By VERNON ROBISON
Moapa Valley Progress
Two years after making a sudden retreat from northeastern Clark County, Bureau of Land Management (BLM) officials are beginning a return to managing federal lands in the area; specifically to the Gold Butte region.
BLM personnel have not been allowed to conduct any field work or law enforcement on the ground at Gold Butte since early 2014. They have been instructed to stay out of the region “due to safety and security concerns,” according to a press release from the BLM on Friday.
Those concerns were rooted in a final standoff which occurred in April 2014 between armed BLM rangers and a large group of supporters of Bunkerville rancher Cliven Bundy. The group; which was protesting a perceived overreach of federal authority in rounding up Bundy’s cattle, showing a near military force in the region and closing off a vast swath of public lands in the process; finally clashed with BLM officers under the I-15 Toquop wash bridge on April 12, 2014. The protest ended with BLM officers withdrawing from the area.
The BLM has maintained virtually no physical presence in all of northeast Clark County since that time.
But last week, the BLM statement announced that “with the support of the local community, BLM officials have determined that the conditions are now right to resume work.”
BLM Director Neil Kornze came from Washington to tour the area on Thursday. With him was the agency’s Nevada State Director John Ruhs, Clark County Commissioner Marilyn Kirkpatrick and Captain James LaRochelle of the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department.
In Friday’s statement, Kornze said that the visit to the area had been excellent and that the agency plans to increase its presence at Gold Butte in the months ahead.
“This area is a real treasure,” Kornze said. “We look forward to working with our local partners to restart the many important efforts we had underway.”
Most immediately those efforts will be focused on making a complete assessment of the condition of the Gold Butte region, the release stated.
Environmental groups have expressed concern that, without law enforcement on the ground, serious damage may have been done over the past two years by vandals and irresponsible offroad vehicle use.
The BLM statement confirmed that the tour group had witnessed vandalism of some of the area’s sandstone formations and “a large Joshua tree that had been illegally cut down and left onsite.”
But it was unclear how long ago these instances of damage had actually occurred.
“There were a few damaged areas as far as graffiti,” said Commissioner Marilyn Kirkpatrick in an interview with the Progress. “But the Joshua Tree that was cut down; it had been a long while since that had been done; you could tell.”
Local advocates that have watched and surveyed the area often say that damage over the past two years has actually been minimal. Partners in Conservation (PIC) Administrator Elise McAllister visited the area in May to participate in an assessment of certain cultural sites. She reported being pleasantly surprised that the area she surveyed looked relatively free of damage.
“From what I saw and what I know, I thought the area looked fabulous, given that there has been no law enforcement or anything out there for the past two years,” McAllister said. “It appeared that people have been very respectful of the area.”
Nevertheless, Kirkpatrick said that she had engaged last week’s tour group on ways to begin to involve the public in preventing future damage to the resource.
She talked specifically about better signage to inform the public on where the designated trails are and explain why visitors should remain on them in their travels.
“I am big about education of the public,” Kirkpatrick said. “So we talked about putting signs out so people would know the history and significance of the various sites. Plus, you have to give direction to the public. There is no trail map of the area at all. So they agreed that they would do a trail map for the area that can be distributed; so that people know where they can go, and where they can’t.”
Kirkpatrick also urged the BLM officials to make some campground improvements to the Whitney Pockets area. That area has become a popular spot for visitors to camp, hike and picnic. But there have been no designated camp sites established there.
“People are going to be camping there anyway, so why can’t it just be made a regular campground?” Kirkpatrick said. “Why not embrace that use, since it is already going on? Maybe we could work together with the community to make a master plan for facilities there that can be utilized.”
Furthermore, Kirkpatrick pointed out to the tour group that, over the past two years, Clark County had stepped up to maintain the main road through the Gold Butte area.
“I told them that we had been grading the road about every six weeks because we felt it was in the best interest of the people wanting to utilize the site,” Kirkpatrick said. “They agreed to partner with us to keep those roads up a little more regularly.”
“I told them that we don’t mind doing things like that, and the community doesn’t mind helping as well, but we are owed at least a partnership status,” Kirkpatrick said.
Most importantly, the group talked about a desire for BLM to re-engage with the rural northeast Clark County communities, Kirkpatrick said.
“We talked about ways that they could be more partners with the communities,” Kirkpatrick said. “Rather than just pushing for what they want, we talked about a good start for them being to address problems and issues that the communities are concerned about. Their rangers have to be part of the community and participate in community events. They ave to engage better with organizations like PIC in working with local volunteers. For me, you either have to put up or shut up: either be engaged in the communities or not. They were very receptive to all of that.”
BLM officials agreed to begin the process of re-engaging the community, beginning with visits to area Town Advisory Board and City Council meetings during the month of July to start things off, Kirkpatrick said.
“I think that is a very good start,” she said.
While some have speculated that the increased federal presence is merely a precursor to another cattle roundup and, finally, a national monument designation for Gold Butte, Kirkpatrick said that none of this was discussed in last week’s visit.
“I think that there is a lot of work to be done before that even becomes a topic,” Kirkpatrick said. “But I do think that the residents should be prepared to ask the BLM what is their intention on those things when they come to the town board meetings in July. I don’t think that we should skirt from that question at all. It has to be answered. People have got to start telling the truth so that they can begin to build some faith.”
Local advocates were generally pleased to hear the announcement of a returned BLM presence to the area.
“We have been waiting a long time for that to happen,” said McAllister.
She added that PIC and community organizations had been working in cooperation with the BLM whenever possible throughout the past two years. But it had been difficult with no BLM presence allowed. They had been anticipating the time when the BLM would re-engage with the communities, she said.
“We really missed their presence during the Resource Management Plan process last year,” McAllister said. “There are many people who felt offended by the lack of BLM presence here, especially after working so hard to build good relationships with them beforehand. Now we are just happy to have them back out doing what they are responsible for.”
