Friday, Aug. 25, 2006 | 7:21 a.m.
Historic, cultural and environmental resources are under siege nationally from growing urban populations and their desire to get outdoors.
Now, a national coalition is working to pump up funding for law enforcement and ultimately to strengthen what is called the National Landscape Conservation System, a huge archipelago of conservation areas, wilderness, national trails and rivers and other tracts under the jurisdiction of the Bureau of Land Management.
Las Vegas Valley residents don't have to go far to see the issue's importance. The BLM manages 90 percent of the county, and the National Landscape Conservation System in Clark County includes two national conservation areas, nine federally designated wilderness areas and several wilderness study areas.
The best known of these is the Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area, almost 200,000 acres tucked into a stunning valley immediately west of the urban area. And south of the Las Vegas Valley, the new, 48,000-acre Sloan Canyon National Conservation Area lacks the 1 million annual visitors of Red Rock, but the BLM has plans - and a $66 million endowment - to develop amenities to attract visitors in years to come.
More than 50 groups are members of the coalition for the National Landscape Conservation System. Among them are the National Wildlife Federation, the National Trust for Historic Preservation, the Sierra Club and the Wilderness Society.
Denise Ryan, a former Las Vegan, is representing the National Wildlife Federation in its effort in Washington. She said the BLM does not get the funding it needs to oversee important historical, cultural and environmental resources.
Over the long term, she said, the groups want to see the National Landscape Conservation System be a permanent, recognized entity much like the National Park System is now. A bipartisan caucus of members of Congress has endorsed the effort.
"We want to better educate the public and Congress about the system," she said. "We want to see the system better funded. We want to see clarity in the budget system.
"We'd also like to see permanence. We'd like to see some congressional designation for the system as a whole. Overall, 10 years from now, we would have done a stellar job, along with the BLM, if people would recognize the National Landscape Conservation System as well as the National Park System."
Susan Potts, Southern Nevada conservation director of the Friends of Nevada Wilderness, said that she can see the Sloan Canyon area from her back window. She has also seen ancient petroglyphs - designs etched by American Indians onto the desert rocks - damaged and destroyed within the conservation area.
Increasing funding and raising the profile of the landscape system would help prevent similar destruction, she said.
"Both are important goals because the BLM doesn't have the funding needed to patrol, to enforce the rules, to monitor. Both Red Rock and Sloan Canyon have archaeological sites, rare plant and animal species," she said. "The BLM doesn't have what it needs to maintain, protect and preserve those resources.
"In Clark County, we also have the problem that they are so close to the large urban area, and they receive so much use, especially Red Rock, that they are in danger of almost being loved to death. We need to be able to do proper management so people can enjoy these places without negatively impacting the resources."
Bob Taylor, the BLM's assistant field manager for the conservation areas, said that while his agency could always use more money, he is working to protect the public resources with the funding available. He hopes to use interest from the Sloan Canyon endowment to fund activities there. Red Rock is supported by about $1.2 million a year in visitors' fees.
"We're working with the Clark County School District for a desert learning center" at Red Rock, he said, but like many plans for BLM lands, long-term operational and maintenance costs are difficult to secure.
Taylor said the total budget this year for elements of the National Landscape Conservation System in Clark County is about $5 million, including $1.1 million for a new management plan for Sloan Canyon. He said a key element in working within the funding is partnerships with regional governments and institutions.
At Sloan Canyon, "Henderson is building right up to our doorstep," he said. At Red Rock, "more than half of what we do out there is done through partnerships. We'll probably be looking at something similar to that with Sloan Canyon in the near future."
Taylor has seen some petroglyphs in Sloan Canyon damaged by vandalism or simple ignorance, but BLM "presence is increasing out there in terms of law enforcement. We're serious about it."
Four rangers patrol Sloan Canyon, he said.
Penalties can run to a year in prison and a $100,000 fine per count for damaging petroglyphs under the federal Antiquities Act, Taylor said. A vandal who spray paints over five or six symbols would face five years in jail and a $500,000 fine.
"It's hard to place a value on these cultural features," he said. "It's a people's history."
Taylor said the BLM is committed to preserving the National Landscape Conservation System. "Our goal is to encourage people to respectfully use those areas."
Ryan, who served as special assistant to the BLM's national director in 2000 when the landscape system was created by presidential proclamation, said that more needs to be done.
"We're not even holding steady in terms of inflation," she said of BLM funding. "It's unfortunate."
Among the most important things needed nationally, Ryan said, is a full accounting of the cultural, historic and environmental resources now part of the system, a step that the National Trust for Historic Preservation has endorsed.
"How can you protect what you don't even know you have?" Ryan said.
Noting the damage to petroglyphs in Southern Nevada, she said there are too many acres covered by too few personnel. The same issue affects the potential safety of visitors, she said, especially to remote sites such as Sloan Canyon:
"What if you just needed help out there?"
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