Where I Stand — Mike O’Callaghan: Gloria has had enough

Thursday, Nov. 11, 1999 | 9:22 a.m.

Mike O'Callaghan is the Las Vegas Sun executive editor.

IN THE EYES of Gloria Flora, the anti-government attitude among Nevadans is far worse than some of the threats of conspiracy nuts in the states of Idaho and Montana where she has served before. Flora, the supervisor of the Humboldt-Toiyabe National Forest, is resigning her position and requesting an assignment out of Nevada.

It took the lady only 16 months to reach this decision after a continual fight with Elko County officials over issues she inherited when taking the job. In her open letter to Forest Service employees she wrote:

"Officials at all levels of government in Nevada participate in this irresponsible fed-bashing. The public is largely silent, watching as if this were a spectator sport. This level of anti-federal fervor is simply not acceptable."

Elko's deputy district attorney, Kristen McQueary, disagrees with Flora and told the Associated Press, "Fed-bashing isn't a sport here. The people are absolutely frustrated by the way the federal government has refused to take the time to listen to them."

I have the highest respect for McQueary but she hasn't been the target of the hateful attacks made on both federal and state conservation employees. Rather than calling fed-bashing a sport in Elko County it would be more appropriate to call conservation agency employee-bashing a full-time avocation for several Northern Nevada residents and public officials.

The now-defunct and discredited Elko grand jury did everything possible to smear the names of both state and federal conservation employees. The grand jurors couldn't reach the feds, but it took the Nevada Supreme Court's action to clear the names of the state employees.

I can't forget the words of Duane Erickson, a 30-year career biologist with the Nevada Division of Wildlife who has lived with his family in Elko for 20 years, when he told me, "We have never been involved in a single incident of impropriety or illegal actions since we moved to Nevada in 1968. Now, to be called government thugs and extortionists by the local press and criminals by our local government has been difficult to understand and sometimes even harder to accept."

It hasn't been a pleasant experience for conservation agency people in and around Elko County for several years. Lately the frustrated conspiracy theorists who make the most noise have been zeroing in on Flora and her employees, whom the U.S. attorney for Nevada has defended from actions by the local grand jury. It wasn't necessary for the federal employees to take their defense to the Nevada Supreme Court.

Gloria Flora came to Nevada to carry out the dictates of the U.S. Forest Service. She has an impeccable record of more than 20 years of service protecting the environment. Where has been the support she earned and deserves from her regional office in Utah and headquarters in Washington, D.C.? I remember when the Forest Service leaders and employees responded to threats firmly and not like timid pussy cats. Flora has been thrown into the middle of an unfair fight that she didn't start. About the only thing arriving from Washington has been anti-conservationist Rep. Helen Chenoweth-Hage, R-Idaho, who, along with her new husband, Wayne, should head up an Elko County grand jury and raise political funds rather than investigate the Forest Service in the name of Congress.

Flora will survive and her actions should draw enough attention to make life a bit safer for her employees. What should bother reasonable Nevadans is the possibility the people in Clark and Washoe counties might be thrown into the same bucket with nuts of Northern Idaho, Montana's Freemen and Elko's grand jury.

Beating up on a woman and her government employees has no acceptable place in the Nevada I know and love. My mail from several Elko County residents reflects the embarrassment they feel because of wild charges and statements made by some local officials.

Flora's charge -- "The attitude towards federal employees and federal laws in Nevada is pitiful. People in rural communities who do respect the law and accept responsibility for complying with it are often rebuked or ridiculed" -- is strong language.

It's a shame, but the truth.