If a Canadian eco-adventure company gets its way, thrill-seekers will one day be able to fly down a canyon near Boulder City without the aid of wings or hallucinogenic drugs.

British Columbia-based Greenheart Conservation Co. wants to build a zip-line ride through Bootleg Canyon, which is being developed as a regional park with about 35 miles of hiking and mountain bike trails.

The so-called "Greenheart Flightline" would operate like a ski lift in reverse. Those brave enough to try it would strap themselves into a harness suspended from a metal cable and slide downhill at speeds approaching 50 mph.

Greenheart president and co-founder Ian Green said the ride promises a jolt of adrenaline and incomparable views of the canyon and the surrounding desert.

It also should supply Boulder City with the revenue it needs to protect Bootleg Canyon.

"We're a little bit amusement park, but we're a lot conservation," Green said of the project and his company as a whole.

He said he first met with Boulder City officials about the idea in February and has been making monthly trips to the area.

The City Council is expected to decide before the end of the year whether to add the Greenheart project to its land management plan for 2007.

Mayor Bob Ferraro likes the idea. "I'm very impressed with it. I think it has great possibilities," he said.

Alan O'Neill, executive director of Outside Las Vegas Foundation, said such zip lines can be developed "in a way that's in harmony with nature." The ones he has ridden through the rainforest canopies of Costa Rica provide a fun way for people of all ages to learn about the jungle while providing that country with money it can use for conservation.

O'Neill said Boulder City residents will have to decide whether this particular project is right for their community, but he thinks the idea of sustainable recreation is a sound one overall.

With limited budgets, park managers often must find creative ways to cover their maintenance and development costs, he said. "It's one thing to build a facility; it's another to support and maintain that facility."

Green said that struggle to find dependable sources of revenue for conservation projects is exactly what his company was formed to address.

"When you grow up in the church of conservation, you're used to people throwing you scraps," he said. "As a company, we're trying to show that you can do green stuff and make money."

Greenheart, which also specializes in treetop, suspension-bridge-style trails known as canopy walkways, has developed projects in British Columbia, Brazil, Guyana, Peru and Nigeria. Its only other project in the United States so far is a canopy walkway in Georgia.

Green said his company is in talks with cruise ship company Royal Caribbean on a canopy walkway and zip-line attraction in Haiti.

The exact route of the Bootleg Canyon ride is still being plotted, but Green said it most likely would extend almost a mile and a half from the antenna-studded summit of Red Mountain, between Boulder City and Henderson, to the base of the canyon.

He said the top of the Flightline would offer views of Las Vegas and Lake Mead, and there would be observation platforms along the way where riders can stop and take in the scenery.

Green said the $1 million attraction, paid for by Greenheart, could be built in as little as six months.

First, though, the company will have to win approval to lease city-owned land in Bootleg Canyon.

"It's going to take a little while to go through the whole process," Ferraro said.

Boulder City Manager Vicki Mayes said the city could use some revenue to pay the existing maintenance costs of the trail network in Bootleg Canyon, as well as the upkeep on the interpretive desert garden and outdoor amphitheater the city eventually hopes to build there.

The city has secured a $2 million grant through the Southern Nevada Public Lands Management Act to build the garden, but that will not cover the continuing maintenance costs, Mayes said.

This isn't the first time the council has been approached with an unusual recreation idea.

Last year, a company called Zorb proposed a sloped "track" in Boulder City for its product: a large plastic ball designed to carry a person inside as it rolls downhill.

Talks with Zorb have stalled, but city officials insist the project could still happen.

Mayes said she thinks companies like Zorb and Greenheart are drawn to the community "because we have land. We have land and a lot of open space."

The massive tourism base of nearby Las Vegas also doesn't hurt, she said.

It is too soon to predict if Greenheart's plans will make it off the drawing board, Mayes said, but it looks to her like an interesting way for the city to raise money for Bootleg Canyon.

Asked whether she would be willing to try the ride, Mayes didn't rule it out.

"I'd have to see it first," she said. "I'll have to see how secure those straps look."