Mojave National Preserve placed on most endangered list

Friday, March 29, 2002 | 11:57 a.m.

Mojave National Preserve, about 40 miles southwest of Las Vegas, is one of the 10 most endangered national park service sites because of encroaching growth, according to an environmental group.

After conducting a survey of the National Park Service's 385 sites, the National Parks Conservation Association said this week that the 1.5 million-acre Mojave preserve, located in California just past the Nevada state line, is threatened by development.

"The Mojave is an ecosystem rich with a wide variety of plants and animals that live among landscapes varying from winding sand dunes to towering granite mountains," said NPCA Pacific Regional Director Courtney Cuff. "We should not allow rapacious developers to rob the resources that feed this treasure chest of wonders."

A lack of funding, the survey said, "keeps staff from investigating or preventing much of the damage done to the park."

The survey says that pressure from development "could drain away the little underground water available to keep the desert alive."

Mary Martin, National Park Service superintendent for the Mojave preserve, said although the park is in California, the Nevada side of the border concerns her.

"I have a lot of concerns about the pressures from Las Vegas," Martin said.

The prospects have environmentalists worried. Development pressure, including population growth in Nevada, was cited as a primary reason the preserve is threatened, according to the National Parks Conservation Association.

Environmentalists criticized political support for the proposed Ivanpah airport. They say the airport is troubling because the airport could contribute to air quality problems, disturb plants and animals in the preserve, drain natural aquifers in the region and generally spur growth in what is now undeveloped desert and mountain.

Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., and other area political leaders are supporters of a proposed Ivanpah airport near the California state line. With Sen. John Ensign, R-Nev., Reid also is discussing legislation that could open federal land near the state line for development.

Martin said other possible airport sites in Southern Nevada may have less environmental impact.

Private property "inholdings" inside the park would be more likely to be developed if residential and commercial development occurs in Nevada, she said.

Jane Feldman, an activist for the local arm of the Sierra Club, on Thursday gave Reid a grade of B for his support of environmentally friendly energy policies.

But "no one's ever that black and white," she said. "He could do more."

Reid was scheduled to visit the preserve today.

Reid spokeswoman Sharyn Stein said the senator is aware of the environmental issues affecting the region.

Reid is an environmental activist, and that is one reason the senator insisted on a comprehensive environmental impact assessment before the airport is built, Stein said.

"We think it's a site where environmental problems will be kept to a minimum," Stein said. "We worked with environmental groups on this."

McCarran International Airport officials are working on the environmental assessment of the Ivanpah airport proposal. Debbie Millet, McCarran spokeswoman, said that assessment must be complete before the local agency would buy property from the federal Bureau of Land Management.

Airport planners also believe they can route most of Ivanpah's future air traffic around the Mojave National Preserve and limit other environmental impacts from the facility, scheduled to open around 2011.

The planners believe that the dry lake bed in Nevada "is the only viable site" for a new airport in Southern Nevada, Millet said.

The new airport and any accompanying development will be a few miles from where pioneers of the West traveled. Reid is scheduled today to tour a segment of an old wagon trail used by settlers and miners.

Reid, honorary director of the nonprofit corporation Friends of the Mojave Road, will view historic artifacts and literature about the Mojave Desert in Southern Nevada, Eastern California and Northwestern Arizona.

All but about eight miles of the 70-mile road, called the Mojave Trail, are in the desert preserve, Martin said.

Martin said she doesn't know if she will be able to speak to Reid during his visit today, but hopes she can make an impression.

"If the senator is coming out here, I'd love to talk to him about some of the issues," Martin said.

If he isn't available to talk today, "I'd love for him to come back," she added.