise.
• KUNR is teaming up with the Desert Research Institute on a new podcast.

What you’re listening to: It is beautiful in Reno this week. I’m ready to go trail running again and I can’t wait to hit the water. (Warning: It might be 80 degrees tomorrow but still too cold to swim). All that in mind, I’m working on my spring playlist. Any suggestions? Send them my way!