A natural cure at Red Rock

During a ceremony punctuated by raindrops pelting a tent where a new visitor center will be built at Red Rock Canyon, Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne approved funding Wednesday for nearly $79 million in projects including wildfire prevention efforts in Nevada.

After signing the measure, Kempthorne joined members of Nevada's congressional delegation in breaking ground for the $23 million visitor center that was approved in a previous round of funding under the Southern Nevada Public Land Management Act.

Slated to open in 2010, the facility will include an 8,000-square-foot indoor center plus 15,000 square feet of outdoor displays, habitat areas, walkways and an observation deck.

The existing 7,800-square-foot center will be converted into offices for administrative staff, who are currently working from trailers at the Bureau of Land Management's popular 200,000-acre national conservation area west of Las Vegas.

Kempthorne praised the project and others targeted for public lands in Nevada as providing a healthy outlet for residents and tourists to enjoy outdoor activities in some of the most scenic places in the West.

"Here we are in Red Rock Canyon, one of the most magnificent landscapes anywhere in the world. This is one of those areas that when you look at it, we Americans realize this is America the beautiful," Kempthorne said in announcing the 49 projects being funded in the eighth round of spending under the public lands act.

"We need to make sure that our children are connected with nature," he said. "There's a term that is used, which is 'nature deficit disorder.' "

The term refers to the idea that children are spending less time in natural settings, which can result in behavioral problems.

Funds from the sale of public lands in the Las Vegas Valley are used to finance projects such as parks and trails and to purchase environmentally sensitive lands across the state.

In this round, about $25 million will be spent on parks, trails and natural areas, and more than $14.6 million will go toward hazardous fuel reduction and wildfire prevention across the state, particularly in the Lake Tahoe area. An additional $1.8 million is proposed for the Eastern Nevada Landscape Restoration Project.

Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., said the Bureau of Land Management's national conservation area attracts 1.2 million visitors a year and the new visitor center is necessary to handle the increased number expected in the future.

Reid spoke about other natural areas around the Las Vegas Valley, including Sunrise Mountain and Lake Mead to the east and Sloan Canyon National Recreation Area to the south that he and Sen. John Ensign, R-Nev., established through legislation to protect American Indian rock art sites and species habitat.

After the ceremony, Brian O'Donnell, executive director of the National Conservation System Foundation, said the new center will enhance the BLM's ability to showcase the outdoor experience not only in Red Rock Canyon but other conservation areas, monuments and wilderness areas as well.

"This is the place where many Americans first become exposed to it," he said.

Elena Daly, director of the BLM's National Landscape Conservation Systems, said that while Red Rock Canyon's opportunities for geological, cultural and recreational experiences are well known around Las Vegas, the visitors center "will allow us to tell those stories to so many more people. Here's a chance to tell Nevada's story," she said.

Contact reporter Keith Rogers at krogers@reviewjournal.com or (702) 383-0308.