Thursday, June 23, 2005 | 9:32 a.m.
Despite opposition from environmentalists, North Las Vegas has struck a deal with the Bureau of Land Management and federal and state agencies for conserving roughly 12 percent of a 2,300-acre site to protect rare plants and prehistoric fossils.
The tentative agreement sets aside 281 acres that would be contiguous with a 5,000-acre plant and fossil conservation area to the north of the site, along the Las Vegas Wash.
The BLM will combine the remaining portions of the 2,300-acre site east of the Aliante Master Planned Community with 600 acres west of Aliante for a Nov. 16 auction.
The acreage set aside is in line with what North Las Vegas officials said two months ago may end up the final number. The 281 acres, however, is well below the 1,400 acres federal officials said in the past may be be needed for conservation to protect the Las Vegas bearpobby and buckwheat.
Jane Feldman, conservation chairwoman of the Southern Nevada group of the Sierra Club, said the plan is better that a previous proposal that didn't have the 281 acres contiguous to the conservation area. But Feldman said the 281 acres should at least be doubled to provide better protection for the fragile plants and preserve paleontological fossils and archeological resources.
"That is not going to be large enough to include the population of bearpoppy and buckwheat that already exist," Feldman said. "The best solution is to stay a little further away from those populations."
Feldman said she will continue to lobby city, state and federal officials to do more study and hold off on selling the land. That appears to be an uphill battle because all the entities said they back the agreement.
Jody Brown, a deputy field supervisor for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, said the sensitive plans and habitat have been preserved under the agreement.
John Jones, a southern regional forester for the Nevada Division of Forestry, said the plan calls for relocating buckwheat and bearpoppy and soil to the conservation area. The most sensitive areas are included in the 281 acres.
"It wasn't necessary to preserve the entire area," Jones said. "This was a compromise to be able to protect the sensitive plants and resources there yet still allow for some of land to be sold for development and growth."
The North Las Vegas City Council is scheduled to vote July 6 on the tentative agreement. The city postponed the sale in February to give more time to address the environmental issues.
North Las Vegas City Manager Gregory Rose said the agreement achieves two goals in preserving the plants and allowing development.
"I am pleased we were able to reach a balance," Rose said. "We let science dictate the amount of acres that was needed."
Of the 2,300 acres, the site already has 400 acres that can't be developed because of a drainage basin and the Las Vegas Beltway. City officials want a master planned community with a mixture of residential and commercial development.
Feldman said she fears the 5,000 acre conservation area north of this site won't be enough to protect endangered species because it is likely to have utility lines and roads that will disturb the area. She said the 2,300 acres should be added to it.
"I can't imagine why this land if removed from the auction would crash everyone's development plans in the whole valley," Feldman said. "I don't want to live in a place that is nothing but asphalt. I want to live in a healthy desert and a healthy desert has a lot of plants and animals and butterflies and a place most people want to live."
The BLM had planned to separate the sale of the 2,300 acres and 600 acres but recently agreed to the city's request to combine the parcels. That would enable developers to spread out costs to deal with the plant transplantation and take other preservation steps, officials said.
The conservation area will be managed by the BLM, officials said.
archive
