Columnist Susan Snyder: LV needs to take care of its own

Friday, Feb. 27, 2004 | 8:10 a.m.

Nevada tourism officials' newest targets are outdoors enthusiasts.

So it's good that local volunteers have been working to keep the state's parks presentable. It's kind of embarrassing to invite the world to your doorstep when the living room ceiling leaks.

Ask a volunteer at any of Clark County's state parks whether there is enough money for basic upkeep of these local treasures. And if they can stop painting, planting, cleaning up or clearing out long enough, they will echo a resounding, "No!"

Still, need creates an opportunity to help. And just such a chance happens at 9 a.m. Saturday inside Floyd Lamb State Park. Members of of the Tule Springs Preservation Committee need an army of volunteers to help them clean up trash.

"All they need to do is bring work gloves and a willing spirit," Don White, the group's president, said.

Much of the debris has blown in from residential construction sites just beyond the boundaries of the park that sits at Durango Drive and Racel Street in the extreme north end of the urban valley.

"The trash blows off the construction sites and blows into the park. It's really trashed," White said. "There's a Dumpster in the park. But we're going to be able fill it in a couple of hours."

Other stuff has been dumped out there on purpose -- by the kind of people we can assume will not be showing up Saturday despite the free coffee and doughnuts.

"There are pieces of busted-up concrete and a (pickup) truck bed. Someone tucked it under a cat claw acacia (shrub) in the wash and filled it with all the other stuff they had," White said. "It's a huge amount of trash. We've got more than enough to keep us all busy."

Work begins at 9 a.m. and ends at 1 p.m. Water, coffee, juice, bottled water and doughnuts have been donated for the event. Shovels, rakes and other tools will be provided. But workers must wear work gloves and can bring picnic lunches. Call White at 656-0385 for information.

The area that encompasses Floyd Lamb State Park, formerly called Tule Springs, shows signs that humans have been coming and going from the region for at least 13,000 years.

During the "Big Dig" Tule Springs Expedition of 1962-'63, archaeologists found hand tools and other evidence of human habitation dating back more than 11,000 years.

In 1933 an archaeologist found a chunk of charcoal that was linked to the bones of extinct varieties of camel, horse and bison. Other charcoal deposits and bones showed prehistoric mammoths and giant sloths once walked the area as well.

The park's development dates to 1869. It eventually became a Las Vegas city park, but city officials conveyed it to the state in 1977 for $1 because Las Vegas no longer could pay for the upkeep.

But now the state can't find the money to maintain the park, and some $450,000 in repairs are needed. Last year the Nevada Legislature approved the concept of returning the park to the city's hands, but a final agreement has not been worked out yet.

Meanwhile, White said, much work needs to be done.

"There's paint falling off all the buildings," he said. "I'll go in there and paint every building myself, if I can get four or five people to spend a day with me out there scraping off the old paint."