Are federal hands equipped to care for Gold Butte?

By Joe Schoenmann

Tuesday, May 4, 2010 | 2:01 a.m.

The Clark County Commission could decide today whether to support federal efforts to preserve hundreds of thousands of acres of Nevada wilderness.

It’s a proposal that has proponents jubilant over the possibility of protecting fragile land and opponents angry over potentially losing treasured hunting and four-wheeling territory.

Some, like Mesquite municipal Judge Ron Dodd, are undecided. While he favors conservation, it’s difficult for Dodd to believe federal officials when they promise to keep open the few remaining roads into the remote area northeast of Las Vegas.

Of the proposed 345,000-acre Gold Butte National Conservation Area, 132,000 acres would be designated as wilderness. Typically only foot access is allowed into federal wilderness areas.

Dodd has seen this movie before. Years ago, when the public was debating Red Rock’s eventual designation as a national conservation area, “people in Las Vegas were up in arms. They were afraid (the government was) taking away their recreation area,” the 59-year-old remembered.

The federal government said, “‘Listen, you let us do this, and there’s this place called Gold Butte. You can have it for your recreation.’ Then years pass, and they start closing roads in Gold Butte, too.”

Dodd added, “You need the roads because it’s too big and it’s too hot in the summertime, and these people will say, ‘Well, your forefathers didn’t have Jeeps or four-wheelers,’ but they did have horses and they still didn’t walk.”

Commissioner Tom Collins, who has led the county’s efforts to study the plan, said that to allay fears of a federal takeover, the county resolution calls for establishment of an advisory board with local representation, which would be the first of its kind in the country. Legislation will also include wording requiring that current roads remain open, he said.

Despite public concern, Collins said there is “no better time than now” to pursue the designation because Washington, D.C., is pressing for such designations.

“If we do nothing, I see us getting sued by radical environmental groups for doing nothing,” he said.

Rep. Dina Titus told the Sun she supported the designation; Sen. Harry Reid said he hoped the parties can "come together" to find a solution to both protect the area while keeping it accessible.

The massive chunk of land is mostly isolated from Las Vegas by Lake Mead. But growth in Mesquite, on the northern boundary of the area, has put pressure on the land.

More people have spilled into the area and damaged it by off-roading on hillsides and shooting, including at some of the ancient petroglyphs, Terri Robertson said.

Robertson is one of the 300 members of Friends of Gold Butte who supports the county resolution asking for a federal conservation area designation. She knows the area well, having taken her first trips into Gold Butte with her father, who was born in Mesquite in 1902.

The conservation-area moniker would put the land on the same footing for federal funding as national parks, she said. “And we need a park ranger out there full-time.”

Mesquite Mayor Susan Holecheck said most of her town’s residents oppose the resolution. Even though she disagrees with them, she understand where they are coming from.

“For so many years before the population explosion in Las Vegas and Mesquite, people used to use all of this land and it was their backyard,” Holecheck said.

Still, she added, “people forget that it’s still public land. It’s not their land — public land. And when you have a greater percentage of people using it, sometimes you have to devise parameters to protect it.”

Commissioner Steve Sisolak, whose district encompasses Gold Butte, allowed Collins to take the reins on the plan when Collins expressed interest in it 18 months ago. Sisolak now says he’s in favor of preserving the land, but believes federal officials have done a poor job keeping him and the public informed about it.

The first word from relevant federal parties came within the past week, when an assistant to Reid contacted him.

“I said, ‘Do you know how many times you’ve talked to me? This is the first time,’ ” Sisolak said of the conversation. “And he said, ‘I guess that was a mistake.’ ”

The commissioner is hearing from constituents who feel similarly out of the loop.

“I think there’s a lot of confusion about what’s going on; people say they have been shut out of the process,” Sisolak said. “And these folks are really up in arms.”

As a result, Sisolak said he will ask for more time before making a decision.

“I tend to think everybody really has the same interests at heart here, but I’m just wondering if maybe we should step back, make sure everyone knows what’s going on, then go forward,” he said.