BLM decision makes 10,670 acres ineligible for development

Chalk one up for dinosaurs, buckwheat and bear poppies.

Proponents of the Upper Las Vegas Wash , home to fossils, indigenous plants and Las Vegas Paiute Tribe interests , received a big coup in March when the Bureau of Land Management announced that it was removing 10,670 acres of land from private development eligibility.

The decision was the culmination of a decade-long environmental analysis of the BLM's Conversation Transfer Area , land on the northern boundaries of Centennial Hills, North Las Vegas and the Desert National Wildlife Refuge .

"We felt this land was far too important to offer up for development," BLM district archaelogist Susanne Rowe said.

The reserved acreage has confirmed fossils from 200,000 years ago and plants found only in Clark County, such as the Las Vegas buckwheat and the Las Vegas bear poppy , and is along a travel corridor dubbed Time in Memorial , special to the Las Vegas Paiute Tribe , Rowe said.

Conservation groups rejoiced at the decision, as it may be a stepping stone to a national park, said Rob Mrowka , ecologist with the Center for Biological Diversity .

The land was protected by the BLM as a wilderness land study area until politicians redesignated it for disposal for construction and development in 2002 , he said.

Three years late r and under conservationist pressure and the National Environmental Policy Act , the BLM began to study the disposal land's biological aspects, Mrowka said.

On March 31 , the BLM decided to take the nearly 11,000-acre chunk of land off the table for private sale.

"Really, the BLM did the right thing," he said. "Those lands represent the last opportunities to preserve the original Las Vegas Valley."

Despite being safe from urban sprawl, the Conservation Transfer Area , the BLM's official name for the acreage, could be managed or protected by another entity, said Hillerie Patton , spokeswoman for the BLM.

Mrowka and groups such as the Protectors of Tule Springs and the Las Vegas Ice Age Park Foundation hope that new landlord is the U.S. government.

The reserved acreage is about half of the about 23,000 acres of fossil land the group seeks to be preserved by the National Parks Service as a national monument. A proposal has been pending the consideration of the Legislature to transfer the land, Mrowka said.

"This would be a continuation of the BLM's decision to protect this land," he said.

The interest groups then hope to move forward the Ice Age Park of Southern Nevada , a proposed tourist destination, research facility and home to the thousands of fossils already discovered here.

Currently, Southern Nevadan paleontological finds are sent to and housed in a repository in San Bernardino, Calif. , as per federal archival law. The Ice Age Park of Southern Nevada would have facilities to keep the fossils local.

Although the plans deal with the bigger picture, Mrowka said the BLM decision keeps the Southern Nevada map slightly less cluttered.

"The rest of the valley has been consumed by development and construction," he said. "This saves a remnant of what it looked like pre-man."

Contact Centennial and North Las Vegas View reporter Maggie Lillis at mlillis@viewnews.com or 477-3839.