Group’s community effort geared to restore marshes

Thursday, Oct. 9, 1997 | 10:59 a.m.

A group known as "Friends of the Desert Wetlands Park," is mounting a major community effort to help in restoring marshes that 30 years ago covered 2,000 acres in the eastern Las Vegas Valley.

The marshes played a huge role in keeping the area's drinking water clean, a role officials today want to recapture as chemical and microorganism contamination is causing grave concern for Las Vegas Wash and Lake Mead.

As population grew in the valley, so too did the flows of treated wastewater into the Las Vegas Wash. Over time, the heavy flows accelerated erosion and eventually all but about five acres of the cattail marshland -- nature's filter -- was torn out.

Clark County plans to restore up to 600 acres of wetlands within a 2,000-acre park. The Friends of the Desert Wetlands Park is putting out the word that the restoration is as much for water quality as it is for recreation.

Toxic organisms and chemicals, including perchlorate that is manufactured locally and used to boost rocket fuel, have been found in the Las Vegas Wash within six miles of the valley's intake pipe for drinking water.

Friends chairman Jack Harvey said Wednesday the group plans to open a visitor center next month at the old county ranger station on the east end of Russell Road.

It's the first step in educating thousands of new residents and tourists alike to the treasure that meanders a few miles from new urban neighborhoods, Harvey said.

The Friends will also begin to raise the more than $100 million it will take to restore the wetlands with native plants, grasses and shrubs.

Ducks Unlimited, an organization that restores wetlands all over the world, has offered its assistance.

"The Las Vegas Wash is a well-kept secret," Ducks Unlimited Vice Chairman Peter Kingman said. He was referring to the reaction from countless new Southern Nevadans he's talked to that don't know any marshes exist in the middle of a Great Basin desert.

Before the wetlands were destroyed, those marshes hosted 275 bird species, 65 percent of all birds known to visit Nevada during spring and fall migrations.

Clark County plans to develop a series of erosion control structures to form small pools of water behind existing streams. Planning for the first one at Pabco Road is under way and the cost is expected to top $4 million.

An endangered bird, the Southwest Willow Flycatcher, is thought to be nesting in the Las Vegas Wash. The Bureau of Reclamation and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service are watching over it.

Part of the flexibility to make progress on building the wetlands park comes from Clark County's cooperation with the two agencies on saving endangered and threatened species.

With 75 more species that could be listed under the Endangered Species Act in the valley, the county approached planning with a multispecies habitat plan, attempting to save regions, rather than one plant, animal or insect at a time, said Steve Hobbs of The Nature Conservancy.