BLM director visits Red Rock

Tuesday, May 21, 2002 | 9:06 a.m.

From the Red Rock Canyon Visitor Center to a proposed Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository, Bureau of Land Management National Director Kathleen Clarke said she is determined to bring local residents into decisions affecting public lands.

The BLM manages 262 million acres of land in 12 western states, 46 million acres of it in Nevada.

The Red Rock Visitor Center turned 20 years old Monday and BLM officials are already planning for a new one that can handle the more than 1 million visitors a year, BLM Las Vegas spokesman Phil Guerrero said.

Clarke said one of her goals is to make sure that "multiple use doesn't become multiple abuse" in growing areas such as Las Vegas.

Clarke said that local officials, individuals and citizen groups should be involved in setting the BLM's multiple-use philosophy. "I truly believe that public lands don't belong to the agencies, but to the people," she said.

The Southern Nevada Public Land Management Act, now four years old, is unique because it allows Nevada officials to protect sensitive lands through funds raised from land auctions while opening federal tracts to development, she said. Millions have been raised to protect fragile wetlands in the Las Vegas Wash, build campgrounds in Red Rock and improve facilities.

"I'm impressed that it is a good tool," Clarke said.

After a helicopter flight over the Las Vegas Valley on Monday morning, Clarke prepared to attend the BLM's National Partnership conference at the Lake Las Vegas Hyatt Regency Hotel today. "It's the enormity of the job," she said after the air tour.

Her immediate concern is the danger of forest fires across the West. Flames have burned thousands of acres of wildlands and threatened homes near Prescott, Ariz. Flames consumed 300 acres of the Las Vegas Wash in March.

"Across the West we are looking at a dreadful situation," Clarke said. The BLM, the Forest Service, the Bureau of Reclamation and the National Park Service are ready to fight summer fires, she said. Federal firefighters have been doubled.