Sunday, June 19, 2005
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal

SLOAN CANYON: Rock art's protection gets touchy

BLM plans may leave some feeling left out

A petroglyph of a standing figure stands watch over Sloan Canyon, south of Henderson. On a recent tour of the conservation area, former lead outdoor recreation planner Sarah Sutherland pointed out other unusual petroglyphs that she called "the alien head" and "the surfing turtle." Photos by Gary Thompson. A chuckwalla suns himself near the heaviest concentration of rock art at the Sloan Canyon National Conservation Area. The hills above Sloan Canyon provide a clear view of some of Henderson's newest neighborhoods, a little more than a mile north of the conservation area. Former Bureau of Land Management recreation planner Sarah Sutherland discusses how the public might access Sloan Canyon from its rugged, northern entrance.

SLOAN CANYON -- On a warm weekday morning, three people stand in the sandy bottom of a narrow canyon, picking out petroglyphs in the rocks above them.

Save for a few birds, leopard lizards and a fat, black chuckwalla sunning himself on a rock, the people find themselves alone at the heart of one of the most concentrated collections of American Indian rock art in Southern Nevada.

Before long, though, such solitude could be tough to find at Sloan Canyon, as Henderson continues its steady march south toward the boundary of the 3-year-old national conservation area.

In the coming weeks, officials with the U.S. Bureau of Land Management will unveil their strategy for protecting the ancient rock art and the rugged desert surrounding it.

To the dismay of some, including off-road vehicle owners, the final management plan for the 48,438-acre Sloan Canyon National Conservation Area is expected to restrict more access than it provides.

"It's a touchy thing," said Charles Carroll, manager for the conservation area. "Our mandate, what we're supposed to do, is told to us right in the law. I hesitate to say it, but the word recreation doesn't appear anywhere in the bill."

It's all in the name, said Sarah Sutherland, who used to work as BLM's lead outdoor recreation planner for the conservation area.

"That's big, that distinction between a conservation area and a recreation area," Sutherland said. "Recreation is not even one of the resources mentioned, where at Red Rock recreation is one of the resources being managed for."

Carroll stopped short of revealing which of four proposed management options for Sloan Canyon would be chosen in the final plan, but he did say "the preferred alternative is really strong."

That alternative includes supervised access to Sloan Canyon itself, where researchers have cataloged about 1,700 different petroglyphs. Visitors would be free to explore the canyon on their own, except on weekends and holidays, when access would be limited to guided tours.

Most existing roads and trails in the conservation area would be closed to motorized use, and the use of off-road vehicles would be banned throughout.

That won't sit well with residents like Russ Sherratt, who belongs to local off-road vehicle club Vegas Valley 4-Wheelers.

"They've sold a lot of public land and raised a lot of money, but they're leaving people out," Sherratt said of BLM officials. "It puts a bad taste in a lot of our mouths."

Especially disappointed are those off-road club members who have helped the BLM clean up portions of the conservation area in the past.

"They've got quite a few clubs going out there and helping them haul away wrecked cars, all the paintball stuff, and the trash and debris. We even cut an old van in half and put it in one of the dumpsters," Sherratt said. "There's people out there who are upset, and rightfully so. There's enough land for everyone."

Carroll couldn't agree more.

In fact, he said, the acreage set aside to protect Sloan Canyon represents "barely a portion of 1 percent" of the federal land covered by BLM's Las Vegas field office.

There are 3.3 million acres of federal land in Clark County and part of Nye County. "The great majority of it is open to multiple uses," including off-road vehicles, Carroll said.

Much of the off-road vehicle activity in the conservation area appears to be concentrated at the northeastern corner, closest to Henderson. Technically, though, Sutherland said the trails are already off-limits due to heightened air quality standards in the Las Vegas Valley.

"They're not supposed to be driven period" because of the dust, said Sutherland, who recently left the BLM for another public sector job in Utah.

The Sloan Canyon National Conservation Area was established under the Clark County Conservation of Public Lands and Natural Resources Act signed by the president in 2002. Among other things, the act called on the Bureau of Land Management to develop a management scheme for the conservation area within three years.

The comment period for the draft management plan ends Thursday. Carroll said the bureau's goal is to complete the final plan and environmental impact statement by Aug. 12.

A 30-day public protest period will begin with the release of those documents. The final plan also will undergo a 60-day governor's compliance review to make sure it does not conflict with anything the state may have planned in the area.

The bureau hopes to receive final approval for the management plan, made official with the publication of a record of decision in the Federal Register, by November.

Off-road vehicle owners account for most of the public input so far, but hikers also have weighed in on the draft plan, which Carroll said has left some people with the mistaken impression that only two trails would be developed in the northern part of the conservation area.

The final version of the plan should clarify that point by identifying numerous trails the bureau intends to design and build, Carroll said.

Recently, most of the comments have come from conservation groups that don't think the protections for Sloan Canyon go far enough.

"You're always going to have somebody who doesn't get everything they want," Sutherland said.

Despite the complaints, Carroll said, development of the management plan has gone smoothly, thanks in large part to the participation of state officials and representatives from Henderson, Boulder City and three American Indian tribes that claim a connection to Sloan Canyon.

"The process has been fabulous here. It's been the best process I've ever been involved in," he said.

Once the management plan is in place, the focus will shift to implementing it.

Carroll said it is likely to take at least two years before a planned visitor center is built near the northern entrance to the main part of Sloan Canyon. Until then, a small visitor contact station could be brought in, Sutherland said.

By summer's end, bureau officials hope to erect information kiosks at the northern and southern entrances of the canyon where the rock art is concentrated.

As for whether the BLM will succeed in protecting Sloan Canyon until the management plan is fully implemented, Sutherland said the area's rugged terrain could prove to be its greatest asset.

"The city's just grown up to it recently, and it's a really remote area," she said. "So far, I think it has protected itself. It's just a tough place to get to."