Letter: Wilderness plan has its bounds

Friday, March 1, 2002 | 4:22 a.m.

In regards to Mike Ambrose's Feb. 27 letter, "Wilderness bill needed to protect Nevada's beauty":

I don't think that you will find a person in Nevada who doesn't think wilderness areas are needed in the state. But these areas need to be true wilderness as defined by Congress. That means roadless: no man-made structures and untouched by the hand of man.

Most all of the government agencies are backing the wilderness plan that sets aside 185,000 acres in Southern Nevada. The Nevada Land Users, a group that includes sportsmen and conservationists, also supports this plan. In this plan, the South McCullough range is protected. The problem is that a radical environmental group called the Friends of Nevada Wilderness has proposed more than 4,400,000 acres of wilderness just in Southern Nevada.

The last wilderness area set up in the state of Nevada was the Black Rock-High Rock Canyon. This wilderness was said to be needed to protect the emigrant wagon trails of the 1840s. But now it is illegal to take a horse-drawn wagon in the wilderness area.

KENNETH FREEMAN JR.

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