Report pushes area conservation plan

Wednesday, Feb. 18, 1998 | 10:25 a.m.

Southern Nevada environmental groups calling for better protection for plants and animals in Clark County got a nod from a national report Tuesday.

Defenders of Wildlife looked at national conservation plans, including Clark County's for the threatened Mojave Desert tortoise and the multi-species approach under way on the Lower Colorado River.

In a report called "Frayed Safety Nets," the Defenders called for recovery of endangered or threatened species, not just survival, as the primary goal.

The report also noted how hard it is to develop a conservation plan with enough public involvement. The planning process takes months of work and by the time public hearings begin on the draft plan, individuals have little impact.

Tell that to the dedicated individuals serving on two citizen advisory groups in Clark County

The county's facilitator, Paul Selzer, is working with two citizen advisory groups to cover 83 species in the Las Vegas Valley.

The Implementation and Monitoring Committee met Tuesday and today at McCarran International Airport trying to hammer out an effective conservation plan to allow developers to take species from parcels targeted for construction while allowing plants and animals to recover.

The local environmental groups sent a letter to the county Tuesday outlining concerns for recovery and how to fund the plan into the future.

Clark County's plan attempts to cover the largest habitat in the country, covering all of Southern Nevada. It would assess a $550-an-acre one-time fee on developers, which environmentalists say will not fund species recovery over 30 years due to inflation.