It has been a year since I started the Save Gold Butte website. We have covered a lot of ground 48 posts later. I have had the opportunity to be a part of and seen many people get involved, making calls, writing letters and going to meetings. I have spent my time doing this with the goal of working towards public lands stewardship at a community level. I initially got actively involved because the threat of legislative intervention was “imminent”. Well I cannot say what could have been or might have been, but through the hard work and dedication of many people, there has been no legislative intervention and our public lands are still open and being cared for at a local level.
I have met a lot of people, been to many meetings, been a part of some wonderful events and enjoyed many trips out to Gold Butte with politicians, congressional staffers, local citizens and my family. And that is what it is all about, getting out and enjoying our beautiful country. It is hard for people to dismiss the grandeur and beauty of this part of the country and not want to be a part of keeping it accessible for everyone.
Oddly enough I even found out that there are still some good people left at the BLM who believe in their multiple-use mission. One of my favorite events was the Public Lands Day activity held in September. For our project we started a site to be a repository for any and every piece of history that we could scrounge up about Gold Butte. One of our goals with the site is to raise awareness of every part of history tied to Gold Butte including our pioneer, cattle ranching and mining history which played a significant part in the development of southern Nevada and the west. The site is http://www.goldbuttehistory.blogspot.com/ we haven’t been as diligent as we could in getting our histories posted but it is a goal and we hope to continue with the effort. If you have anything that you could add please contact me.
If I could have a goal for the next year with Save Gold Butte it would be to raise awareness of the issues facing public lands, grow the local stewardship movement and encourage people to get out and enjoy this beautiful country. By getting out and soaking up this beautiful landscape you can’t help but want to be a part of keeping it open and accessible in a responsible manner. Protection with access is still my primary objective.
The flowers are blooming, the early spring grass is coming up and the weather is perfect for a Spring trip out to the Gold Butte country. Get out and enjoy it. I’ll see ya out there.
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