Letter: Wilderness bill needed to protect Nevada’s beauty

Wednesday, Feb. 27, 2002 | 8:47 a.m.

What a wonderful opportunity we have as Nevadans to protect some of the beautiful, fragile, rugged land that we call home. Nevada is truly a state of superlatives -- right here in our back yard we have more mountain ranges than any other state in the lower 48.

We enjoy a vast amount of public land as well, yet we have some of the least protected land in the country. The fact that President Bush has chosen Nevada as a site for the country's nuclear waste dump further illustrates this point. The impression must be that Nevada is just an empty expanse of nothingness. This could not be further from the truth.

I have had the opportunity to explore some of these unprotected wild areas on foot -- most recently in the McCullough Mountain Range just south of Las Vegas. I could not believe that what at first appeared to be a series of hills became a rich colorful landscape of deep canyons, mountain crests, ancient petroglyphs and abundant wildlife upon further inspection. With less than 2 percent of Nevada public land designated wilderness, it is clear to me this needs to change.

Nevada is not the nation's dump. It is the Great Basin and Mojave Desert, a land so rich in beauty and diversity it defies description. Nevadans and Americans deserve to have this rich legacy protected in the form of a wilderness bill.

MICHAEL AMBROSE Minden