Land sales will help environment

Monday, July 3, 2000 | 11:47 a.m.

When Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt comes to Las Vegas on Wednesday to announce protection for sensitive lands in Nevada, a local committee's recommendations on critical wetlands and mountain habitat will top his list.

Under a congressional act passed in 1998, Nevada has a unique ability to keep federal funds obtained from land sales within its borders to protect environmental treasures.

Seven of the top items on the list are in Southern Nevada, said Mike Dwyer, project manager acting as a liaison between the local and federal agencies poised to spend the money generated from the sale of Bureau of Land Management parcels in Clark County.

"Now we're going to get to explain how we are going to spend the money for the benefit of Southern Nevadans," Dwyer said today.

About $4 million will be spent to buy crucial property in the Las Vegas Wash, and up to 460 acres will be bought in the Spring Mountains, Dwyer said. Up to 7,800 acres statewide will be purchased with about $23 million available from two public land sales.

In addition, improvements to the Lake Mead National Recreation Area, Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area and the Desert National Wildlife Refuge at Corn Creek will be made, Dwyer said.

The acreage to be bought in the Las Vegas Wash -- the most critical area in Southern Nevada on the list -- is a checkerboard of private property. Part of it will be incorporated into the proposed Desert Wetlands Park, which is designed to restore natural desert wetlands lost to flooding and growth.

Clark County Commission Chairman Bruce Woodbury said the county will continue to ask for more funding to buy private parcels in the wash during the next year, as well as money to build a trail for recreation and education in the wetlands park.

County and Southern Nevada Water Authority officials consider the wash acquisitions crucial, because the wetlands naturally filter pollution out of water flowing into Lake Mead. Less than 200 acres of wetlands remain of 2,000 acres that existed 20 years ago. The wetlands also provided habitat to several endangered species.

The entire Las Vegas Valley's 1,600 square miles drains into the wash, which empties into the lake six miles upstream from intake pipes that deliver drinking water to Southern Nevada. The wetlands can remove harmful pesticides, fertilizers and insecticides as well as chemicals from the water.

"Restoring the wetlands is crucial for the future of the valley," said Mary Kincaid, Clark County commissioner and chairwoman of the Southern Nevada Water Authority Board. The water authority has taken the lead in efforts to restore the Las Vegas Wash wetlands.

The 460 acres of privately owned land contained in three different parcels in the Spring Mountains near Mount Charleston also were recommended by the U.S. Forest Service to protect endemic species such as the Palmer's chipmunk, wildflowers and butterflies.

Local environmental groups have worked throughout the 1990s to save such critical parcels as 270 acres near Deer Creek and Lee Canyon Road, threatened by both residential and commercial development. A golf course community was begun at the site, but the County Commission stopped the development midstream.

The controversy over Deer Creek's unique mountainous terrain with a stream running through it brought the protection issue to the political arena.

Funds for protecting the lands come from a unique account established in a bill sponsored by Sens. Richard Bryan and Harry Reid, both D-Nev. The Southern Nevada Lands Management Act was approved by Congress in October 1998, allowing BLM land in urban areas to be sold and the money used to buy environmentally sensitive land in the state. Congress is examining the success of the program and may extend the legislation to other states.

Since the act became law, the Bureau of Land Management has conducted two land sales and completed other transactions that have generated more than $30 million in the special account. It is spending only $23 million of that for now.

In addition, 5 percent of the money goes to state education and 10 percent to the water authority for developing delivery systems for drinking supplies.

The federal agencies recommended $33 million worth of land purchases primarily in Clark, Humboldt, Nye, Washoe and Lyon counties over the next year.

In addition to the land, $5 million is available for capital improvements and more than $4 million has been earmarked for the county's Desert Wetlands Park.

Mary Manning

covers environmental issues for the Sun. She can be reached by phone at (702) 259-4065 or by e-mail at manning@lasvegassun.com