Douglas Official: Time for state to set lands policy

Sunday, Sept. 26, 1999 | 3:07 a.m.

Chairman Bob Hadfield says his little agency's problem is a microcosm of what's happening across the nation as local entities surrender in the battle to protect their resources from federal interference.

"There's no sense of urgency," Hadfield said after last week's meeting. "People have to understand this is a war, and we don't have many allies on our side."

Hadfield also serves on the Minden Town Board and is executive director of the Nevada Association of Counties, making him at home in Minden or in the Washington offices of Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Carol Browner, lobbying on behalf of Fallon residents wondering how to pay for new, stringent water quality standards.

"I think I am fortunate that I deal on a federal, state and local level. I'm involved in a lot of national activities which deal with the whole issue of so-called 'smart growth' - watershed protection, Environmental Protection Agency guidelines for water, wastewater," he said.

Hadfield sees the federal government "ratcheting up" regulations that he fears will choke the life out of a state like Nevada where 87 percent of the land is under federal management.

"Nevada is particularly vulnerable," he said. "There is no ability to grow, you can't expand. We will have nothing but a rich tradition of being a 'feel good, recreation, non-use playground' for the rest of the country."

The key to resolving the issues is dialogue and policy, Hadfield told The (Gardnerville, Nev.) Record-Courier. In April, NACO completed a report on "Reviving Nevada's Rural Economies," which will be discussed at a state lands division meeting in Reno on Oct. 8.

"The primary conclusion of the rural economies report is that public lands are a dominant feature of rural Nevada and there is no state policy regarding public lands," he said. "We're working very hard with the administration and will be continuing to work with the governor to establish what the state's role is."

NACO's ongoing crusade is to convince the federal government to free up nearly 3 million acres of Nevada land which bureaucrats deemed unsatisfactory for wilderness designation in 1991, but remain off limits to the public.

"That's 2.7 million acres just stuck in limbo for eight years," Hadfield said. "When you think that somebody in Los Angeles doesn't even have a clue what an acre is, this area is bigger than New Hampshire, Vermont and Rhode Island combined."

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