Poll: 75 percent support Bryan’s proposal to protect desert

Scott Sonner

Friday, March 10, 2000 | 3:26 a.m.

RENO, Nev. - Backers of Sen. Richard Bryan's proposal to protect the Black Rock Desert released a poll Friday showing three-fourths of the registered voters in Nevada support the idea.

Seventy-five percent favor Bryan's plan for National Conservation Area, with 17 percent opposed and 8 percent undecided, according to the poll conducted by Mason-Dixon Polling & Research Inc. of Washington D.C.

"This poll clearly shows that Nevadans are solidly behind Senator Bryan's legislation to protect the Black Rock/High Rock area," said Brian O'Donnell of The Wilderness Society.

The Wilderness Society, Sierra Club Toiyabe Chapter, Friends of Nevada Wilderness, Nevada Wilderness Project and American Lands commissioned the poll.

The poll was conducted March 3-5 with a sample of 623 registered Nevada voters likely to vote in the November presidential election. It has a margin of error of plus or minus 4 percent.

The pollster told the respondents that Bryan is about to introduce legislation in Congress to protect to Black Rock/High Rock Canyon region in northwestern Nevada as a National Conservation Area.

"Protecting this area would leave the area open to activities such as hunting, hiking, camping, horseback riding and livestock grazing. It would prohibit industrial activities such as mining and geothermal development and limit the use of off-road vehicles," the polling question said.

"Do you favor or oppose Senator Bryan's proposal to protect the Black Rock Desert/High Rock Canyon region as a National Conservation Area?"

The 75 percent in support statewide included 54 percent who said they "strongly favored" and 21 percent who "somewhat favored."

There were 7 percent "somewhat opposed," 10 percent strongly opposed and 8 percent "don't know."

The poll found 82 percent support among Washoe County residents and the same 82 percent support among Clark County residents.

Rural Nevada residents polled were split, with 45 percent in support, 45 percent opposed and 11 percent undecided.

The Washoe County Commission has joined ranchers and off-road vehicle enthusiasts in opposing Bryan's proposal, which would extend federal protection to about 600,000 acres.

Bryan has made the bill a priority before he retires at the end of his term next year.

The High Rock Canyon and Black Rock Desert, stretching from about 120 miles north of Reno and northeast toward the Oregon border, contain "the last nationally significant, untouched segments of the historic California Emigrant Trails," Bryan's draft bill states.

The area includes wagon ruts, historic inscriptions "and a wilderness landscape largely unchanged since the days of the pioneers."

The ruts are from the Applegate-Lassen and Nobles trails, part of the most famous gold rush ever - an event that led to California's statehood in 1850 and forever linked the West with the United States.

The desert is home to golden eagles, pronghorn antelope, bighorn sheep and free-roaming horses and burros as well as threatened fish and sensitive plants, Bryan said.