Air Force plan would be a disaster for the Desert Wildlife Refuge

Thank you for your report on the public hearing regarding further encroachment on the Desert Wildlife Refuge in the Sheep Mountains, a nearby wilderness area we can see from our homes (Wednesday Review-Journal). Many conservationists spoke forcefully against the expansion.

My concern is about the area closest to us, the area adjacent to Corn Creek, where boundaries would be expanded into the western slopes of the Sheep Mountains to an altitude of 4,000 feet. This would close the unpaved Alamo Road and easy access to Joe May Canyon, Cow Camp Canyon, Hidden Forest Canyon, Dead Horse Canyon and, for the adventurers, a Jeep trail as far as a dry lake and state Route 93.

Amateur botanists like me and my friends will be cut off from those nearby canyons with their spectacular stands of endangered indigenous Bearpaw poppies, forests of healthy Joshua trees, expanses of Penstemons, Apache Plume, cliffroses, beaver tail cactus and desert wildflowers far more impressive than any other areas near our city. Many others — photographers, geologists, campers, hikers and stargazers — retreat to the Sheep Mountains for solitude, beauty and quiet wilderness.

Surely, somewhere in the vast Nevada Test and Training Range which extends through three Southern Nevada counties, military “access” areas can be found in places other than the Alamo Road, closest to Las Vegas and treasured by local naturalists.