The Spring Mountains ECHO

REFLECTIONS ON A SPECIAL PLACE - THE SPRING MOUNTAINS

By Danny L. Hawkes, U.S. Forest Service

Supervisory Law Enforcement Officer

Grangeville, Idaho

For three fleeting years, my family and I engaged in an affair of the heart. My occupation, a Law Enforcement Officer for the U.S. Forest Service, afforded us an exclusive opportunity to live, work and play in Kyle Canyon, in the shadow of Charleston Peak. From a cramped residence on the Ranger Station compound, we were absorbed into the local community and, through work, into relationships with the employees of the Forest Service, Metro Police Department, Nevada Division of Forestry, the Mt. Charleston Volunteer Fire Department, employees of the area businesses and many Clark County residents. The mix of relationships combined with the physical entity known as the Spring Mountains deeply affected our relationship with, and memories of, "the mountain."

Our first impression was probably comparable to anyone who emerges from the Mojave Desert into the cool, shrouded confines of the high canyons below Charleston Peak. WOW! The scenery is in-your-face beautiful, the temperatures a welcome respite. The Ponderosa Pine, so familiar from my native Pacific Northwest, to the less familiar but sentinel-like Bristlecone Pine seemed to defy the setting, almost mocking the adjacent desert landscape below. The obvious physical features almost overshadowed the more subtle, less spectacular, but extremely unique neighbors we came to know as our first winter blended into spring, there at the Ranger Station: Charleston violet and rough angelica just outside our fence, the nearby Spring Mountains milk-vetch, frequent sightings of the Shasta-blue butterfly and Palmer's chipmunk. We learned that these residents really defined the Spring Mountains as a truly special place, sheltering plants and animals which could emerge from thousands of years of isolation into their own unique species, found literally no where else.

Arriving at middle-age, I've learned along the way that unique inhabitants of a particular setting will remain inhabitants of that setting in direct relationship to the human values that society places on their existence. While the U.S. Forest Service is recognized as a resource management agency, we increasingly struggle to incorporate the human values brought to the management of public forest lands, like those of the Spring Mountains. These values are expressed by local and adjacent residents, businesses, the media, Forest Service employees themselves, elected officials, nonprofit groups (like the Spring Mountains Association), volunteers, other agencies and their employees, and visitors from around the world.

As one of just two law enforcement officers assigned to the 500-square mile Spring Mountains National Recreation Area (NRA), I was also afforded an opportunity to interact with members of all those groups. I found the diversity of public interests commensurate with the naturally-occurring diversity in the Spring Mountains ecosystem. Many, although not necessarily all, of those diverse voices helped develop the year-old Spring Mountains NRA management plan. The citizen-based NRA plan, framed within a "fence-line" of existing laws and regulations, will guide area management for the next ten years and beyond.

Shortly after I started working at the Spring Mountains NRA, I was asked by the Forest Service Public Affairs Officer to identify some of my goals as (at the time) the NRA's only law enforcement officer. She documented the following comments;

"It's obvious that the Spring Mountains are an important part of the lives of many people. I'd like to work with as many of them as I can, find some common interests, and maybe explore some alternatives which protect resources and the experiences of the recreating public. I'm a big believer of Smokey's pronouncement that 'Only you can prevent . . . ' that's directed to all of us, not just law enforcement or recreation or fire or the Forest Service. I'm just one "scarecrow" for a 316,000 acre garden. The Spring Mountains NRA definitely needs the active assistance from a lot of people, week in and week out, to continue providing the resource and social settings that people value and appreciate."

"I'd like to work toward constructive partnerships with other agencies, our own employees and the public, nÚt only in resour¬e protection eff_rts, b¥t also in¾provid$ng qualit exper ences forrvisit rs. I'd ike touplace incìeasingemphasis on crim' prevention. I'Š like to get to know the customers a little better and, perhaps, explore some community policing concepts that might work in rural settings. I'm all for solving problems, with law enforcement just one of a number of options available."

I was asked to reflect on some of those goals. Three years later, and 850 miles removed, I remain optimistic, in spite of some difficulties along the way. The Spring Mountains National Recreation Area and the Mt. Charleston Wilderness were concepts brought to reality by the hard work of local individuals and groups, many with sometimes opposing goals. Local community members, both on the mountain and from the Las Vegas valley, routinely amazed me with the care they exhibited for the mountain and each other. Members of the Spring Mountains Association became true friends who really kept me energized, enriching my understanding of the mountain, while amazing me with their devotion to "the mountain." I found that same energy and knowledge in literally thousands of visitors for whom the Mt. Charleston area was "their place."

The Forest Service is increasingly challenged with reductions in personnel and resources, and a rapidly changing mission. While attempting to resolve these challenges, the agency tries to meet the multiple demands of "the public." Sometimes we're more successful than others. The Spring Mountains NRA is faced with many of the same growth-related challenges confronting nearby Las Vegas residents. But if I ever had a doubt about the agency's ability to be responsive, I thought to the people I'd come to know in those three short years.

We left Las Vegas to return to a landscape to which we're emotionally attached. I saw that same attachment to place exhibited every day I worked at the Spring Mountains. It is that attachment, that commitment, by longtime and recently-arrived residents of Clark County, that give reasons for optimism. Emotional attachment to the Spring Mountains lead local citizens to put aside their differences and gain the support of their government to designate a Spring Mountains National Recreation Area. This active citizenship is a hallmark of community policing. The area already benefits from countless hours of good deeds performed by individuals and groups, either through formal activities or just plain old "doing right" during frequent informal visits. The evident love of many for the Spring Mountains will fill in the service gaps created by population growth and shrinking federal budgets. That is fitting for an area conceived by and for the citizens of the Las Vegas valley. To those who remain to carry on, please accept the heartfelt gratitude from a central Idaho family who will always cherish their relationship with the people, the landscape, the place of the Spring Mountains. It's in good hands.