LETTERS: Private animals destroy public land

To the editor:

I saw that the Bureau of Land Management is finally going to remove the trespass cattle of Cliven Bundy from the Gold Butte area (“BLM closing 600,000 acres in usage dispute,” March 27 Review-Journal). It can’t happen soon enough. Even though nearly all of our great state of Nevada is desert, these southern lands are on the extreme end of the desert-grading system (in an arid way).

To have fragile ecosystems continually trampled by exotic swamp animals that have been domesticated for thousands of years to make them docile and bulked-up is a travesty of the highest order. That this fragile ecosystem is the property of the citizens of the United States, administered by the BLM, is a travesty and a tragedy. Grazing the public deserts with cattle, to benefit 500 families in Nevada in total, at the great expense of the wildlife that could be nurtured there, is an actual theft from the citizens of Nevada.

That very few renegades (including Mr. Bundy) don’t wish to participate in a grazing system and pay their fair share (the tiny payment only covers one-seventh of the administrative costs) does not make those people “Western heroes” living their tradition. This is modern America, and there comes a recognition that destructive ecological processes need to cease.

Having grown up in the south (North Carolina), I am certainly aware of the power of tradition, as long as you are on the upper (receiving) end of it, and you write the rules. These lands, which belong to all Americans, never need the destructive stomping of hooves to desecrate their beauty nor to remove their vitality as wildlife habitat. The best use of our public-lands deserts is as productive wildlife habitat, with public animals on public lands — not with destructive private animals, owned by uncooperative rebels who live in their own dream.

JACK PRIER

ELKO

Newspapers still relevant

To the editor:

If anyone still has doubts about the continuing relevancy and crucial importance of newspapers, simply look at the frustrating dilemma faced by Larry Basich. Without the Las Vegas Review-Journal’s repeated front-page coverage of his now resolved plight — more than $400,000 in uncovered medical bills, even though he’d been paying health insurance premiums for months — Mr. Basich undoubtedly would still be uninsured and desperately writing letters to bureaucrats to assist him.

Thank goodness for newspapers and vigilant reporters and editors.

DONN PEARLMAN

LAS VEGAS

Localized news

To the editor:

A funny thing happened a couple of weeks ago. I read the entire front page of the Review-Journal. I realized the articles were all local news stories, and that was real news to me.

These days, the national and global events are all immediately accessibly via the computer, iPhone and TV, ad nauseam. By the time the newspaper lands in your driveway or at the newsstand, it really is old news. That is the reality of things.

I appreciate my hometown paper keeping me apprised of the endless fascinating tales happening right here in Southern Nevada.

BEVERLY KING

LAS VEGAS

Water parks

To the editor:

Elizabeth Poole’s letter on water use in the Las Vegas Valley struck home with me (“Water-smart customers get little thanks,” March 30 Review-Journal). I was appalled that, with all the effort at encouraging less water use, rebates to change your yard to water-efficient plants and dire warnings about the decreasing water levels in Lake Mead, there was no outcry or objection when the building of not one, but two water parks was announced.

That we would allow this to happen in the desert, where water is scarce, just destroys any credibility of the Southern Nevada Water Authority or anyone else asking consumers to conserve. Why should we when two water parks are approved without a murmur?

DOROTHY HOWARD

HENDERSON