Environmentalists criticize federal land wish list in state

Tuesday, March 21, 2000 | 10:22 a.m.

The federal government on Tuesday released its "wish list" of environmentally sensitive lands to acquire in Nevada.

Local environmentalists said they welcome the addition of protected lands to the state but criticized the federal government for listing only a small percentage of Clark County properties.

On the list is 459 acres in the Spring Mountain National Recreation Area and 46 acres in Moapa Valley, both in Clark County.

But over 90 percent of the land, however, is elsewhere in the state, including nearly 10,400 acres in Humboldt County's Santa Rosa Mountains, south of Winnemucca.

"It's really disappointing that not more pieces of property that are near and dear to our hearts were flagged," said Jane Feldman, co-chairwoman of the conservation committee of the Southern Nevada Group of the Sierra Club.

The purchase is possible through funds collected through the sale of Las Vegas Valley land through the Southern Nevada Public Lands Management Act of 1998, which will put about 1,000 acres up for sale each year for the next two decades.

Feldman said if the list is not amended through a monthlong public comment process, it would be "a shocking precedent." The land that was sold to pay for the purchase comes from Clark County, and more should come back to protect environmental habitat threatened by the pace of growth in the Las Vegas Valley, she said. She said the major concern for environmental groups from the passage of the 1998 land act was that conservationists were excluded from the nominating process.

Environmental groups will give extensive comment before April 20, when the government finalizes the process, she promised.

Among those properties Feldman suggested could receive more federal protection: the Virgin River, Meadow Valley Wash and threatened habitat along the Muddy River and the Moapa Valley National Wildlife Refuge.