Environment groups say BLM not focused

Wednesday, Nov. 14, 2001 | 9:01 a.m.

Two environmental groups in a report released today say the Bureau of Land Management is not focused and has competing visions for managing millions of acres of public lands, including 61.7 million acres in Nevada.

The National Wildlife Federation and Natural Resources Defense Council said the BLM is failing to protect parcels as diverse as the arctic tundra in Alaska and the deserts of Southern California and Nevada.

The report, "An Assessment and Recommendations for Progress 25 years after FLPMA (Federal Land Policy and Management Act)," sets a new standard for Kathleen Clarke, nominated by President Bush as Bureau of Land Management director, said wildlife federation Southwest Regional Vice President Susan Rieff. Clarke currently is Utah's natural resources manager.

The report concludes that the BLM needs to address the loss of endangered species, the pollution of watersheds and urban sprawl, challenges never envisioned when the bureau was established 55 years ago.

A local environmentalist and a BLM official agreed that there's always room for better cooperation between federal agencies and the public.

However, BLM spokesman Phil Guerrero pointed out that the agency's Las Vegas district office as recently as 1998 completed a resource management plan for 2.9 million acres managed by the bureau in Clark and southern Nye counties after a series of public meetings that took almost a year.

"We in Las Vegas feel the resource management plan is current and fresh," BLM spokesman Phil Guerrero said.

Jane Feldman of the Sierra Club agreed with Guerrero, but said political actions can thwart publicly approved plans.

"There's a problem with legislating growth, rather than managing growth," she said.

For example, Feldman said, Congress approved a plan for Clark County to build a new airport south of Las Vegas on 6,000 acres owned by the BLM in Ivanpah Valley since the 1998 plan was finished.

Legislative decisions shortchange steps normally taken during an administrative process such as the BLM's resource planning, she said.

"Our legislators keep throwing it (resource plan) out the window," Feldman said.