Lime Canyon & Jumbo Springs Wilderness

The BLM is holding three public scoping meetings to soliciting input for two of the wilderness areas within Gold Butte. Some possible talking points for these meetings are things such as weed treatment for invasive species and developing interpretive information to educate the visiting public about the resources and history in the area. Keep in mind that these are existing Wilderness Areas so all the comments and suggestions have to be within the realm of the wilderness guidelines; which are to maintain the wilderness characteristics of the area. This is a very narrow scope to say the least. So comments like “it shouldn't be wilderness,” though possibly therapeutic, will not do much good at these meetings.

Bunkerville Community Center June 27, 2011 6 PM

Overton Community Center June 28, 2011 6 PM

Mesquite City hall June 29, 2011 6 PM

Gold Butte History - Salt Mine

In a continuing effort to increase the content, and with any luck awareness of the rich history woven in the landscape of Gold Butte, I have posted a short excerpt from a study that was done on the mineral deposits in the potential reservoir site now known as Lake Mead. The specific site referenced in this excerpt is a salt mine owned and operated by Daniel Bonelli.

If a list were to be compiled of the significant characters that contributed to the historical patchwork that has evolved into Gold Butte, Daniel Bonelli would have a vivid and colorful block. Bonelli helped lay the foundation for future settlement in this area.

Look for more history of Daniel Bonelli in coming posts at http://goldbuttehistory.blogspot.com/

Simply Garbage

Thank you to the Moapa Valley Progress for publishing my article in the April 20th paper

If we could have half as much rain as we do politics at Gold Butte the drought would be over. However, as life often goes, we are over-stocked with one and in short supply of the other. Much has been made over the politics of Gold Butte both currently and in years past. There are as many philosophies about what is best for this beautiful piece of Nevada desert as there are cacti within its hills. However despite the bureaucratic label it may hold or the potential it has in the eyes of a wanting politician there are still people working to be a part of something positive for public lands despite the politics.

Public Lands Conservation Committee (PLCC) is a group of local citizens from the Moapa Valley and Virgin Valley areas working to DO something positive for Gold Butte.PLCC members have taken their turn paddling into the political waters working to share their point of view. However politics can be a time consuming effort and often with little to show for the time spent. All the while the problems that actually exist at Gold Butte go unresolved. It is within this setting that PLCC’s latest project matured.

One of the first projects that PLCC is working to accomplish is answering the question many visitors have: What to do with my garbage? Instead of waving their arms and crying for help PLCC members quietly went to work raising funds and filling out tedious paperwork to solve the simple problem of garbage.

On Easter weekend a 25 yard dumpster, meeting all of BLM’s requirements, will be placed at the Whitney Pockets parking area. This is to encourage the visitors to this beautiful desert landscape to help do their part and keep our public lands clean and open for multiple-use.

Garbage cleanup is a simple act yet often a point of contention in the debate on public lands management. This is one project in a lineup of projects to come, to help resolve the simple yet beleaguered issues facing the public lands in our backyard. It is one of PLCC’s fundamental beliefs that local public lands stewardship is the key to successful public lands management.

As Simple As Sending An Email

Recreation Area Management Plan & Comprehensive Trails Plan

The BLM Las Vegas Field Office is currently taking comments on the Recreational Management Plan for Southern Nevada. This is your opportunity to have an impact on the future management of our public land in Southern Nevada. It is as simple as sending an email. Please take the time to comment on how you use public lands and how you want this management plan to be shaped to preserve your access to public lands.

 

Comments are due by April 11th so send them today

Send your comments to:
Marilyn Peterson, BLM Project Lead : LVFO_RAMPS@blm.gov

The BLM does not recognize form letters anymore, so comments MUST be original.

You have asked for ways to be involved, well here it is, SEND IN YOUR COMMENTS.

State that you are concerned about keeping access open and providing as many OHV routes as possible.

List the activities that you and your family enjoy such as 4-wheeling, riding motorcycles, riding ATVs, scenic drives, picnics, primitive camping, hunting, hiking, bird watching, geo-caching, rock collecting, exploring, teaching my kids about the desert, star-gazing, practicing survival skills, mountain bike riding, riding horses, training hunting dogs, target shooting, ….

Please keep all routes OPEN that were marked on the maps from the RAMP scooping meetings as many people marked routes/roads that they want to be kept open.

Washes are a traditional travel route and have been used extensively throughout time; motorized travel in washes should actually be encouraged, rather than discouraged/closed as travel in washes gets ‘erased’ after even a small flood event. Floods are part of the natural environment and washes are in a constant state of change because of the nature of floods. Floods have a far greater impact on vegetation than a route down a wash does and traveling in washes helps contain ‘dust’ as that is an issue with some, especially in some areas.

Washes MUST be kept open for OHV use and access; travel in washes is a traditional means of travel. One minor flood event erases all traces of tracks; floods affect vegetation far more than OHV use in a wash. All washes, including washes in ACECs must be kept open to travel and should be signed open so that people don’t wonder if they can drive down that wash or not.

Throughout southern NV, there needs to be designated campsites, primitive, and more developed. There needs to be group campsites. Disturbed areas that are already being used should be designated. Parking and staging areas that are already being used should be designated as such and kept open. Pull offs are necessary along every route, especially those routes that are popular; pull offs allow for people to pass each other and prevents inexperienced drivers from pulling off the road in an unsafe area.

Most areas should be left primitive so that one can truly ‘get away’; the experience of exploring and discovering new places and new sights is one of the best ways to spend a day.

Historical markers and signs should be placed where appropriate; this helps people learn about the area’s past. Old mining sites should be signed with some history as well as old trails and routes and access to these areas kept open.

Springs should be marked on maps so people can visit them; water sources are where most of the wildlife are and that is one of the fun things-- to see wildlife, especially for kids.

Please take the time to write and send an email about how you use public lands for recreation and how the travel and management plans directly affect you and your access to public lands.

Your comments make the difference

The Year Mark

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.

Wildly Bigger Issue

On January 28, 2011 the Western Caucus sent a letter to Secretary Salazar stating their opposition to Secretarial Order 3310.

Highlights from the letter

Secretarial order 3310 appears to be an underhanded attempt by the DOI to circumvent Congress and the federal rulemaking process by designating potentially millions of acres of publicly owned lands in western states as de facto wilderness under a new, loosely defined “wild lands” category.

By singling out wilderness characteristics, and ignoring other resources, secretarial order 3310 appears to be intentionally stacking the deck against multiple use management. If a new inventory is going to occur, we suggest all multiple use resources be included so a rational and responsible decision can be made on tradeoffs in management to best serve the public interest.

We believe public lands should be managed in a way that provides the greatest benefit to the public. The multiple-use philosophy – which encourages the environmentally responsible use of public lands for conservation, recreation and economic purposes—is the best way to accomplish that goal.

We are convinced that proceeding with this order will only serve to create greater uncertainty, invite litigation, and create further division among the various public land stakeholders, environmental groups and local communities.

What a great statement. I think that we should commend our western representatives for calling out the misuse of power the Department of Interior is conferring upon itself. The best part about this whole letter is that it calls attention to the bigger issue that we face when working towards proper land management.

The BLM is progressively working towards a one sided management strategy for our public lands. They have singled out wilderness characteristics as their core value and have focused their energies on this objective. This is done while acting in complete negligence and reckless abandon for all other aspects of public lands management.

I am glad that someone back there is Washington gets it. The issue is not specifically with the new Wild Lands designation, the issue is how the BLM is becoming more unapologetic about their transition away from multiple-use.  They are increasingly focused on wilderness style management and less on making public lands available for public use.

I agree wholeheartedly that public lands should be managed in a way that provides the greatest benefit to the public. I commend our caucus for putting this letter together and delivering it to Secretary Salazar.  From Nevada Dean Heller, Joe Heck and John Ensign all signed the letter. Please take the time to thank your representatives who signed the letter. Let them know that we stand behind our representatives who share our beliefs in the multiple-use philosophy for public lands management.

Full Letter:

http://robbishop.house.gov/UploadedFiles/wild_lands_012811.pdf

Signatures:

http://robbishop.house.gov/UploadedFiles/wild_lands-signatures_final.pdf

Nature's Remedy

As the doors closed on the 111th Congress I was reminded of a line from the classic Dickens novel A Tale of Two Cities


Death is Nature's remedy for all things, and why not Legislation's?