Thursday, June 6, 2002 | 11:03 a.m.
WASHINGTON -- Nevada's senators today unveiled sweeping legislation that maps out a comprehensive federal land use plan for Clark County -- an ambitious attempt to strike a compromise between environmentalists, developers, outdoors enthusiasts and local governments.
After 16 months of meetings with local environmentalists, government officials, sportsmen and outdoor enthusiasts, the bill would set aside about 444,000 acres to be designated as protected wilderness areas and about 183,000 acres could be designated for a variety of uses or sold to developers.
Environmentalists reacted swiftly to this morning's bill introduction, with multiple voices calling the legislation "a good first step for wilderness protection in Southern Nevada."
Representatives of home builders, sportsmen and ranchers also cautiously welcomed the bill, with all groups saying they needed time to evaluate the content of the legislation.
Sens. Harry Reid, D-Nev., and John Ensign, R-Nev., laid out the bill this morning at a Capitol Hill press conference. Rep. Jim Gibbons, R-Nev., was also heavily involved in crafting the bill.
The senators said they hope to have the bill through Congress this year. Reid and Ensign held a press conference a little over a year ago to announce that they would soon introduce the legislation.
But the bill was delayed by the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11 last year, and by sometimes tough negotiations over the specifics of the bill.
The process was much like settling a contentious legal case, Reid said.
"You know it's a good settlement when everyone walks away unhappy," Reid said. But he added that in most cases, the parties involved were generally satisfied with the overall package.
Ensign called the bill "a model of legislation, especially in Western states that have huge tracts of public land."
Nevada lawmakers, who can write the laws to change federal land uses, have been besieged by a variety of interests bringing land-use requests in recent years. Reid and Ensign said the bill unveiled today represents a comprehensive approach that balances environmental needs with the continued growth of Southern Nevada.
The land includes federal land owned by the National Park Service, the Bureau of Land Management and the U.S. Forest Service. Together, the federal agencies control over 80 percent of the land in Clark County.
Environmentalists had tangled with some hunting and off-road-vehicle enthusiasts on the bill. By designating certain land as federal wilderness, motorized vehicles would be prohibited.
The Nevada Land Users Coalition, which includes off-road drivers, and the Nevada Wildlife Commission, a state agency allied with sportsmen and ranching interests, had backed a plan that would have designated 186,000 acres as wilderness, which outlaws vehicle access.
John Moran Jr., Nevada Wildlife Commission chairman, said the proposed bill is "right in line with the resolution passed by the wildlife commission."
He said the groups represented in the commission value wildlife conservation, but too much official wilderness could prevent access to many areas.
"We need that access because we need to be able to manage, prudently manage, the wildlife we have," he said.
The Nevada Wilderness Coalition of environmental groups had backed a much more ambitious plan to designate almost 2 million acres of federal land as wilderness.
Environmentalists expressed concerns about the lack of wilderness protection in some areas and about land targeted for potential development in others.
"We're a bit concerned about Gold Butte," a peninsula of National Park Service land between Mesquite and Lake Mead, said Jeremy Garncarz, Southern Nevada coordinator of Friends of Nevada Wilderness, a group pushing for federal protection of environmentally sensitive land.
"The numbers of acres don't necessarily mean a lot to us," he said. "It's more about the specific areas being protected."
He noted that the bill designated as wilderness some areas outside the existing 500,000 acres of "wilderness study areas" that the bill targets. Among the areas that would be protected is a Joshua tree forest near Searchlight.
"Every place that was protected is important to protect, but there is definitely room for improvement," agreed Carrie Sandstedt, Sierra Club conservation organizer. Both groups are members of the Nevada Wilderness Coalition, which has worked with the legislators over the last year on the bill.
Garncarz and Sandstedt said they would like to see more protection on Mount Charleston, which up to now is the only federally designated wilderness in Clark County.
Jane Feldman, conservation committee co-chairwoman of the local arm of the Sierra Club, said overall the bill looks good. But she has several strong concerns about the content of the legislation.
"The wilderness coalition believes that the wilderness package itself isn't strong enough," she said. "But we're really disappointed with the sprawl-inducing aspects of the bill. The sprawl aspects are just terrible."
Some 6,200 acres near Jean along what legislators are calling "the Interstate 15 corridor" could be developed for residential and commercial use, a provision that legislators say could be needed to support the proposed Ivanpah Valley airport near the California state line.
Feldman's group has been a critic of the Ivanpah airport, and the additional prospect for development makes her even more unhappy.
"We should probably take a look at the whole project and if not scrap it, at least go very slow," she said of the Ivanpah and Jean development proposals.
Congressional sources said privately that the planned community near Jean may not be part of the final bill.
Monica Caruso, public affairs director for the Southern Nevada Home Builders Association, said residential developers welcome land opening up. She said her organization -- like every other group -- needs more time to study the bill, but the provisions sound positive at this point.
"We definitely support protection of environmentally sensitive land," Caruso said. "The home building industry also feels that we definitely have a shortage of developable land in the urban area."
The bill includes plans for:
Following a pattern set by the Reid and Ensign-backed 1998 Clark County Public Land Bill, funds from federal land auctioned to private interests will be split: 85 percent of proceeds will go to the Southern Nevada Land Management Fund; 10 percent to the County Airport Authority; and 5 percent to the state eduction fund.
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