BLM plan would tag more of Southern Nevada for protection

The Bureau of Land Management is recommending almost 280,000 acres in Southern Nevada for special protection as part of a sweeping plan update that would open more land for solar energy projects and other development.

Bureau officials are holding public meetings this month on proposed revisions to their resource management plan for more than 3 million acres of public land in Clark County and the southern end of Nye County.

The bureau’s preferred alternative seeks to protect sensitive wildlife habitat, cultural and archaeological resources and unique scenic landscapes on 277,915 acres by expanding existing Areas of Critical Environmental Concern or creating new ones.

More than 25,000 acres would be designated for new solar development under the same preferred alternative, which BLM officials said balances resource protection with expanded use and development on public land.

Three other options are also contemplated in the proposal: Alternative 1 would maintain current land-use designations and protections; Alternative 2 emphasizes resource protection over use and development; and Alternative 4 seeks to maximize use and development with limited restrictions.

The updated management plan, which was four years in the making, is expected to be finalized next year and guide land use in Southern Nevada for the next decade or two. It represents the first major overhaul of the BLM’s plan for the area since 1998.

The bureau will accept public input on the proposal through Jan. 7. The first of five public meetings on the document was held Monday in Laughlin.

The next meeting will take place from 3 to 7 p.m. today at the James I. Gibson Library at Lake Mead Parkway and Water Street in Henderson.

The three remaining meetings, all slated to run from 3 to 7 p.m., will be held Thursday at the community center in the Nye County community of Amargosa Valley; Nov. 12 at the Las Vegas Library on Las Vegas Boulevard just south of Washington Avenue; and Nov. 13 at the community center in Pahrump.

Transcriptionists and comment forms will be available for the public to weigh in on the proposed alternatives.

At least one well-known Southern Nevada resident is taking the updated plan personally. Bunkerville rancher Cliven Bundy said the proposal is the government’s way of retaliating against his family and their supporters for thwarting a federal roundup of his cattle on public land earlier this year.

“The boldness of the federal government’s timing and action on these matters are astonishing,” the Bundy family said in a recent blog post. “They are again making a clear case that they are willing to use federal power to punish the local people.”

The bureau’s preferred alternative does identify new areas for protection in northeastern Clark County, but most of the public land where Bundy has been raising livestock for decades without a grazing permit became protected Areas of Critical Environmental Concern in 1998.

Conservationists, meanwhile, consider BLM’s updated resource management plan a significant improvement, but one that does not go far enough to preserve wild lands around Grand Canyon Parashant National Monument, Lake Mead National Recreation Area and elsewhere.

“Unfortunately, the plan also leaves open for development some areas that are too wild to run power lines through or put solar panels on, and leaves many wild lands under threat from other energy development and off-road vehicles,” Jennifer Dickson of the national environmental group the Wilderness Society said in an email. “The BLM is proposing to protect only a small fraction of the wilderness-quality lands deserving more significant protections.”

The resource management plan update, including maps and supporting material, can be found online at http://tinyurl.com/qzvaht7. Printed copies also are available to read at the BLM’s Las Vegas field office, 4701 N. Torrey Pines Drive, and at select libraries in Las Vegas, Henderson, Laughlin, Mesquite, Moapa, Overton and Pahrump.

Written comments can be submitted online at http://tinyurl.com/qzvaht7, emailed to sndo_rmp_revision@blm.gov, faxed to 702-515-5023, or mailed to RMP Project Manager, Bureau of Land Management, 4701 N. Torrey Pines Drive, Las Vegas, NV 89130.

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