Legislative conference finds little common ground

Tom Gardner

Tuesday, April 18, 2000 | 9:09 a.m.

RENO, Nev. - Ranchers, environmentalists and outdoor enthusiasts are finding little common ground on the issue of public land, except all agree that federal and state governments aren't listening to their needs.

"Everybody around the room has an opinion and if it doesn't change, I'm not going to get anything out of this," Terry Reed, field manager for the U.S. Bureau of Land Management's Winnemucca office said after a contentious hour of discussion on Monday.

"If you can't check your past position at the door, you can't get anywhere," he added.

The 47 people who crowded into a large meeting room discussed special designations for public lands, including such issues as access, wilderness areas, roadless areas, wildlife and watersheds.

Opinions ranged from advocating multiple use - a sort of anything-goes approach to land use - to virtually shutting areas to almost all public activity.

"There's extremes on each side and there doesn't appear to be much middle ground yet as far as building a consensus," state Sen. Dean Rhoads said. "The environmental groups started dominating the meeting towards the end and probably were more outspoken than some of the users were.

"I think the bottom line is that people are so frustrated about participating in the public process. It seems that no matter how many letters you write or how many people you talk to, things just get done by executive order."

Rhoads, R-Tuscarora, and Assemblywoman Marcia de Braga, D-Fallon, sponsored the two-day session in a search for common ground among the state's diverse interests.

Democrat U.S. Sens. Richard Bryan and Harry Reid both are scheduled to speak during the gathering's final day today.

Bryan came in for some heat Monday. Steve Weissinger, a Douglas County commissioner said all 17 Nevada counties oppose the senator's effort to protect the Black Rock Desert as a National Conservation Area, but he's going ahead with hearings on his bill anyway.

Marge Sill, an outspoken environmentalist, said the counties are out of step and that most people in the nation and in Nevada support setting aside more wilderness area.

Barbara Curti, president of the Nevada Farm Bureau Federation, said she urged Bryan to hear the concerns of the various factions involved in public lands issues and was told they would have to be hashed out at the state level first.

She said she hoped to encourage Gov. Kenny Guinn to host a similar gathering, which she said made some progress toward finding a middle ground on some issues.

Churchill County rancher Norman Frey said such issues as allocations of irrigation water in the Newlands Project, where his ranch is located, are mishandled because as farms and ranches are abandoned, the area's tax base erodes and fallow fields are overtaken by weeds, which spread to adjoining ranches.

"We need to continue meeting in search of some common ground," Curti said. "The farther we get at the state level, the closer we come to taking our concerns to our congressional delegation."