Letter: Citizens cherish public lands

Friday, Feb. 11, 2005 | 9:21 a.m.

Your excellent Feb. 3 editorial covered most of the bases as to why it is wrong for the Bush administration to steal Nevada's money from our unique Southern Nevada Public Lands Management Act sales. But there is another issue at stake here.

There are many of us in Nevada who take time out of our busy lives to drop letters or comments in support of adding parts of Nevada to the National Wilderness Preservation System, established in 1964. It's one of the most democratic processes we have, and every acre of wilderness protected under the last two major public lands bills in Clark and Lincoln counties came about because of citizen participation in the designation of those areas.

If this theft is allowed to happen, then the Bush administration may as well slap everyone in the Nevada wilderness family in the face with one hand as its other picks our pocket. These are our public lands, our auctions, our wilderness areas and our people on the ground here in Nevada and in Washington doing this work.

This administration is as dedicated an enemy of wilderness as our country has ever seen. And if it can find a cool billion or so to offset its record deficits while trying to take the shine off Nevada's public lands successes, I believe it will.

BILL HUGGINS