Amodei, Hardy want BLM approval for off-road race through national monument

With less than three weeks to go before the green flag is set to drop, Reps. Mark Amodei and Cresent Hardy of Nevada are calling on the Obama administration to approve an off-road race through the state’s newest national monument.

In a letter sent Wednesday to Secretary of Interior Sally Jewell, the Republican lawmakers said there is no regulatory or scientific reason to deny a permit for the 20th annual Best in the Desert “Vegas to Reno” race, which is slated to cross a portion of Basin and Range National Monument in Lincoln and Nye counties.

The Bureau of Land Management is conducting an environmental review of the 643-mile race, slated to start Aug. 19 near the Lincoln County town of Alamo and end Aug. 20 in Dayton, just east of Carson City.

This year’s proposed route has drawn opposition from conservationists because it includes 37 miles of existing dirt road through the southern half of the 704,000-acre national monument designated by President Barack Obama last year.

In their letter, Amodei and Hardy argue that the race could mean up to $40 million in revenue for the rural communities along the route. To deny the race a special recreation permit despite a favorable environmental assessment “would mean the BLM has abandoned its mandate in favor of appeasing special interests,” the letter said.

Larry Farnsworth, spokesman for Hardy, said the letter was prompted by concerns that “outside special interest groups and some complicit federal officials are attempting to rig this decision to circumvent the public planning process and appease political allies.”

Farnsworth declined to say who Hardy believes might be meddling with the process, but he said, “We cannot stand by and allow politically motivated insiders to throw out the results of a rigorous environmental assessment prepared by career professionals.”

Stephen Clutter, spokesman for the state office of the BLM, said he couldn’t comment on the letter to Jewell.

The Washington, D.C.-based group Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility has criticized BLM’s environmental review and accused the agency of effectively rubber-stamping the race before a management plan and other guiding documents have even been written for the new national monument, about 120 miles north of Las Vegas.

The BLM released its draft environmental assessment of the off-road race on July 1 and was accepting public comment on it through Wednesday.

The document considers the proposed route and two alternatives that would skirt Basin and Range. One would use the same Beatty-to-Dayton course as last year’s race and avoid Lincoln County altogether; another would start near Alamo but require race crews to stop at the edge of the monument boundary, pack up their vehicles and use highways to drive to the other side of the monument, where the race would resume.

The BLM is expected to decide within a matter of days whether to issue a permit to race organizers.

“We’re taking a look at the comments and have yet to make a decision,” said Chris Hanefeld, spokesman for the bureau’s office in Ely, one of three Nevada district offices involved in reviewing the race.

If granted, the federal permit would require race organizers to provide for safety and resource protection, sanitation, post-race cleanup and rehabilitation along the route.

Best in the Desert expects the event to draw as many as 5,000 spectators and a field of 330 all-terrain vehicles, including trucks, cars, buggies and motorcycles.

Contact Henry Brean at hbrean@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0350. Follow @RefriedBrean on Twitter.