Basin and Range monument encompasses more than political controversy

By Conor Shine

Published Friday, July 10, 2015 | 1:53 p.m.

Updated Friday, July 10, 2015 | 2:46 p.m.

Nine hours after President Barack Obama designated 700,000 acres in central Nevada for protection as a national monument under the Antiquities Act, Rep. Cresent Hardy took to the House floor to express disdain.

"Last night, while America was sleeping, the White House was busy notifying the public, literally in the dark of the night, about the president's intentions," said Hardy, whose district includes the area.

The president’s decision comes as no surprise — it was a top priority for a key ally, retiring Nevada Sen. Harry Reid.

The senator often speaks of his love for the desert environment he developed as a child, praising the natural "beauty" found in the Basin and Range.

"I have been there, such wonderful archaeological wonder with hieroglyphics on those rocks," Reid told the Sun in March. "It is really a beautiful place and we need to protect that because with the tremendous growth in Las Vegas area that will be destroyed."

Also not surprising was the opposition from state Republicans.

Hardy was not the only Republican to lambast the decision. Others who came out in opposition included Gov. Brian Sandoval and Rep. Mark Amodei.

Aside from the political controversy is what scientists point to as the untapped potential of the newly-protected land for research into Native American archaeology, including rock art panels from ancient people who inhabited the area as far back as 13,000 years ago.

"Less than 2 percent of that land has been surveyed and we (already) have thousands of petroglyph sites,” said Angel Pena, an associate with the Conservation Lands Foundation. “(The designation) ensures that an outdoor laboratory is protected for future scientists. It's the story of our past, our traditions and our cultures."

The Basin and Range is a stretch of central Nevada where the Mojave Desert meets the Great Basin, and transitions from cactuses to fields of sagebrush. "If you've been out on the land, the topography is awe inspiring," said Jeremy Garncarz, senior director of the Wilderness Society. "It's this sweeping landscape with this amazing sense of openness. It makes you feel like you're the first person to step foot there but we know that's not true."

Each peak in the range is home to its own blend of flora and fauna, including desert bighorn sheep, mule deer, elk and pronghorn antelope.

Garncarz said that the type of geography of the Basin and Range is "underrepresented" in the country's portfolio of national monuments. "This isn't the high-elevation, rock and ice terrain. This is a lower- to mid-elevation area," he said. "These types of transition zones haven't been the focus of protection."

Perhaps the land’s most unusual feature is City, a massive desert installation of building sized-sculptures evoking the aesthetics of ancient civilizations that has been under construction by artist Michael Heizer for 43 years.

Democratic efforts to expand federal protections for Western lands — and Republicans efforts to stop them — have been a political conflict for decades. At the end of his second term, President Bill Clinton invoked the Antiquities Act to protect three new sites — the Agua Fria National Monument and Grand Canyon-Parashant in Arizona and the California Coastal National Monument. That move drew protests from Republicans from western states, as did move by Clinton just prior to the 1996 election to designate the the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument in Utah.

But at least for this conflict, the round has gone to preservationists. Said Reid in a statement,

"I love Nevada, and the Nevada that I know and love is the quiet, starkly beautiful desert."