By Vernon Robison
Moapa Valley Progress
U.S. Congressman Joe Heck (R-Nev.) invited a small group of stakeholders from the Moapa and Virgin Valleys to a meeting in Overton, Tuesday March 13, to discuss possible legislation regarding Gold Butte. Heck said that he had arranged the meeting hoping for a free-flowing dialogue of different views about what level of protections might be pallatable by the various parties for the Gold Butte area.
In the room were community leaders with opposing visions for the future of the vast Gold Butte complex which comprises over 360,000 acres east of the Virgin River and Overton Arm of Lake Mead running from just below the town of Bunkerville all the way down to the Colorado River on the south and to the Arizona border on the east.
Former Mesquite Mayor Susan Holecheck and Friends of Gold Butte President Nancy Hall, both of whom have actively advocated for a federal National Conservation Area (NCA) designation at Gold Butte with added Wilderness areas, were in attendance at the Overton meeting.
On the other side, Lindsey Dalley and Elise McAllister of Partners in Conservation; and Moapa Valley Town Advisory Board member Dustin Nelson were present. These three have urged that the current community cooperation with local BLM officials be allowed to continue to solve existing conservation problems at Gold Butt, rather than creating a new federal designation.
Also in attendance at the meeting was State Senator Joe Hardy, Assemblyman Cresent Hardy, Logandale residents Rik Eide and Tony Ricco, and Mesquite resident and OHV proponent Frank Adams.
Heck began by stating that he had no political agenda in calling the meeting. He pointed out that, with recent redistricting, he would not be representing the area after the upcoming election. But he was now bringing everyone to the table with a desire to help.
“This has been a heated issue for a long time,” Heck said at the meeting. “I feel a kinship to this area and I wanted to try to get everyone together while I still represent you and try to put this issue to rest. If you tell me you don’t want it done, that is fine. But if there is something that we can do, I’m willing to be the vehicle to get it done.”
Heck asked for specific issues that might be addressed in federal legislation on the matter.
Holecheck expressed the importance of retaining public access to the area, even with an NCA designation. She stated that the NCA/Wilderness plans that had been proposed thus far had kept all of the existing roads open to mechanized traffic. She expressed the intention of making this part of the enacting legislation.
But Dalley pointed out that a new designation wasn’t required to keep the roads open.
“When you start down that road, we are already inching towards wilderness,” Dalley said.
Dalley stated that the roads issue had already been resolved by existing BLM transportation documents thus it was not a valid bargaining chip for giving up additional wilderness.
“I’d like to see us look directly at the actual problems on the ground out there and find solutions to them on an individual basis,” Dalley said. “Then maybe we can look at specific legislation to help in the solutions. I don’t want to slap a blanket NCA/Wilderness designation on the whole area and then somehow back into finding the real solutions.”
Nelson agreed that solutions would be more effective from the local level.
“We have organized work projects; and Nancy [Hall] has organized work projects; that are addressing the problems,” Nelson said. “We are working well with the local BLM on these things. The community is active. Those things are working. Yes; there is more work to be done. But we should let these efforts work.”
Heck suggested that legislation could be crafted that would specifically state the values of a new NCA and mandate that roads stay open and that historical access be retained. He said that the legislation could establish a committee, predominantly made up of local stakeholders that could be the controlling body of the new NCA.
But Dalley expressed a distrust of federal assurances, even written into legislation.
“We’ve seen instances of NCAs where there were general values in the management plan; but when the committee approved something contrary to the bureaucratic interpretation of those values, they were shot down,” Dalley said.
Heck admitted that a weak point he had observed in previously enacted NCA legislation was that the Secretary of Interior was instructed to act with the “advice of the committee”. Heck proposed that the language should be changed to “at the approval of the committee”. Heck said that this could be written into the legislation so it would be a sure thing.
But Nelson said that none of this would provide enough of a guarantee that the bureaucracy wouldn’t find a loophole at some time in the future to carry out another agenda.
“You might say that all the roads are open now,” Nelson said. “But what is to say that they don’t find some little scarlet throated lizard somewhere that is endangered. Then the whole game changes and roads start to get closed anyway.”
On the other hand, Heck recognized that at the present time the community is very involved in conservation efforts. But that could also change in the future, he said.
“At some point all of you will get older,” Heck said. “You can’t give any guarantee that your kids will have the same zeal as you do for protecting the area.”
Once again, Heck asked if there were specific areas where federal legislation might be able to help in the efforts. Dalley stated that if there was a federal role it would be to open up the bureaucracy to allow the local communities to be able to more easily help solve the problems.
“We have a volunteer work force that is eager to help,” Dalley said. “But we are faced with a lot of red tape in getting in and doing it.”
But Dalley insisted that an overarching NCA designation would be too much federal control.
Nancy Hall agreed with the problems of implementation. She pointed out that the area was already protected with status of Area of Critical Environmental Concern (ACEC). It is also part of the Clark County Multiple Species Habitat Conservation Plan. In addition the BLM had conducted a cultural study, a biological study and a motorized transportation analysis on the area, she said.
“All this study has been done,” Hall said. “The area has a conservation overlay on it. But where does the money come from for implementation? How do we take care of it and share it at the same time. That is the problem.”
Hall stated that an NCA/Wilderness designation would bring more resources to the area for preservation.
Holecheck agreed that funding from an NCA designation would be made available to build a Gold Butte visitor’s center in Mesquite to accomodate and inform the increasing world-wide visitors to the area.
But Nelson insisted that putting a star on the map publicizing Gold Butte to the world would not fix the conservation problems there.
“Rather than enacting legislation that just slaps a gold star on the map, let’s talk about the issues one by one,” Nelson said. “Let’s talk about restroom facilities at Whitney Pockets and Gold Butte townsite for example. Let’s bring the stakeholders together and work together on building the basic infrastructure before we put the big gold star on the map.”
Cresent Hardy stated that there was no need for federal legislation to educate the people who most use the Gold Butte area.
“We take our children out there from one generation to another,” Hardy said. “We teach them how to respect the ground. We’ve educated our kids to be responsible. There is no need for federal protection from us.”
“But those things aren’t there for the tourist coming from abroad,” Heck said. “Those folks don’t know and so they may not have the same respect as you that have lived here all your life.”
But Dalley stated that most of the problems stemming from tourism could be resolved at a much smaller scale than a sweeping 360,000 acre NCA.
“Most of the tourists don’t get more than a mile or two south of Whitney Pockets,” Dalley said. “Heavily frequented spots like that are where most of the problems are. And we can solve those problems. We are working to solve them. We just shouldn’t paint Whitney Pockets and Falling Man with the same broad brush as the rest of the Gold Butte area.”
Senator Joe Hardy pointed out that there may be some grave political realities coming around the corner in the upcoming election that could affect the region.
“Anybody who looks at Congress will see that there are people with a different agenda,” Joe Hardy said. “They want a wilderness. The question is do we want to do something proactively now to mitigate what they are going to do TO us because they might have more votes?”
Rik Eide agreed with this. He pointed out that, with the recent redistricting, the solid Moapa Valley voting block had been cut in half in some cases.
“It is a very good chance in the upcoming Congressional election that [Harry Reid’s] guy is going to probably be elected,” Eide said. “If that happens, the legislation is going to be passed and we won’t be a part of it.”
Nelson responded that he wouldn’t succumb to those types of scare tactics.
“We have faced this again and again over the last few years and we will have to fight it yet again,” Nelson said. “But I won’t pretend that going along with a special interest agenda is going to make things any better in the outcome.”
“Now if you want to talk NCA at Gold Butte, I’m here to talk and I’m listening,” Nelson said. “But if it is wilderness we are talking about that is a whole different thing.”
Holecheck pointed out that the areas slated for Wilderness were remote areas not accessible by any of the existing roads. She asked Nelson why the opposition to wilderness.
“Because it has become a political football,” Nelson said. “It isn’t motivated by its original conservation ideals. Rather it has become something that people push for so that they can go home and feel good about themselves and all the good they have done.”
“We are not just after a trophy here,” said Nancy Hall.
“Now Nancy, we’ve gone round and round about this,” Nelson said. “And I still think that you are.”
Cresent Hardy recalled a Gold Butte visit several months ago with BLM Director Bob Abbey. “We asked him why the need for considering all of this new wilderness area,” Hardy remembered. “He admitted then that those areas did not meet the criteria for wilderness. But he said that he had to do what he is told.”
In the end, Heck concluded the meeting without a sure idea if anything had been accomplished.
“I don’t know if we got anywhere this evening,” Heck said. “But I appreciate you sharing your views.”
