By Mike Donahue

Moapa Valley Progress

Biologists performed a semi-annual snorkel count last week of the Moapa dace, a small fish which exists only in the spring flows at the headwaters of the Muddy River. Photo by Mike Donahue.

A two-day snorkel survey of the Moapa dace, tiny endangered fish that live only in the waters in and around Warm Springs, counted an estimated 654 fish last week. This was only a slight decrease from the August 2011 assessment.

But while the numbers are 59 lower than six months ago, Lee Simons, a biologist with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS), said the slight drop isn’t especially important since there are typically fewer fish in the winter.

“It’s more significant that the numbers are up 80 fish over the 574 counted in February 2011,” he explained. “These are pretty good numbers for us. This actually shows the population is improving and that’s a good thing.”

The USFWS is charged with taking care of Moapa dace which includes estimating their population. Simons, who headed up the Warm Springs count, said the agency conducts the snorkel survey twice a year – in August and February.

“A key requirement for managing the species is to track it through time,” he said. “That’s our way of knowing how things are going for Moapa dace populations.”

A biologist snorkels through shallow spring flows to account for Moapa dace and other fish in the Warm Springs area. Photo by Mike Donahue.

To count the fish wetsuit-clad, goggle-wearing biologists, breathing through snorkels carefully swim upstream noting the numbers of each species of fish they see including any non-natives such as mollies as well as native populations of the Moapa speckled dace, Moapa White River springfish and the Moapa dace. They call out their count to others walking streamside who record the numbers.

Agencies represented last week include biologists and staff from USFWS, Southern Nevada Water Authority (SNWA), the Nevada Department of Wildlife (NDOW), and a graduate student from the University of Arizona.

“It’s a pretty good technique,” Simons said. “When we’ve gone back to double check our numbers (with different counters) our counts usually dovetail pretty well.”

Springs and tributaries surveyed included the Apcar Springs, Pedersen Springs, Refuge Springs (also known as Plummer Springs), the North Fork Tributary, South Fork Tributary and Muddy Springs Tributary (on LDS Church property). Waters survey range from a few inches deep down to 6 feet or more.

“During the survey we’re also looking at the life stages of the Moapa dace (larval, juvenile and adult),” said Crystal Shanley, a SNWA biologist who plays a major role in the restoration of habitat for the endangered fish. “It’s not an exact age classification as much as it’s a size classification.”

Robert Johnson, a biologist and SNWA manager of the Warm Springs Natural Area where many of the fish were counted, explained Moapa dace populations have been steadily increasing for the past several years despite suffering a catastrophic setback between 2007 and 2008.

“For some unknown reason, the population plummeted from 1,172 in February 2007 to 459 in February 2008,” Johnson said. “Since then, however, we’ve seen through successive counts that they’ve been steadily climbing.”

A member of the Cyprinidae family and the sole species in the genus Moapa, the Moapa dace lives only in the warm springs of the upper Muddy River and has a distinctive leathery appearance — hence the scientific name coriacea , which means “leathery,” according to the Center for Biological Diversity’s website.

When first discovered in 1938, the dace was considered common, all living within a 10-mile range that included 25 thermal springs, the website says. “Today its habitat is limited to three springs and a less-than two-mile stretch of the Muddy River.”

Moapa dace has been under protection since 1967, actually predating the Endangered Species Act by six years.

The only areas where Moapa dace are currently found include springs, streams and tributaries in the Moapa Valley National Wildlife Refuge, on private land owned by the LDS Church and on a 1,220-acre tract SNWA purchased for $69 million in 2007 directly across the Warm Springs loop road from the refuge, Johnson said. All areas include thermal waters from the White River Ground-water Flow System which bubble to the surface from several primeval springs.

The 116 acres that make up the wildlife refuge was purchased in 1979 by the USFWS in an effort to protect the species.

“About 85 percent of the dace habitat is on SWNA property, although the majority of the source population of the fish is on USFWS refuge property,” Johnson said.

SNWA and USFWS, with help from other agencies including the Nevada Department of Wildlife (NDOW) which participated in the recent count, have been doing substantial habitat restoration in an effort return the area to its original most native state.

“I’m not talking about the ‘historic’ state of the habitat,” Simons said, “because in recent history there were man-made swimming pools here. We’re talking about returning the habitat to what it was like originally.”

“The USFWS has a recovery plan and we’re (SNWA) trying to assist in the implementation of action that helps meet the goals of that plan,” Johnson said.

By Mike Donahue

Moapa Valley Progress

The National Park Service (NPS) last week issued the first of three permits that organizers need in order to hold two Moapa Valley-related events next month involving Lake Mead.

Although the two events, the Logandale LDS Stake Handcart Trek and St. Thomas Alive, in which the public is invited to participate in bringing the city back to life for a day, are separate activities, they are related in that the conclusion of the first is the beginning of the second, according to Lindsey Dalley, who has been working on both since last fall.

During the trek, some 300 people in period dress will form a traveling handcart company reminiscent of the pioneers crossing the plains that will start at the Logandale LDS Stake Center on Friday, March 2. After a nine-mile walk through various parts of Moapa Valley, the trek will conclude an additional three or four miles later Saturday, March 3, at the ruins of St. Thomas, a once-thriving city that was inundated by Lake Mead in the 1930s.

St. Thomas Alive is set to kick off at 10 a.m. on Saturday, March 3, just before the handcarts are scheduled to arrive. During the event, community members are encouraged to visit the ruins south of Overton and see what life was like before Lake Mead flooded the city.

“The NPS permit we just got allows us to improve the road from the bluff overlooking St. Thomas down to the actual townsite,” Dalley said. “We’re expecting a lot of people – the elderly and others — who have trouble walking will want to participant in St. Thomas Alive, so we’ve received permission to allow them to drive to the town site and park.”

The permit also allows organizers to blade a small, limited-vehicle parking area on land that has been mostly under water since the 1930s.

“Use of the road and the parking area is being limited to four-wheel-drive vehicles that have at least six people inside,” Dalley said.

The other two permits yet to be issued include giving the handcart expedition the permission to pull the wheeled vehicles from the Overton Wildlife Management Area across the one-time lake bottom; and a permit to allow St. Thomas Alive to happen at all, Dalley said.

“The park service has been absolutely wonderful about all of this,” he continued. “There are going to be a few restrictions like no glass or Styrofoam at St. Thomas, but the park service has been very good about working with us.”

He added that attendees also need to be aware that, other than a few port-a-potties, there will be no services at St. Thomas for attendees.

“They’re going to have to carry down their own food, water and anything else they might need,” he said.

By Vernon Robison

Moapa Valley Progress

Moapa Valley Town Advisory Board (MVTAB) members were presented with a problem at a meeting on Wednesday February 15 and were asked to consider two options for resolving the problem.

Clark County Engineer, Kaizad Yazdani explained to the board that the county had received a complaint regarding a parking issue at the corner of Virginia Ave. and Moapa Valley Blvd. in downtown Overton. Yazdani displayed an aerial photograph of the intersection which showed cars parked alongside the commercial buildings on either side of the street.

“As you can see from the photograph, there are a couple of cars parked in the right of way and close to where there is a stop sign on the southwest corner,” Yazdani told the board. “The person who called in was complaining that the cars are so close to the stop sign that it is hard to see the stop sign.”

Yazdani explained that the existing right of way on Virginia Ave. west of the Boulevard is eighty feet. Thus perpendicular parking on the south side of the Ace Hardware building or along the north side of the Sage Health and Empowerment building would be straddling the Virginia Ave. right of way.

Yazdani said he had brought two possible solutions to present to the board. The first option would be to vacate 10 feet of right of way on either side of the street and then require cars to do only parallel parking in those areas. The second option was to have County Public Works to specify striped diagonal parking within the right of way on either side of the road, and change the placement of the stop sign to make it more visible.

MVTAB member Dustin Nelson asked why the right of way on the west side of the Boulevard couldn’t be adjusted to match that of the east side which is 40 feet. Yazdani responded that new county standards require at least a 50 ft right of way. So it couldn’t be brought less than that on the west side.

MVTAB member Gene Houston observed that, once the striping is done, the road would effectively be brought down to about a 40 ft. right of way anyway. Yazdani agreed.

Houston said that the angled striped parking would be the best solution as long as the county was going to foot the cost of the striping.

“We are trying to have businesses here,” Houston said. “We are not trying to add to the cost of staying in business. We are trying to keep them here. So if you were going to come in and do that with the county, to me that is a good fix. We’re not adding additional cost to them. (Parking along there) is something that they’ve done for the past, I don’t know, 50 years. Now if you say you can’t do that, then it is a problem because I think they’d have a prescriptive right of way.”

“We are just trying to make the situation safe,” Yazdani responded.

“I understand that and safety is a good thing,” Houston said. “So under the circumstances, I think that the striping is the best option.”

During public comment, Logandale resident Ralph Starita asked if the complaint had come from an anonymous caller. Yazdani confirmed that it had.

“Then it should have been thrown out,” Starita said. “If their not willing to face the people here and stand up for it, I don’t agree with it. This anonymous stuff has got to stop.”

“The county doesn’t have the luxury of picking and choosing,” said Janice Ridondo, Community Liaison to Commissioner Tom Collins’ office. “In the (Las Vegas) valley when folks live so close to one another, there has been so much retaliation when someone is named, than anonymous is a very important tool in town. It may not be here and I won’t argue that. But I appreciate that you want the folks to come forward. But at this point it is a safety concern and I think this will improve the businesses and be good for everyone.”

Logandale resident Corey Dalley asked that a period of time be given for public input on the matter.

“It would be good if a timeframe were given for business input and community input so that we don’t end up with another fence along Bunnell,” Dalley said.

Ace Hardware owner Dan Hopkins said he was fine with the idea of striped parking along Virginia Ave.

“We have never had a problem there,” he said. “There has never been a problem there. I spoke with Metro and they’ve never had a problem there. I think that you are making mountains out of molehills here. I don’t really see a reason for it. But if you want to do it, we can live with it.”

Houston made a motion to go forward with the option of doing striped angled parking along both sides of Virginia Ave. in the area just west of Moapa Valley Blvd. The board approved the motion with a unanimous vote.

By Vernon Robison

Moapa Valley Progress

Boy Scouts from several states gathered at the Mountain Man Rendezvous on the Moapa Paiute Indian Reservation last weekend. Photo by Vernon Robison.

The sights and sounds of the American frontier were reborn for a day or two on the Moapa Band of Paiutes Indian Reservation last weekend. The Las Vegas Area Council of the Boys Scouts of America held its 29th annual Mountain Man Rendezvous on Friday and Saturday.

On Friday evening, hundreds of troop camp sites were spread out over the open fields across the valley and a little north of the Paiute tribal center. Not far from the general campsites, a circle of white canvas tepees were pitched on the edge of a tamarisk-lined wash surrounded by rocky white cliffs. This was the “primitive camping area” where the Scouts and their leaders wore mountain man clothing and prepared their food the old fashioned way with dutch ovens and other frontier-era cooking tools.

The purpose of the Mountain Man Rendezvous is to teach youth about the frontier tradition of the annual mountain man summer get-togethers that were held during the mid-1800s. These historic events brought Rocky Mountain fur trappers, and Native Americans together with merchants from eastern supply companies. The rendezvous gave the mountain men a ready market to exchange their pelts for supplies. But it was also a time of celebration and of friendly competition amongst themselves.

Scouts purchase old-fashioned soft drinks from a trader on Trader’s Row at the Mountain Man Rendezvous. Photo by Vernon Robison.

Likewise, this year’s Boy Scout rendezvous brought many people together from far and wide. Over 1,800 Scouts attended the event. These boys were mostly from southern Nevada, but many were from much further afield including northern Nevada, Arizona, Utah; even as far away as Orange County, California.

As the sun went down on Friday evening, Scouts and their leaders gathered for an opening campfire. Rendezvous staff, dressed in mountain man garb, told tall tales of the western frontier and some of its more colorful inhabitants. The boys soon became familiar with a number of real mountain man terms such as booshway, the word for the rendezvous leader; and segundo, his second in command.

The next morning the Scouts rotated through more than twenty stations. Each station required the boys to cultivate and exhibit skills that would have been familiar to a real frontiersman in the 1800s.

At one station, a long lineup of boys waited their turn to hurl a long spear into a stump of wood. The spear was called a beaver stick. Boys learned that mountain men often hunted with it rather than using a gun. They did this to avoid using up precious ammunition.

Of course, that doesn’t mean that the trappers didn’t ever use guns. And so did the Scouts. One of the most popular stations at the rendezvous allowed the boys to load and fire black powder rifles and shotguns at targets.

Other events had Scouts making rope, molding lead bullets, panning for gold, starting campfires using only flint and steel, tracking wild animals, shooting with bows and arrows, throwing knives and hatchets, chipping arrowheads (flint knapping) and much more.

Nearly every activity included a competitive element. In some events, like horseshoes or the log toss, each Scout’s performance was judged separately. Other activities required the scouts to compete in their groups; such as identifying animal tracks, or lashing together a flag pole using ropes and wooden poles.

A mountain-man model camp was on display to show the everyday camp life in the American frontier of the 1830s. White canvas tents were displayed as well as frontiersman tools such as cooking utensils, flint-lock rifles, various animal pelts and other tools and weaponry.

Just around the corner from the model camp was a Trader’s Row. This large area filled with trading posts where the boys could purchase food, mountain man clothing, equipment, tools and frontier-themed memorabilia.

The Mountain Man Rendezvous has been held at the Moapa Indian Reservation since 2003. Council leaders expressed deep appreciation to the tribe for allowing the land to be used for the event.

“The tribe has always been so supportive of the council and of this event,” said Las Vegas Area Council Finance Director, Jim Schmidt. “They have been wonderful to work with all these years and we can’t say enough about how much we appreciate their support.”

By SEAN WHALEY

Nevada News Bureau

Gov. Brian Sandoval unveiled his economic development plan last week and challenged the business community to work to create 50,000 new jobs by the end of 2014.

The 63-page report, released at a press conference on Tuesday, February 7, calls for creating a cohesive system to move forward with economic development, expand “global engagement” and increase opportunity through education and workforce development, among other objectives.

“This (report) is a blueprint for building a vibrant, sustainable economy for all Nevadans,” Sandoval said. “It puts us in a better position to succeed in the hyper-competitive push to champion a strong economy that creates good jobs.”

“State government will play a role by advocating for business, providing the infrastructure that helps business thrive, and helping to educate our future workforce,” he said.

A key component of achieving job growth is a $10 million Catalyst Fund created in cooperation with the Legislature to help existing Nevada businesses expand and to encourage other businesses to relocate to the state.

The plan was developed by Steve Hill, executive director of the Governor’s Office of Economic Development, after consultation with business leaders and policy-makers from around the state.

Hill said an economic development plan is critical given the current state of the economy.

“We don’t have to worry going forward whether Nevada will be connected to the globe, it will be,” he said. “And we need to learn how to capitalize on that better. So, globalizing, both in terms of exporting, in terms of foreign investment in Nevada, bring good jobs, it brings additional financing and investment in the state and is an area that we need to focus on.”

The plan also focuses on the need for education reform, Hill said.

“We all know that we need a higher level of education achievement in order to drive this economy forward,” he said.

On the same day, Sandoval announced a plan to repeal 654 unnecessary regulations. This action would assist in the state’s efforts at economic diversification and job creation by making Nevada more business friendly, Sandoval said.

In addition to the repeal of more than 600 rules, another 1,100 will be updated as a result of an executive order he issued in January 2011 imposing a one-year freeze and calling for his cabinet to thoroughly review the entire regulatory framework of the state.

Most regulations that will be repealed come from agencies that impact businesses and individuals directly – 137 regulations in the Department of Business and Industry, 120 in the Department of Motor Vehicles and 95 in the Department of Taxation.

Sandoval said that a less burdensome regulatory system will help Nevada attract jobs.

“My goal is to make Nevada the most business-friendly state in the country,” he said. “I think that sends an incredible message that we in Nevada are going to have important regulations that are business friendly, and we think that it’s going to have a large impact and compliments what this plan does today.

“Over-regulation in other states has suffocated business and we think that that is going to be a very attractive component of our ability to attract those businesses to come to our state,” Sandoval said.

During the year-long freeze, all regulations were reviewed to determine if they were still necessary, to identify any adverse impact on business, to clarify language and address duplication or inconsistencies, and to determine if the public value outweighed the cost of the regulation itself.

“With my executive order, I established a set of regulatory priorities for this administration – namely, to protect the health and welfare of the people of Nevada without discouraging economic growth,” Sandoval said.

Additionally, Sandoval has given his cabinet specific directions to refocus their approach to rule-making. Regulations will not be frozen, but every regulatory body will be required to notify the governor’s office of proposed actions and include notice of how the proposed regulation is consistent with Sandoval’s priority to keep Nevada’s economy moving.

“My office will provide a thorough review of the rule-making process to ensure government doesn’t get in the way of job growth,” Sandoval said.