Road work endangers flower

Monday, Nov. 23, 1998 | 11:08 a.m.

A desert mouse and a poppy plant may force the the state to remove 62 homes to widen U.S. Highway 95 near Valley View Boulevard.

The Nevada Department of Transportation is weighing two options for the widening: the removal of a housing tract on the north of the expressway or paving over the birthplace of Las Vegas known as Big Springs to its south.

The Las Vegas Valley Water District, which owns the Big Springs land, opposes any move to pave over the spring bed. It is planning a 180-acre preserve in its North Well Field for educating Las Vegas residents and demonstrating what the valley looked like a century ago.

It now has support from a draft environmental impact statement in which the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service noted the desert pocket mouse and the Las Vegas bear poppy could become endangered if their Big Springs habitat is lost. The service noted that "substantial impacts at (Big Springs) cannot be adequately mitigated."

The service reviewed technical studies prepared by Louis Berger and Associates of Las Vegas, which is in charge of the impact statement.

"The North Well Field contains the last population of the mouse in the Las Vegas Valley," the service said. The North Well Field at the site is an oasis of cottonwood and willow trees in the middle of urban pavement.

The Las Vegas bearpoppy exists on Nellis Air Force Base and on the well field. Despite the second habitat, the service said that disturbing the well field's plants would result in an endangered listing.

Kent Cooper, Nevada Department of Transportation project manager, said a series of public hearings will be scheduled after the first of the year to hear public comments on the environmental impact statement.

"There has been no decision and the public has to have a chance to comment," he said.

The public hearings were expected in October, but the environmental studies were not finished, he said.