By STEPHANIE BUNKER
Moapa Valley Progress
Partners In Conservation (PIC) held a very successful weekend event to celebrate National Public Lands Day at the Logandale Trails area.
National Public Lands Day is a time when the public gathers together to appreciate and enjoy an area of public land. This often entails a work project to improve the area. The Logandale Trails Public Lands Day event, organized by PIC and the BLM, spotlighted trash pickup and sign painting.
Elise McAllister PIC Administrator and the BLM officers coordinated the event together at the trails system. Shonna Dooman, Assistant Field Manager in the BLM Las Vegas Field Office said that she is grateful to PIC for the hard work put into the area, as well as their acquiring grants from the OHV Commission and Nevada State Parks to help improve the area.
“We are so grateful to everyone that showed up today to help,” added Dooman.
The group met at the first parking lot along the road to Logandale Trails. This is where a new sign was painted by volunteers AJ and Jerry who are part of the Jeep Family Club. The new sign reads, “Welcome to Logandale Trails.”
An estimated 150 people volunteers showed up to help work and serve food at the event. Most of the group spread out to pick up trash around the trails system.
The LDS Overton 1st ward Young Men and Women helped to set up shade structures and serve doughnuts and drinks in the morning. Then they stuck around to help grill hamburgers and hot dogs for lunch.
Most of the volunteers that participated were from Las Vegas four wheeling clubs such as Vegas Valley 4-wheelers, Jeep Family, Battle Born, Desert Wranglers, and the Kokopelli Club.
“Last year we had about 40% locals and 30% of people from Vegas Valley 4-Wheelers,” McAllister said. “But this year we have less locals but more people from the newer Jeep Clubs.”
Many club members who use the trail system frequently say they want to help preserve the trails and to support PIC.
“I love this area,” said AJ with Jeep Family. “I love the trails and we have to take care of them.”
Julie Inouye with Vegas Valley 4-Wheelers also came to help. “We wheel on these trails all the time,” Inouye said. “It seemed like the right thing to do. Besides, Elise does a lot for our club.”
The Andersons from Cedar Fort recently purchased land in Moapa Valley. Howard Anderson said, “We did service up there in Cedar Fort and we wanted to come down here and do service as well.” His wife Charlynn added that the projects helps them meet locals.
The Andersons said they gathered 2 ½ bags of trash in the wash behind the parking lot and armfuls of construction materials.
Metro was invited to attend and provide VIN inspections for people who in attendance that needed their OHV’s registered. Sergeant Brett Empey explained that as a rule, Metro officers are not allowed to do VIN inspections. But they were granted an exception for him and the 9 other officers in Moapa Valley because the need is greater in this area.
“We are going to try to do more events like this out in the field even though this isn’t our responsibility,” said Empey. “But we are the ‘big brothers’ as far as law enforcement and we like to help PIC with their events.”
Empey added that the northeast resident section is looking to apply for a grant to purchase a side x side OHV for Metro to access the trails and better serve the public in areas they aren’t able to access in their trucks.
Shonna Dooman said there were four National Public Lands Day events going on in the Southern Nevada Region today. The other 3 were located at Gold Butte National Monument, Sloan Canyon National Conservation Area, and an area between Pahrump and Armargosa Valley.
