Conservation program reforms under way

J. Craig Anderson

Monday, March 6, 2006 | 7:29 a.m.

The federal agency that polices a Clark County environmental program crucial to continued growth is expected to decide this month whether to allow changes aimed at eliminating conflicts of interest.

Some insiders oppose the county's plan to clean up its widely criticized Desert Conservation Program, saying the proposed reorganization of a key advisory committee would stifle public input and may not withstand a legal challenge.

But county officials said the majority of program participants support eliminating the existing committee, which recommends research projects to be funded by the program. Some committee members have been accused of using their positions to procure lucrative research contracts.

"There are some very serious conflict-of-interest concerns on the table here," said Desert Conservation Program administrator Marci Henson. "We have the authority (to revamp the advisory committee), and this is long overdue."

U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service assistant field supervisor Cynthia Martinez said the federal agency is still reviewing the reorganization plan and will issue an opinion this month.

In the meantime, county officials are moving ahead with the administrative changes, approved by the County Commission in early February following a management analysis of the conservation program.

Management consultant Kirchhoff & Associates Inc. of Coronado, Calif., found that a lack of clear leadership on the advisory committee and its practice of making funding recommendations by consensus rather than by majority vote led to inconsistencies in decisions.

Kirchhoff also concluded that the advisory committee has been violating open meeting laws because there is no record of which members voted for approval.

However, some participants in the Desert Conservation Program said Clark County lacks authority to replace the 31-member advisory committee with a smaller 11-member group that would make decisions by majority vote, with the members being prohibited from conducting paid studies for the program.

Karen Budd-Falen, an attorney based in Wyoming who serves as a legal consultant to the program, issued a statement to participants in February questioning whether county officials can oust the existing committee members before completing a lengthy federal approval process.

Budd-Falen said the county could lose its permit to operate the conservation program if it makes changes without permission from federal agencies and other interested parties.

"At a minimum, it would make for great potential - and fairly easy - litigation," she said.

Henson disagreed, saying the changes are not significant enough to prevent the county from moving ahead.

"At the most, this is a minor administrative amendment," she said.

U.S. Fish and Wildlife allowed the county to establish the multimillion-dollar Desert Conservation Program in the late 1990s as a means to prevent a moratorium on new development by protecting 79 sensitive plants and animals from urban encroachment.

The program monitors sensitive plants and animals, assesses whether their numbers are decreasing and takes steps to offset the decline.

Long-term failure of the program could curtail or even halt area development if the Fish and Wildlife Service determines that growth is killing off rare species.

Although nearly 200 studies have been conducted for the program, county officials say they do not know yet how development has affected wildlife. The program's two-year budget has grown from $9.6 million in 1999-2001 to $34 million over the past two years.

County officials have defended the program, noting that Fish and Wildlife has not expressed any concerns about its effectiveness. Since the program began in 1999, none of the protected species has been added to the threatened or endangered list.