Local opponents of a new Gold Butte National Conservation Area (NCA) with wilderness are absolutely right in their arguments against the proposal. An NCA designation at Gold Butte is not needed, nor is it wanted by the majority of people who most enjoy this rugged landscape.
Over the years, local opponents have had to repeatedly circle the wagons on this issue. And they have been largely successful in holding a hard line against the waves of marauding wilderness proponents.
Unfortunately, storm clouds are gathering yet again over Gold Butte. It is quite likely that the next election could bring a new reality to most of the rural residents of the state; including those of us in the northeast Clark County communities. With that in mind, we may be at a point where the old hard line opposition ought to allow for some open and constructive discussion with the opposing side of this issue.
The local NCA opponents, invited to a Gold Butte stakeholder meeting held earlier this month by Congressman Joe Heck, came to the table rehashing their full argument once again in the most emphatic of terms. In impassioned voices they spent more than an hour rehashing the decade-long debate; redrawing the same lines in the sand and digging the same battle trenches.
That has worked for them in the past. Up to now, there have always been one or two supportive ears among the Nevada Congressional delegation that they could go to. Our representation from Congressional District 3 has been sympathetic to the rural voices opposing new wilderness at Gold Butte. Rep. Heck, and before him Rep. Jon Porter, have faithfully held off the onslaught of the national environmental special interests thus far.
Despite this, several years ago those special interests sensed a weakness and attempted an end run on Gold Butte through legislation introduced by Rep. Shelley Berkley. Despite it being far outside of her district, Berkley snuck in a bill that would have locked up an additional 128,000 acres in new wilderness as well as the NCA designation. At that time, the rural northeast county residents performed some quick footwork and were able to keep this action at bay. The bill didn’t pass.
But the war was far from over. Since then the environmental offensive has still been very much alive and relentlessly working its magic behind the scenes. Their lobbying has been fruitful. They have persuaded the County Commission to pass a resolution in favor of new wilderness at Gold Butte. They have brought top brass from the current federal administration for repeated visits to tour the Gold Butte area. These top administrators have made their positions imminently clear. The administration fully supports legislation that would put added federal protection on the Gold Butte area, including an NCA designation with vast new tracts of wilderness. The pressure has been building and it only awaits a moment of weakness. That moment could very well be upon us.
Last year’s redistricting process, deferred by the State Legislature to the courts, created the new Congressional District 4 (CD4). All of northeast Clark County, including Gold Butte, has been thrown into it along with a huge chunk of the other sparsely populated rural territory in the state. But that is not all. CD4 also covers most of urban North Las Vegas including the inner-city neighborhoods of the historic west Las Vegas. This is solid blue, Democratic territory. And the Democrats, lead by Senator Harry Reid have made their agenda very clear in reference to Gold Butte. It is in complete harmony with the national environmental interests.
In the race for CD4, the Democrats are unified around a single candidate. State Senate Majority Leader Steven Horsford stands to play very well to his urban core base.
Meanwhile, the Republicans are anything but unified. With half a dozen Republican candidates fighting it out in the primary, none of whom know their way much around the rurals, the question will be whether the emerging Republican candidate will be attractive enough to rural residents to be able to compete with the urban Democratic block. Right now, it’s anyone’s guess. But Horsford is currently favored to win the seat.
Add to that the fact that Republican U.S. Senator Dean Heller is being opposed in the upcoming election by none other than that one and the same Shelley Berkley, and it all adds up to a very uncertain political landscape.
The local opponents of the Gold Butte NCA may choose to close their eyes, plug their ears and dismiss these facts. They can claim that all this is just more fear tactics being used to manipulate them. But if the perfect storm hits, this election year could very well bring about some tough political realities that would leave them out in the cold when it comes to the future of Gold Butte.
So when Joe Heck gathered the two sides to the Overton Community Center to discuss a compromise and try to find a settlement, it could have been viewed in either of two ways.
It might have been seen as yet another attack against which we must defend. In that case we must instinctively circle the wagons, deepen the trenches and remember the Alamo. But history has shown that when folks stubbornly hold the fort despite all the undeniable realities forming around them, things don’t usually end well. While they are remembering the Alamo they might just take a close look at the fate of Colonel William Travis, Jim Bowie and Davie Crockett to see where such a strategy has lead in the past.
On the other hand, the second alternative would have been to view the meeting as an opportunity to sit at the negotiation table. It could have been seen as an invitation to work out a solution once and for all while we still have a sympathetic representative in Congress.
Unfortunately, local NCA opponents spent most of Heck’s stakeholder meeting firmly entrenched in ‘holding the fort at all costs’. Of course, being such familiar territory for the local NCA opponents, this was the far easier path. It is not difficult to dredge up all the past offenses in the federal management of public lands. There are, oh, so many!
Likewise, it is easy to pick apart the lame arguments which advocate for federal designation of wilderness where the natural state of wilderness is already self evident. Proponents of wilderness are fond of citing the fact that, with no roads in or out of these areas anyway, they are already functioning as wilderness. They like to ask why anyone should be opposed to formally designating those lands what they already are. But that question can work both ways. If the area is already functioning as a wilderness, why is a new federal designation necessary? The only answer to that question is that wilderness is no longer about preservation. Instead it is just a political checkmark on a list that environmental groups want to be able to publish in fundraising materials for their ill-informed supporters back east.
All of this is true. We fully sympathize with the local NCA opponents. We share their utter frustration with the sheer madness, hypocrisy and inconsistencies in the arguments of the proponents of new wilderness. But being right doesn’t necessary change one’s political realities. It is likely that the political ground may soon be shifting in the battle over the future Gold Butte. And time may be running out.
The mere claim that our arguments are sound isn’t relevant in a valuable, face-time meeting with an open-minded, open-eared Congressman who is already sympathetic to our cause. This stakeholder meeting offered an opportunity to local NCA opponents to procure a meaningful and lasting place at the table in the future discussion of Gold Butte. All the key players were there ready to talk. But the discussion didn’t happen.
Now is the time for local NCA opponents to come to the table; while they are still in a position of relative political strength. In a true negotiation process neither side comes away with everything that they want. That fact may give local leaders some pause about even entering into negotiations on Gold Butte. But if they choose not to come to the table when they are cordially invited, the political ground may very well shift beneath them. And the next time the future protection of Gold Butte is discussed, they may not be invited to the table at all.
