Discovery of rare birds adds to task of committee

Thursday, June 11, 1998 | 11:17 a.m.

A broad-based citizens committee is seeking ways to protect rare and endangered plants and animals in balance with the Valley's growth.

The county's multi-species habitat conservation plan has been under review almost two years, but the committee studying it faces protecting two more species discovered recently in the Las Vegas Wash.

Experts last month found two rare birds, the Southwestern willow flycatcher and the Yuma clapper rail, living in the lower wash, which drains treated sewage, surface and ground waters into Lake Mead, Southern Nevada's major drinking supply. No one had seen the Yuma clapper since 1959.

The review committee is meeting today and Friday at McCarran International Airport to consider details of the conservation plan.

The plan packs 200 rare and endangered plants, animals, birds, insects, butterflies and fish into three volumes. It will take 30 years and more than $100 million to protect the species while allowing urban growth.

The goal of the plan is to maintain critical habitat for rare and endangered species. Beyond saving habitat, the plan has a built-in monitoring program, unique to any other area. Southern Nevada's plan for conservation covers the largest continuous tract of land at 5 million acres.

The Implementation and Coordination Committee's 27 members began work after the Mojave Desert tortoise brought growth to a halt in the Las Vegas Valley in the early 1990s.

Clark County officials hired RECON, a regional environmental consulting firm in San Diego to produce the plan as the basis for an environmental impact statement to protect the fragile species while allowing for development to continue.