Editorial: Survival of the species

Monday, June 12, 2006 | 7:21 a.m.

Months of delay by federal officials and a complicated tangle of red tape have resulted in postponement of a multi-agency conservation agreement that has halted research on how development affects rare species of plants and animals in Southern Nevada.

According to a story by the Las Vegas Sun on Thursday, the Multi-Species Habitat Conservation Plan cannot move forward with any work this spring or summer, creating critical gaps in the collection of data on the threatened desert tortoise and on such rare species as the burrowing owl and kit fox.

The program is an agreement between federal and local agencies that obtains funding for habitat and species conservation in Clark County through federal land sales or by allowing private developers to take habitat in exchange for paying into the conservation fund.

But federal officials - specifically former Interior Secretary Gale Norton - dropped the ball in October by failing to approve the Clark County projects and authorize expenditure of the federal land sale money. Norton, who retired in March, didn't give her nod until February, which was four months later than scheduled. County officials told the Sun that federal officials in Southern Nevada then insisted on a meeting among the program's partners before any of the money could be disbursed, adding another month to the process.

When the money finally was available at the beginning of April, county officials told the Sun, it was too late to cull through the 58 proposed contracts and get work started in spring and summer. No work will be done now until next year.

It is unfortunate that county officials cannot streamline their end of this bureaucratic tangle and get at least some conservation work started this summer. While it is true that they must properly follow the program's rules, it also is true that this process seems to lack the sense of urgency needed for dealing with rapidly diminishing habitat and species.

That Norton dragged her feet for months on approving the plan is inexcusable but not surprising, given the Bush administration's conservation policies that place the interests of private landowners and developers ahead of the interests of endangered or threatened species. That federal funding for conservation efforts moves at a snail's pace is unnerving, but typical under Bush. And Clark County is left to make up for the lost time.