Columnist Susan Snyder: Rockefeller sees a rich opportunity

Friday, March 1, 2002 | 3:56 a.m.

David Rockefeller Jr. visited the Las Vegas Valley last week for the first time in about 30 years.

He wasn't here for the casinos, upscale restaurants and golf that typically lures people of such affluence and influence.

Rockefeller is vice chairman of the National Park Foundation, and he was here to promote the land beyond the glitter and work with the Outside Las Vegas Foundation, one of the park group's fledglings.

The private, nonprofit Outside Las Vegas Foundation is dedicated to raising public awareness and financial support for the four federally managed areas that ring the Las Vegas Valley.

Rockefeller's flight from Boston on Thursday was filled with rowdy revelers he figures weren't headed here to hike or rock-climb. He says the challenge of leading Las Vegas visitors outdoors is much like the one faced in Alaska, of all places.

"They have these big cruise ships that come in with people who spend most of their time indoors and spend no time in this incredible landscape," Rockefeller said.

That's part of the reason Outside Las Vegas exists, said Alan O'Neill, the retired superintendent of Lake Mead National Recreation Area who is the group's executive director.

O'Neill watched for years as local federal land-management officials struggled to educate the public while trying maintain facilities and the environment with decreasing funds. Outside Las Vegas was a solution that created another challenge.

"I've worked with a number of grass-roots organizations that started with a grand passion. But starting a nonprofit is an awful lot of work, and a lot of the passion is dragged down by doing all the administrative stuff," O'Neill said. "I didn't want to get involved in that."

The 35-year-old National Park Foundation was the final answer. It pays salaries for O'Neill and his assistant and provides the expertise for grant applications and other bookkeeping. This alliance helped Outside Las Vegas snare a $300,000 private grant in its first year.

It has allowed Outside Las Vegas to focus on its goals, which include creating a comprehensive environmental education program for Southern Nevada and increasing awareness about litter and taking care of the land.

Getting people out there is the first step, said Jim Maddy, the park foundation president who was traveling with Rockefeller.

"When they see the spring wild flowers blossom over the Mojave Desert. When they see you can catch a trout in the Spring Mountains -- that's what fuels conservationism," he said. "The resources around Las Vegas are so beautiful and so amazing, it'll make conservationists out of them."

There is no time to waste. Our bulldozers ain't sleeping, and increasing numbers of people want to escape the urban environment. Their opportunity to do that 10 or 20 years from now depends on creating stewardship today.

The government can give us more rangers. But they can't make us care.

We have to do that for ourselves.

"Unless citizens and the growing community take a greater sense of ownership, we're going to lose it," O'Neill said.

You can call Outside Las Vegas at 461-6162 or check out its plans at outsidelasvegas.