Adding new members

Saturday, Aug. 2, 2008 | 2:06 a.m.

The nine-member Nevada Wildlife Commission has authority to set broad policy to manage the state’s 860 known species of mammals, fish, amphibians, reptiles and birds. Commission members, all appointed by the governor, include mostly sportsmen but also represent farmers, ranchers, conservationists and the general public. They consider input from advisory boards in Clark County and the state’s 16 other counties in setting policy.

Managing such a wide variety of species so that all can thrive in Nevada, while at the same time pleasing hunters, fishermen and others who count on wildlife for recreation or their livelihoods, is no easy task. It is incumbent, then, for the commission to consider all competing interests as it sets wildlife management policies.

Regrettably, Gov. Jim Gibbons has upset that delicate balance. He did so by appointing four new members to the commission who some sportsmen and farmers’ groups fear will focus more on mule deer management than on improving habitat to benefit all wildlife, the Associated Press reported this week.

“Everybody wants to see more deer herds, but we want to use science,” Elko County Wildlife Advisory Board member Ken Wellington told the AP. “I’m just disgusted with this governor. I can’t believe what he’s done to the sportsmen’s group in Nevada.”

The commission has found itself in the middle of controversy in the past over the mule deer, which is by far the most common big game animal in the state. In 2005, the commission complied with a federal appeals court ruling by making it easier for non-Nevada residents to obtain state big game hunting tags. But President Bush signed a law later that year that enabled Nevada and other states to set regulations that favor their own residents.

Gibbons has the right to make appointments to the commission, but he could have done a better job of vetting his picks with groups that have vested interests in wildlife issues. The Nevada Farm Bureau, for instance, had wanted the governor to retain farm representative Bevan Lister of Pioche on the commission, but Gibbons replaced him with Grant Preston Wallace of Dyer without giving the largest farmer organization in the state the courtesy of input on his decision.

Elko County Commissioner Charlie Myers, who also sits on his county’s wildlife advisory panel, told the AP in response to Gibbons’ appointments, “We’re kind of dumbfounded at this point.”

Now that the new appointments have been made, the commission would be wise to remember that it has a responsibility to help manage all wildlife in Nevada, not just one species.