Columnist Susan Snyder: Plans for quiet take flight

Monday, April 26, 2004 | 8:26 a.m.

Silence is golden and rare in an urban setting such as the Las Vegas Valley.

Take the test. Drive a whole day with the windows down. How hard is it to hear the radio or the voice of the person sitting in the passenger seat?

Stand in the backyard and listen. The din of motorized traffic, construction work or airplanes flying creates a continuous hum. It has so permeated our environment that about the only time we notice it exists is when it isn't there.

True quiet is hard to find in the valley. And that's why some Southern Nevada wilderness enthusiasts aren't too enthusiastic about a heliport plan that would allow some 90 flights a day over the valley's newest conservation and wilderness areas.

The valley needs a new heliport to serve the 90-some sightseeing flights that leave each day from McCarran International Airport. A federal plan proposed by Sen. Harry Reid would place the site two to three miles south of Sloan, a community about 15 miles south of Las Vegas.

Reid's plan bans flights over the sensitive areas of the newly established Sloan Canyon National Conservation Area. But Bill James, vice president of Friends of Sloan Canyon, says the flight path still traverses the skies over the recently created North McCullough Wilderness Area just east of the canyon.

"With 90 flights a day divided over daylight hours, that's a flight every four to five minutes," James said. "It's almost continuous."

Members of the James group are joining those from Friends of Nevada Wilderness in leading a public hike Saturday through Sloan Canyon and into the wilderness area.

Anyone is welcome, but people must sign up by calling Susan Potts, 650-6542. The plan is to meet at 8:30 a.m. at the ARCO gas station on the corner of St. Rose parkway and Las Vegas Boulevard near Henderson. From there, hikers will caravan to the trail head. Bring water, sunscreen, a hat and a snack. The hike is billed as "easy" and four to five miles long.

"We want to show people what's there," James said. "Where (the helicopters) are mostly going to fly is over the wilderness area.

"We recognize that (the heliport) has to go somewhere. But we think the flights could detour south of the national conservation area, or they could put the heliport out on the east side" of the valley, he said.

Charles Carroll, who manages Sloan Canyon for the Bureau of Land Management, said a person standing on the ridge above Sloan Canyon can see and hear helicopters on the proposed flight corridor. But he thinks the quiet in the canyon below is preserved.

"It's certainly a concern," Carroll said of the noise. "But I feel like they're making their best effort to do what they can do."

Of course, these places wouldn't even be protected if it weren't for urban encroachment. And James said it is fortunate that wild lands are so accessible to residents who might otherwise never have a chance to experience an unscathed landscape.

"It could be a wonderful asset to people," he said. "But people aren't going to like it if there's a helicopter going over every five minutes."

That's because wilderness is not only what we see.

It is also what we don't hear.