Senators praise divergent groups’ efforts to find common ground

Tom Gardner

Wednesday, April 19, 2000 | 10:17 a.m.

VERDI, Nev. - The vast majority of Nevadans live in one of two urban centers, but it's the wide open spaces that cause the biggest problems among public land users, according to U.S. Sens. Harry Reid and Richard Bryan.

The two Democrats spoke from their historical perspectives as lifelong Nevadans on Tuesday, saying a two-day meeting on land use here was an important start toward bringing divergent interests together.

"This meeting and meetings like this are the key to developing working relationships in this very difficult state," Reid said at the Nevada Land Use Summit.

Although nearly 90 percent of the state's population is centered around Reno and Las Vegas, Reid said disputes over land use and water are problems statewide.

"Disagreement itself is not necessarily bad," Bryan told group. "We ought to have a right to disagree without being disagreeable. Compromise is not a dirty word. To the extent that these kinds of disagreements can be discussed in these kinds of forums, it is a very constructive thing."

Bryan said the adage about nothing being certain but death and taxes could add change as well.

"In the 1940s, I was growing up in southern Nevada. About 62 percent of our entire state lived in the rural parts. The population of Las Vegas was 8,500 when I started school and the state had 110,000 people - one per square mile. That's all changed.

"But there's no reason to have a confrontational perception that urban Nevadans, although not hostile to traditional public land use, see their needs as something in terms of recreation."

Reid agreed, saying, "In years past, the ranching and mining communities had basically everything to themselves. They didn't have competition from backpackers and off-road vehicle enthusiasts and motorcycle racers. The most important thing we can do is have forums like this where people sit down and find out what each others' problems are."

The two-day summit at Boomtown Hotel-Casino was called by state Sen. Dean Rhoads, R-Tuscarora, and Assemblywoman Marcia de Braga, D-Fallon.

It assembled about 270 miners, ranchers, farmers, environmentalists and outdoor enthusiasts in addition to a variety of government officials.

"Before I went to Washington, I was an attorney. I did all sorts of domestic relations work," Reid said. "Always the problem with a man and a woman ... once they stopped talking their problems were very difficult to resolve.

"I would hope that this conference will come to the conclusion that the best thing to do is to try to work these problems out," he said.

de Braga said participants agreed during Tuesday's closing session that they had found sufficient common ground on enough issues to continue the summit on an annual basis.