Tule Springs Fossil Beds act could affect would-be wilderness area

With the elections over, the Protectors of Tule Springs are hoping that they will soon see major movement on the congressional act to create a 22,650-acre national monument to protect the rich fossil beds of the Upper Las Vegas Wash.

The latest draft of the bill would also remove a large section of land east of the valley from a study that might have turned it into a wilderness area. That area includes The Great Unconformity, a geological feature that can be seen in only two places in the United States: here and at the bottom of the Grand Canyon.

Sunrise-area resident and wilderness activist Terri Robertson thinks that means development in the wild area along the section of Lake Mead Boulevard that connects Sunrise Manor to the Lake Mead National Recreation Area.

"It mentions power lines right in the act," Robertson said. "I don't think people know what's out there that we'll lose."

"When the Clark County Conservation of Public Land and Natural Resources Act was passed in 2002, it released a portion of the Sunrise Mountain Instant Study Area for power lines," said Sendi Kalcic, wilderness planner for the Las Vegas office of the Bureau of Land Management. "I'm not aware of any other interests for power lines in that area."

For Tom Collins, Clark County commissioner for the affected area, it's a logical piece of politics.

"That just makes sense," Collins said. "You're taking some land off for the park, so you add back another piece of land somewhere else."

The area in consideration is called the Sunrise Mountain Instant Study Area and includes portions of Sunrise Mountain, Frenchman Mountain and the pass between them that leads to Lake Mead. There is a diagonal break in the study area for power lines that are already in place.

Section 11 of the Las Vegas Valley Public Lands and Tule Springs Fossil Beds National Monument Act notes that the study area "has been adequately studied for wilderness designation" and suggests that any of it that has not been designated as wilderness by now be released from study and managed in accordance to section 202 of the 1976 act, which allows more active and varied use of the land.

None of the study area has been designated as wilderness.

Kalcic pointed out that the BLM manages the land as directed by Congress but that major decisions regarding land use were decided by Congress.

Tom Hickey lives a few blocks from The Great Unconformity and is a member of the Citizens for Active Management of Sunrise & Frenchman Mountain Area. He was a member of the Nevada Legislature for 22 years and believes a backroom deal is already in the works.

"The BLM doesn't manage the area for the benefit of Nevada," Hickey said. "They've got limited resources and manpower, and they're more concerned with fires in California than what locals want here."

Hickey said his group has tried to protect the area, concentrating mostly on the east side of Frenchman Mountain for years with less success than he would like.

"We're a small group, and we're getting worn down," Hickey said. "We've lost so many battles that people drop out; they get tired of it."

Robertson, an avid off-highway vehicle enthusiast, admits that the land wasn't a good candidate for wilderness designation after decades of rough use by off-roaders cutting their own trails and illegally dumping. Despite that, she had high hopes for the property.

"I had always thought it would be very nice to have the Lake Mead (National) Recreation Area expanded to include that land," Robertson said. "That would bring the national park right to the edge of Sunrise Manor."

The recreation area already borders Henderson and Boulder City.

The act would also move forward plans for another east valley-area county park in the Nellis Dunes National Off-Highway Vehicle Recreation Area. The proposed park would take 1,211 acres out of the middle of the national recreation area for a county park that would include developed tracks, restrooms and a hard-surfaced road leading to it. The remaining land would remain undeveloped and continue to be used for off-highway vehicles.

To read the Las Vegas Valley Public Lands and Tule Springs Fossil Beds National Monument Act, visit http://tinyurl.com/c6ocbzq.

Contact Sunrise/Whitney View reporter F. Andrew Taylor at ataylor@viewnews.com or 702-380-4532.