Stepping Up

On Saturday March 24, 2012 Partners In Conservation (PIC) and a local Boy Scout partnered together to help improve our local public lands in the Gold Butte area.

As part of the BLM’s plan to provide a better visitor experience to the Gold Butte area information kiosks were to be installed. These kiosks would include such things as a map, rules and regulations and other information that would be useful to those visiting the area. Understanding the importance of community involvement the local BLM office created an opportunity for a local youth to take the final step in his pursuit of the Eagle Scout achievement.

The final project of an Eagle Scout is a tool designed to create an opportunity for the Scout to learn leadership qualities while providing a service to the community. The final project is designed to top off or complete the other attributes learned as the scout progresses through the program and earns merit badges. As the name states, these are badges of merit. The Scouter works and learns important values along their path to the rank of Eagle Scout. As they do so they are presented with a badge to honor these learned traits.

This project presented the scouter not only an opportunity to learn project management, but also the importance of local involvement, community stewardship, hard work and the importance of working together with the government agencies and the community to provide a useful service to the community.

The goal of this project was to replace two of the temporary wooden kiosks that were installed with permanent structures at the most visible sites. One was at the turn off to Gold Butte at the Riverside parking area and the other at Whitney Pockets.

It was the scout’s responsibility to work with the BLM to ensure all the tools and hardware was there to complete the work. It was also the scout’s responsibility to line up the people needed to perform the labor and other project supplies such as food and water for laborers. On Saturday morning at 9:30 everyone showed up and the project commenced without a hitch.

I commend the local BLM office for stepping up and providing an opportunity to engage the community and providing a local scout with the opportunity to take the next step in earning the achievement of Eagle Scout.  I commend PIC in stepping up and working with both the local communities and the BLM to help this project take place. I commend the local scouter in his desire to step up and be an upstanding member of the community and having a strong desire to complete this project and the leadership skills needed to do so.

These are the kinds of projects and the level of support that make our public lands successful and sustainable.  It is examples like this that demonstrate that local public lands management is what will preserve our public lands for the next generation. No designation, mark on a map, added layer of management or act of congress can manufacture or account for genuine community stewardship.  In actuality these added layers of bureaucracy hurt our public lands. It denies them proper local management as well as breaking the bond of local stewardship.

The Introductions

I recently had the opportunity to sit down with Congressman Joe Heck, Nevada State Assemblyman Cresent Hardy, Nevada State Senator Joe Hardy, members of the community and a special interest group to discuss Gold Butte politics. Most of the faces were the familiar and the agenda was the standard affair. Despite the repetitive nature of these meetings there is one part that I always look forward to, the introductions. This is when we go around the table and state our name and for many, it is a time to recite their genealogical connection to Gold Butte. I love this because it exhibits the pride and sense of community that locals take in Gold Butte.

Some, at the table roll their eyes, as locals relate stories about trips out with their grandpa or get lost counting how many great-greats it was when their family first came into this country. These stories are told not to elevate the local status above the group or suppose that our opinion is more valid for this single reason. Members of the community who have long standing lineage at Gold Butte understand that we are not entitled to anything more than anyone else because we have seniority. What we are is proud of our heritage and the lessons and love that have been passed down through the generations for the piece of God’s country called Gold Butte. It is that love that makes us passionate and protective of Gold Butte.

The politics in regards to Gold Butte, best described as a distraction, are often oversimplified to access versus protection. With this over simplification it is easy to pose legislation as the simple solution. This is a detriment to Gold Butte and plays handily into a narrow agenda. The reality is that there are specific projects that can be done to help improve the visitor experience and protect the cultural resources that don’t require legislative action. Quite simply none of the projects that need to be done at Gold Butte need congressional action. They can and are being accomplished on a community level with the local managing agency partnered with the community. If we look to ourselves instead of Washington for answers we will find them. The very people sitting around the table who take pride and ownership of Gold Butte will be the solution to a sustainable Gold Butte.

 

The question was posed, I don’t know if we can always count on that level of commitment by the community. I handily disagree with that statement as I am proudly raising five children who are learning the same love and appreciation for Gold Butte as my parents and grandparents taught me and I know many other parents doing the same. In response I asked, where are you going to place your bet, your children or the federal government to save Gold Butte?

Who better to have as the active stewards of Gold Butte than those who have watched generations in their family care for this piece of country out of love, as opposed to politics? We know that it’s not a locals only spot anymore, regrettable nevertheless reality, however we also have a deep knowledge and understanding of the area and a desire to maintain the place we have loved and lived so that we may pass it on to our children. It is the partnerships between the managing agencies and an engaged community that will save Gold Butte for the next generation, not legislation.

Gold Butte Recreational Analysis

The Moapa Valley Progress has written an excellent article on the BLM’s effort to work on the Recreational Analysis for the Gold Butte area. The article can be read at the following link:

http://mvprogress.com/2012/01/25/blm-urges-public-involvement-in-gold-butte-analysis/

The objective of the Recreational Analysis, as I understand it, is to identify what different activities people do within the Gold Butte area. With this data they can better manage the area and accommodate the various uses within the region.

I have contacted the local BLM office to get more information available and more widely accessible so we can engage a larger audience in the effort to better manage the Gold Butte area. As more data and links become available I will post them here.

There will be a series of public meetings held in the surrounding communities in March and April. 

Whitney Pockets Clean Up 2011

Thanks to everyone who showed up to the Public Lands Conservation Committee cleanup project at Whitney Pockets on Saturday, December 10th. 

We had over 75 people sign in and contribute to the work effort. 

Thanks to State Assemblyman Cresent Hardy for the food for the BBQ. 

Thanks to Partners In Conservation (PIC) for the paper goods and garbage sacks.

We had people from Mesquite, Bunkerville, Moapa, Logandale and Overton showing their support for local public lands and their willingness to be involved and do their part in responsible use and community stewardship. 

We are already planning our next project for the spring out to Gold Butte. Please friend our facebook page to stay informed on our Community stewardship projects.

Moapa Valley Town Advisory Board and Federal Lands

At our 2011 September Moapa Valley Town Advisory Board meeting we adopted with a unanimous vote, the following position letters to send to our elected representatives in Washington DC.

A member of the community who had recently moved to the valley made a comment about the Town Board taking time to deal with federal issues and public lands. For a person who grew up in the west, and especially when the vast majority of our state is controlled by the federal government, I am well aware of the significance that federal policy has on our daily lives. Its impacts are felt in a variety of ways. It doesn’t matter if it is mining regulation, wildlife and ecology policy, environmental policy, renewable energy regulation, recreational use policy, funding for our land management agencies or national parks or a diverse range of other policy initiatives. When it comes to our federal lands its management has a direct impact on our life. It is important for the local communities, who are closest to the land and aware of its impacts and uses, to send their views and concerns to their representatives.

I was proud to cast my vote in support for the following letters as a member of the Moapa Valley Town Advisory Board

Dear Senator Heller,

As stated in another letter, we deeply appreciate your attention to the issues that concern the citizens of Moapa Valley.  As the Moapa Valley Town Advisory Board, we are compelled to communicate the opinions of a majority of our residents; in particular, residents feel very strongly about S. 1087/H.R. 1581 – The Wilderness and Roadless Area Release Act of 2011.  Thank you for your continual work in regards to providing more public access and multiple use opportunities on public lands and in particular for co-sponsoring this bill as well as sponsoring S. 1554, prohibiting the establishment of national monuments without the express authorization of Congress. 

43 million acres of land have been locked up for decades even though these very acres were analyzed and determined NOT to be suitable for wilderness designation.  It is inconceivable that this refusal to release lands has gone on for so long and it is shameful that special interest groups have dictated public policy regarding public lands to such a drastic extent.  These two bills must be passed as they seek to return 43 million acres of public land back to the public.  Furthermore, these released 43 million acres must be released back to the designation they were before the wilderness study area designation. 

On a broader note, the Moapa Valley Town Advisory Board is quite concerned with the non-productivity of public land in general; we are addressing such, along with the Moapa Valley Chamber of Commerce, in a resolution which you will receive in the near future.  Decades ago, enterprising residents had the opportunity to develop a resource or a skill and turn that into a job that would support their family.  Today the burdensome nature of modern governmental bureaucracy is akin to walking on glue; after a few steps, you are so helplessly bogged down that giving up and quitting seems the only option.  We applaud your efforts, as well as that of the other Congressmen and Senators that created the Jobs Frontier Report.  We strongly support this report and the work being done to bring jobs back to the west and in particular, to the rural west.  We look forward to following this process, supporting real change that creates jobs, and actively helping in any way we can.  Thank you for your work to date on the economic issues that overshadow our lives.

Please support the Wilderness and Roadless Area Release Act of 2011; thank you for all you have done and are doing on our behalf

Dear Congressman Heck,

Thank you for the multiple times you have visited Moapa Valley, informed us of upcoming issues, and requested our opinions and concerns regarding such.  We deeply appreciate the time you and your staff have spent learning the concerns and thoughts of rural residents.  

As such, we respectfully submit the following for your use and request that you vote accordingly on the following public land issues/bills:

1. Secretary Salazar’s letter to Members of Congress requesting identification of lands that may be appropriate candidates for congressional protection under the Wilderness Act:  

The Moapa Valley Town Advisory Board does not support wilderness designation of any kind and strongly requests that you forward no recommendations to the Secretary; we further request that your comments to the Secretary note that Clark County was involved in a thorough public lands bill in 2002.  It was our understanding, at that time, that this wilderness issue was over in our county.  Although our community felt that entirely too much land was designated as wilderness, we felt we could live with that—given that bill was the last public lands designation bill.  To our utmost sorrow, that is not the case as more wilderness in Clark County is proposed almost yearly.  IF Secretary Salazar feels that he must re-address the wilderness issue in our county, we request:

1. Not one additional acre of wilderness be designated as the BLM does not recognize any lands in northeast Clark County as having wilderness characteristics,
2. That the top of Virgin Mountain WSA be released back to the previous land designation as this area has been extensively used by humans for over 100 years and this land does not contain wilderness characteristics, per the BLM’s own documentation,
3. That the Million Hills WSA be released back to its pre-WSA designation; this area is rich in minerals and therefore this area should be studied for possible mineral extraction which would benefit the local economies and our nation; additionally, the Million Hills WSA never contained wilderness qualities and as such should be released,
4. The boundary to the Arrow Canyon Wilderness Area needs to be adjusted to the south side of the wash, at the very least.  The boundary is now in the middle of the wash which is confusing to everyone.  Also, this wash floods all the time; it is the main drainage that the Pahranagat and Double Wash drain into; since it floods all the time, the wash itself contains no wilderness qualities.  

2. S. 407/H.R. 758 – National Monument Designation Transparency and Accountability Act:

The Moapa Valley Town Advisory Board respectfully requests that you support these bills and this concept:  that Congress and only Congress can establish monuments; designating monuments is an unchecked presidential power which should be restored to Congress.  We further request that the state legislature and governor of the state wherein a monument is proposed must also approve of such designation before it can happen.  States must have a say in how public land is managed; the federal government is too far removed from those living next to such lands and the states must be involved in this process.  

3. S. 1473/H.R. 2745 – Mesquite Land Act:

The Moapa Valley Town Advisory Board recognizes that the City of Mesquite needs an amendment to clarify several minor issues relating to the period of time that they can purchase land and relating to their Virgin River Habitat Conservation and Recovery Plan and the Hydrologic Monitoring and Mitigation Plan; we therefore request that you support such bills AS LONG AS these bills or any other introduced bill or amendment does not contain language designating any portion of the Gold Butte complex as an NCA, monument, or wilderness.  Any such attempt to pass legislation regarding Gold Butte designation is strongly opposed by the Moapa Valley Town Advisory Board; such opposition is consistent with our previous positions in 2008, 2009, and 2010.   

If you have any questions or wish to discuss the above issues in more detail, please know that you are welcome at our town board meetings and in our community any time.  We deeply appreciate your diligence to our concerns and the work that you do on our behalf in Washington D.C.  Thank you,

Better Model for Governing

In January of 2011 Senator Heller, then a congressman for Nevada’s 2^nd congressional district, wrote an article for the Field and Stream magazine titled Wilderness Does Not Equal Effective Wildlife Management. This is an outstanding letter and I commend Senator Heller for laying his views out on the table. The outdoor recreation community is in need of a Senator who will support common sense management initiatives on public lands here in Nevada. I believe that this is a perfect opportunity for Senator Heller to make his stance on Gold Butte known and be our representative.

I would like to build on the concepts that Heller’s letter in Field and Stream offer and put those principles into practice right here in our own state.  In his letter, Senator Heller talks about the impact that Federal land management policies have on a community.  Policy that is created in Washington reduces the local community’s ability to be involved in the process. Policy should be developed and implemented on a community level not written and mandated in Washington.  We need to take the Washington politics out of public lands management and allow the communities and the agencies that were established to manage our public lands do just that.

Senator Heller seems to encourage this type of management from his statement in the letter in Field and Stream, “Maintaining healthy ecosystems and wildlife populations is not a simple or easy task. This task becomes more complicated when land management decisions are taken out of the hands of state wildlife officials, local communities, and stakeholders who know the area best.”

Gold Butte doesn’t need further bureaucratic overhead from Washington. The current management tools are in place to properly manage Gold Butte right now. Local community stewardship, in partner with the local agencies, is the type of management that I would hope our representatives in Washington would promote. In a quote from Senator Heller’s letter I believe he agrees, “a transparent public process that includes input from local officials, communities, and stakeholders is a better model for governing.” We are entitled to the transparent public process that Senator Heller talked about. There should be no shortcuts and no quick wins in public lands management.

I will be calling on Senator Heller to not support any new federal designation at Gold Butte but instead support the local communities and the agencies in their continued effort to design a management plan that protects both our natural resources and our access to public lands.

Heller's letter in Field and Stream can be found here:

http://www.fieldandstream.com/blogs/hunting/2011/01/guest-post-wilderness-does-not-equal-effective-wildlife-management

What Has Changed

Wednesday August 31^st Stan Hardy, Elise McAllister and I had the opportunity to sit down with Congressman Joe Heck at Sugars Home Plate. Our conversation focused on public land issues within Nevada’s 3^rd Congressional District and specifically Gold Butte.

As we sat down and started to discuss the issues facing our public lands congressman Heck stopped me and said, “Dustin I remember going out to gold butte with you last year. We spent a lot of time in the truck going over the history of Gold Butte and the current political issues.” Cutting right to the chase, Congressman Heck pointedly asked me, “Dustin, what has changed since we last met out at Gold Butte?”

My initial reaction to this question was, well nothing, it’s the same ol’ story. Our congressional representatives are being targeted by outside special interests that are on yet another desperate trophy hunt. However as I thought about that question, my initial thoughts were only a small piece of that story. This oversimplification is a disservice to the agencies and the volunteers who have worked be involved and continue the service that keeps Gold Butte protected.

Politically, yes it is the same ol’ fight.  However politics is not what provides sustainable solutions for public lands management. Rather the politics muddy the waters and detract from accomplishing tangible objectives. It is the people and agencies who care for Gold Butte that make Gold Butte a success. Over the last year considerable progress has been made on many fronts that contribute to Gold Buttes developing success story. For example:

• According to the Local BLM office volunteer activities are increasing
• Completion of BLM Management Plans providing enhanced protection specific to Gold Butte
• Reduction in site impacts due to Roads Designation Plan
• Continued progress of MSHCP agency projects
• Completion of the Roads Monitoring Project at Gold Butte

Parties pandering to politicians for bureaucratic designations are a hindrance to the effort, not a contribution. The local communities and the local BLM office working together to create an environment where people can recreate responsibly, while the cultural and natural resources are protected and enjoyed, is a win for all legitimate participants. Full commitment by the agencies and all parties involved in public lands stewardship, to the management plans that are currently in place for Gold Butte, will provide the protection that many are calling for. Things are changing out at Gold Butte. They are changing in a positive direction for both protection and access, falling short of only added costs and redundant bureaucracy.

I would like to thank Congressman Joe Heck for taking the time to come out to Moapa Valley and giving us the opportunity to meet with him as our representative in Washington DC. 

Building a Base

What a long strange trip it’s been, traveling the politically rutted road of public lands policy surrounding Gold Butte. However, along the way I have seen some great sights and have learned a few good lessons.

It was little more than a year ago, that I was meeting with our congressional delegation on a regular basis. It was in those meetings that I was told point blank that the Gold Butte NCA and Wilderness proposal was a done deal. It was only in May of 2010 that the Clark County Commission passed their naïve and disingenuous resolution, reworked at the eleventh hour, in support of this same plan. We met with candidates running for office at every level of government, we met with Washington bureaucrats, lobbyists, local mayors, county commissioners and all manner of elected officials. Through it all, in spite of the odds, we were able to hold out through the election cycle of 2010 and the resulting lame duck session and fight off yet another inept and heavy-handed proposal.

 

Why was it that these politically privileged plans never made it out of the dark recesses of the chambers of those political elite? It was because of you. It was because when phone calls needed to be made, when letters needed to be written and a show of hands at a meeting was needed, you were ready to rise up.  I have seen what a coalition of communities coming together, fighting for something they believe in, can accomplish politically. It is bigger, better and stronger than any halfhearted special interest group could hope to buy or manufacture. 

It is my goal with this blog to provide a place where like-minded people can find information on current events and have a place where ideas can be shared that help promote local stewardship for our public lands. I would hope that the efforts of this blog have helped build the base of community support for issues surrounding public lands at Gold Butte. However, I need your help, in building an even larger community base to support Gold Butte. I need help in sharing our message to the community that cares about Gold Butte. The time will come again that we will need to fend off yet another special interest proposal that is trying to cash in on hundreds of thousands of acres to add to their trophy chest.  We need to stand ready as a community to yet again block the next unreasonable proposal.

I am not asking for money, I won’t spam you with emails or Facebook posts, I am not even asking you to come to any meetings, but I do need your help. 

http://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/Save-Gold-Butte/107781355916775

Please share the link to the Save Gold Butte Facebook page to your Facebook friends and invite them to “Like” this page. Share the link to Save Gold Butte to your blogger friends and suggest they follow the blog with their blogger account. Help me build the base of community support for Gold Butte and keep our public lands accessible for everyone to enjoy.

Local Wilderness Discussions

The scoping meetings for the Lime Canyon and Jumbo Springs wilderness areas were held a few weeks ago. I was able to attend the meeting held in Overton. The meeting was not very well attended however the discussion that we had was constructive, and I believe, informative for both sides (the community and the BLM). The discussion focused on how to manage wilderness areas both in a broad sense and also specific components that would impact the wilderness within the Gold Butte region.

The wilderness that is found within Gold Butte is for the most part undeveloped and primitive. I know this seems common sense or logical even so, it was on these simple facts that I built the basis of my suggestion for future management for these areas. We don’t need big gouty signage cluttering the landscape pointing out the way. We don’t need interpretive signage for the visitor to be told what he or she is seeing. We don’t need fences telling us which side of the road or canyon is wilderness and which isn’t. We don’t need a big red delineation on the map calling visitors attention to these places.  If we have to have wilderness, if it has to be drawn on a map so we “know” what it is, then we ought to let it be what we want it to be, wilderness.

Different sub topics like managing weeds, habitat, water sources and fire control were also discussed within the meeting.  However, most of those conversations came back to the overarching theme of managing the entire region or landscape instead of a small subset within that region. The community members who were in attendance seemed to agree that trying to manage a 4,000 acre swath of country within a 350,000 acre complex was of little worth at best and a poor utilization of government  resources when talking about weed control or habitat conservation. The whole complex needs to be managed as a single unit. To try and manage a 4,000 acre piece while leaving the remainder vulnerable because it doesn’t have a bureaucratic title is ridiculous.

This is only a brief overview of what was discussed at the Overton scoping meeting. There were two other meetings held both in Bunkerville and Mesquite. I was a little disappointed at the attendance of the Overton meeting. These meetings are both a great opportunity for the community to get to know our BLM staff and also for the community to express their thoughts and feelings about local land management. It is these meetings were we can hold our BLM staff accountable for local land management practices. If we don’t take the time to tell them how we would like to see it managed by the time you grab your pitchfork and light your torch it is probably too late to do any good.

The Moapa Valley Progress covered this meeting along with the other community meetings. Please take the time read their article and get a more well-rounded assessment of the community meetings:

http://mvprogress.com/2011/07/06/blm-seeks-public-input-on-management-of-wilderness/