Nevada ranks fourth in U.S. for periled parks

Thursday, Sept. 7, 2000 | 11:18 a.m.

Nevada ranks fourth in the nation for endangered national, state and local parks, with more than 5,200 acres threatened by development, traffic and overuse, a National Park Trust report says.

The Valley of Fire, 50 miles northeast of Las Vegas, is the only park in the southern end of the state included in the report. It is the oldest park in the state, dedicated in 1935, and the report cited its inadequate facilities.

The other Nevada parks the report called endangered include Berlin-Ichthyosaur, home of fossils of giant marine reptiles from 225 million years ago, when a prehistoric ocean covered Nevada; Lahontan, featuring fishing, boating, water skiing and camping along 69 miles of shoreline; Washoe Lake, with its spectacular views of the Sierra Nevada and Carson Range; and Rye Patch, a reservoir along the Humboldt River offering boating, water skiing, camping and picnicking.

Nevada's parks have come under scrutiny before the latest national report.

The Nevada Legislature reviewed an audit of state parks in 1995 that found increasing complaints from the public about declining services, reduced hours of operation and unsanitary conditions in the restrooms.

The State Park Division Administrator Wayne Perock said that people think their taxes pay for the parks, but no tax money is provided for maintenance. Daily charges to use Nevada's parks meet only 20 percent of the amount needed to operate them, he said.

Other states with parks in jeopardy, according to the national report, are Florida, Georgia, Ohio, North Carolina, Minnesota, West Virginia, Colorado, Indiana, Ohio and Montana.

The National Park Trust report urged Congress to protect parks nationwide before it recesses next month. Federal legislation to bolster land acquisition and park maintenance has passed the House and is pending in the Senate.

So far, Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott, R-Miss., has not put the legislation on the Senate's schedule. The bill would provide $450 million to the states for land acquisition.

The trust report noted that for 30 years Congress has failed to free more than $5 billion tucked into the Land and Water Conservation Fund for acquiring public land for federal, state and local parks.

The fund receives almost $900 million a year from excise fees placed on oil exploration on the outer Continental Shelf. However, Congress must approve the funds to be withdrawn, and the annual appropriation has amounted to a fraction of what is needed.

Rep. Jim Gibbons, R-Nev., voted against the bill, noting that while he supported its conservation measures, he did not like provisions to buy more land for parks, especially in Nevada, where almost 90 percent of the land is owned by the federal government, Gibbons' spokesman Jay Cranford said.

Rep. Shelley Berkley, D-Nev., voted in favor of the House bill and was a co-sponsor.

With four weeks left before Congress adjourns, the park fund legislation faces a shortage of time.

Sen. Frank Murkowski, R-Alaska, and Sen. Jeff Bingaman, D-N.M., offered a compromise that would treat Western states more fairly than the House measure, but any bill has to win a full Senate vote and then pass a joint conference committee for funding.

Sens. Harry Reid and Richard Bryan, both D-Nev., favor the compromise.

Passage in the Senate could be difficult at best and President Clinton has threatened to veto the current bill.