Reid: Nevada national monument process messy, worth it

People often compare laws to sausages, as in it’s best not to see how they’re made.

But U.S. Sen. Harry Reid said Monday he was proud of the way the sausage got made when it came to creation of Tule Springs Fossil Beds National Monument at the northern edge of the Las Vegas Valley.

“I believe that when people come to Congress thinking they’ll get something done that’s perfect they never get anything done,” said Reid during a celebration commemorating the creation of the state’s only national monument. “You can never let the perfect get in the way of the good, and that’s what this legislation is all about. So no one should apologize for how long this has taken and how messy the process has been, because our entire country — not only the state of Nevada — has taken a step forward.”

The Tule Springs area is a 22,650-acre tract, bordered by the cities of Las Vegas and North Las Vegas, unincorporated Clark County, the Las Vegas Paiute Indian Reservation and the Desert National Wildlife Refuge, that is prized by scientists for its wealth of ice age fossils from the past quarter million years. Already the chalky hills along the upper Las Vegas wash have yielded evidence of extinct mammoths, horses, camels, bison, llamas, lions and ground sloths the size of grizzly bears.

To get the area designated after several previous attempts, Reid said, the measure was rolled into the annual defense authorization bill because military spending is the most successful legislation you can bring. Critics including Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, called the strategy an “extreme land grab,” but it worked, and not just for Tule Springs.

Also attached to the defense bill was legislation that created new wilderness areas in Lyon and Humboldt counties, carved out land for a new UNLV campus in North Las Vegas and opened thousands of acres for economic development around the state. All of it was signed into law by President Barack Obama on Friday.

Monday’s celebration for Tule Springs was held in the clubhouse at the Las Vegas Paiute Golf Resort at the northern end of the national monument. North Las Vegas Mayor John Lee and outgoing Rep. Steven Horsford, D-Nev., used the opportunity to plug the North Las Vegas property UNLV acquired in the legislation as an ideal place for the university’s proposed medical school. North Las Vegas is one of three sites being considered for the school.

Elected officials and business leaders, including Las Vegas Metro Chamber of Commerce president and CEO Kristin McMillan, predicted the new national monument would bring eco-tourism to Nevada.

“This is a game changer not only for Las Vegas but for the entire country,” said Las Vegas Mayor Carolyn Goodman. “People will come in from around the world to see this exciting site and learn the history of this country.”

Contact Bethany Barnes at bbarnes@reviewjournal.com or 702-477-3861. Follow @betsbarnes on Twitter.