Federal, state unity vowed in management of Nellis natural resources

Tuesday, Jan. 12, 1999 | 10:26 a.m.

After 25 years of moving in different directions, five federal and state agencies unveiled a cooperative plan Monday night on how they will monitor and protect natural resources on 3.1 million acres of the Nellis Air Force Base range.

Rick Nielsen, executive director of the statewide watchdog group Citizen Alert, urged the five parties to give the public a summary of activities and what has been accomplished. The next public meeting is expected a year from now.

"The public is concerned about what happens on Air Force land in Southern Nevada," Nielsen said.

Nielsen, the only member of the public to show up, blamed the lack of turnout on too short of notice for the meeting.

The two major goals covered by the resource plan would protect 36 springs and seeps from contamination and prevent overdrawing the water resources, as well as controlling wild horse herds.

Nellis Air Force Base, the state of Nevada, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the U.S. Department of Energy and the Bureau of Land Management had been operating separate programs to protect wildlife, the environment and cultural resources on the range before the agreement.

"There's no stonewalling among these agencies," Col. Mike Fukey, Nellis director of environmental management, said. "There is a greater awareness that we are all in this together."

Most important, under the agreement, the five agencies are allowed access to the Air Force lands to help monitor environmental conditions.

The Air Force has fenced areas of the range to protect Mojave Desert tortoises, chuckwallas, bats and plants such as the rare Las Vegas bearpaw poppy.

The military also is cooperating with 17 Indian bands who have visited possible sacred sites and reviewed artifacts, Fukey said.

The BLM has concentrated on paring down the herd of wild horses running in the Cactus Range in the northwest corner of the vast area.

In 1992 with its management plan in place, the BLM discovered 10,000 wild horses in the area, the BLM's Jack Norman said. By 1997 the herd shrank to 580 animals and now numbers around 800.

Six scant springs in the Cactus Range area provide water for desert bighorn sheep, so the remaining horses will be watered east of bighorn territory, he said.

In 1997 the federal government introduced the National Wildlife Refuge System Improvement Act that looks at integrating all resources -- wildlife, environmental and cultural -- said Richard Birger, project leader for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

"We are at the very beginning of this process and will involve the public and stakeholders," Birger promised.

Although the state has no role in land management, it is concerned about wildlife, water resources and mineral, said John Walker, representing the administrative branch in Carson City.

"We're here to keep the federal government honest in managing the resources," Walker said.

Fukey said the public meeting was scheduled at the DOE building because of heightened security at Nellis.