The insanity of environmentalism and the federal bureaucracy that nourishes it are poised to claim their latest victims: the owners and employees of Sandia Aggregates.

The sand and gravel producer has operated for years in the northeast valley, providing essential materials for the construction industry. Its crew has nearly exhausted the resources of its current location.

But the company cannot expand into neighboring public lands. Its path is blocked, not by a forest, a river, mountains or a national park, but by weeds.

The barren landscape that abuts the gravel pit looks no different than other open acreage on the edges of the valley. It hardly qualifies as an area of interest for locals.

But in the eyes of the Bureau of Land Management, the crusty desert floor is an "Area of Critical Environmental Concern," a long-winded designation that prohibits mining or development on about 62 square miles around the gravel pit. Of "critical environmental concern" to the BLM is the bearpaw poppy, an unremarkable scrub that can be obliterated by a single stomp without a hiker ever realizing it.

(The bearpaw poppy should not be confused with the Las Vegas bearpoppy, a sister weed so adored by the BLM that the agency is trying to block the development of 8,000 acres in the northern valley.)

Emil Kopilovich, vice president of manufacturing for Pabco Building Products, the corporation that owns Sandia Aggregates, said Pabco offered to trade land it owns to the BLM for 120 acres of public land next to Sandia's operations. Mr. Kopilovich said a botanist hired by the company found no bearpaw poppies on the BLM land Sandia Aggregates wants to excavate.

He'll get no action from the government -- and no sympathy. Mark Chatterton, a Las Vegas administrator for the BLM, says Sandia should have known about the Area of Critical Environmental Concern created in 1998.

"The issue I have with this is that the company wanted the government to react in 30 days and authorize removal (of sand and gravel) from a site it took eight years to designate," Mr. Chatterton said.

Sandia Aggregates will begin shutting down this month. At least half of its 20 employees will be laid off.

With less sand and gravel available to meet high demand among all kinds of builders, the price of construction materials will increase.

"It's going to have a ripple effect in the construction industry," said Sandia employee Vena Ahenakew. "I believe the environment needs to be protected, but there should be a balance with people and industry."

But there can be no such balance when the government values weeds more than the needs of its people.