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March 28, 2024 4:32 pm
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EDITORIAL

Do You Want To Know The Will Of The People… Or Not?


Last week two environmental groups unveiled the findings of a recent poll. The groups claim that the results of the poll indicate that a wide majority of Clark County voters favor the establishment of a National Conservation Area (NCA) and additional wilderness area designations in the vast Gold Butte region. The poll, commissioned by the Nevada Wilderness Coalition and Friends of Gold Butte, surveyed 400 likely voters in Clark County asking questions about the management of sensitive lands in southern Nevada.

Representatives from these groups claimed the findings as a victory for their efforts and said that it indicates a mandate from the public providing ample justification for the Nevada congressional delegation to move forward with legislation establishing the new NCA. Unfortunately, this poll smelled like just another example of the exclusive, manipulative and even deceptive practices customarily employed by the environmental movement in their agenda to lock the public out of public lands.

It certainly seems premature to declare a popular mandate for the Gold Butte proposal. After all, no official proposal has, as yet, even been made to the public. The plans have, up to this point, all gone on behind closed doors outside the view of the general public. Absolutely no open meetings have been held to discuss the scope of this proposal or its ramifications.

No one has come to present the official plans to the Town Boards of neighboring communities like Bunkerville, Moapa Valley or Moapa; the townships that have the biggest stake in new management of Gold Butte. That seems like an important first step in determining public opinion.

Local officials were not included at all in the development of the proposal. The progression of these plans, beginning with the proposed new Mesquite Land Act and continuing right on down to the specific mapping out of vast new restricted wilderness areas at Gold Butte, were all conducted behind closed doors in coordination with these environmental groups.

Eventually rumors started to fly that this process was going on outside of the public view. It wasn’t until nervous local stakeholders started making probing phone calls to their Congressman that an “informal, non-public” meeting was hastily put together a couple of weeks ago. That meeting brought a few local people together behind closed doors in the Mesquite city hall where they were quietly introduced to the rough ideas; but not yet to the details.

This is no way to gauge public opinion! Special consideration and weight should be given to the people who have the greatest interest in the Gold Butte area. The opinions of the residents of neighboring rural communities who know the area well, whose families have enjoyed these lands for generations, should not be circumvented nor drowned out by the noise of the environmental activists. The longstanding feelings of ownership and stewardship over the Gold Butte lands inherent in the local stock may provide valuable insights and fresh ideas on how those lands ought to be managed. These ideas ought to have been sought from the very beginning. At any rate, before the current proposals are fully committed to, other alternatives ought to be examined and considered. The locals might actually have some interesting ideas if they are given the chance to give input!

In the broader realm of Clark County, virtually no meaningful efforts have been made towards public education on these issues. There have been no public meetings held in the Las Vegas valley to educate the hiking, camping, fishing, horseback riding, ATV-using public on just what is at stake here. It is likely that the majority of the Las Vegas public (and thus a majority of the 400 people surveyed in this recent poll) know little or nothing about the remote Gold Butte area. But there have been no efforts to bring the public up to speed on these complicated issues.

The widespread lack of general understanding regarding Gold Butte in the main population centers of Clark County makes it easy to manipulate survey responses with a handful of general and leading survey questions. It is difficult to shake off the feeling that this is another case where agenda-driven organizations have taken a manipulative poll of an uninformed public regarding a very technical and complicated issue; and have ended up with just the results that they desired. What a surprise!

It is the burden of these environmental groups to educate the public on the real meaning of these proposals. Without such efforts, the findings of this vague and manipulative four-question survey aren’t worth the paper they are printed on. It is reprehensible for these groups to take advantage of general public ignorance, manipulate the message and twist it to serve their own agenda in this way.

The Gold Butte area consists of public lands. It is owned by the public. The public should be consulted in its management. That means the whole public; not just those few people who will say (or can be easily manipulated to say) what the environmentalists want to hear. We call on the Nevada Congressional delegation, specifically Congressman Porter, to bring this environmentalist-driven freight train to a halt until a real public process can take place and a variety of options are discussed.

If we really want to hear and abide by the true will of the people, this process should be cracked wide open and conducted in the full sunlight. There should be no more back room meetings, no more concealed maps taken out and quickly put back away. Rather the plans should be put on the table for public perusal. There should be public meetings, frank discussions and open presentations of the full details of what is being proposed.

If, on the other hand, we don’t care what the majority thinks; if a few people have already decided what is best for the rest of us and, acting with a total disregard for public opinion, are pressing their agenda with a ‘will-of-the-people-be-damned’ attitude; if that is the game plan, then the environmental groups are right on target.

TELL US WHAT YOU THINK!

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