More wilderness sought

Friday, July 5, 2002 | 8:43 a.m.

More than 80 scientists have sent a letter to Sens. Harry Reid and John Ensign asking them to include more federal land in new "wilderness" areas.

Designating the areas as wilderness would make them off-limits to vehicles. The scientists, most from Nevada and California but some from as far away as New Jersey, argue that the best way to protect rare species, air quality and water resources is to designate more Nevada land as wilderness.

Reid and Ensign are targeted because they recently introduced a public lands bill that would set aside more than 440,000 acres as wilderness in Clark County and open up nearly 180,000 acres potentially for development.

Reid's office said Wednesday that changes are not likely in the bill, which the senators hope to have passed before the end of the year.

Environmentalists called the bill, introduced June 6, a good first step but asked for more land to be wilderness, one of the highest levels of federal protection. A coalition of groups backing the Citizens Wilderness Proposal had asked for about 4 million acres to be protected in Southern Nevada and in adjacent areas.

"We support this ecosystem-based proposal not only because it looks beyond political and administrative boundaries and includes contiguous wild landscapes, but also because of the many benefits to conservation that wilderness provides," the scientists said in their letter.

While the scientists asked for the entire Citizens Wilderness Proposal, they focused on three contentious areas: the west side of the Spring Mountains near Pahrump, the Gold Butte region between Mesquite and Lake Mead and the Highland Range off the McCollough Mountains in south of Las Vegas.

"The Gold Butte area is particularly interesting from the standpoint on unique biodiversity," Riddle said. The area is a mixing zone for different ecological systems, including the Colorado plateau, the wetlands system and the Mojave Desert, he said.

Starkweather said the west side of the Spring Mountains also is a distinct environment that is threatened by development in the Pahrump area.

Off-road motoring enthusiasts and some hunting groups had mobilized to block the environmentalists' goals, in particular working to keep Gold Butte open for vehicles.