Editorial: Cooperation, not conflict, is answer

Elko's so-called "Shovel Brigade" claimed victory on Independence Day after a boulder was removed from a road on national forest land. The large rock had been placed there by the U.S. Forest Service some years ago to prevent local efforts to rebuild the road, which wildlife officials believed could result in too much silt getting into the Jarbidge River, threatening the already endangered bull trout.

But the movement may be sputtering since just about 500 people -- not as many as 5,000 as organizers earlier had predicted -- showed up for the protest. And the meaningless gesture of moving a boulder on July 4 also stands in stark contrast to a more harmonious development one day later elsewhere in Nevada. Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt on Wednesday visited Southern Nevada and announced that $28 million will be available to buy environmentally sensitive property from willing private sellers. The money comes from legislation Congress passed in 1998 that allows money from federal land sales to be kept in Southern Nevada to protect areas such as the Spring Mountains and the Las Vegas Wash.

Such an incongruity obviously would be lost on Assemblyman John Carpenter, R-Elko, one of the "Shovel Brigade's" leaders. "You can see what people power does. People power can move these rocks and it can move the world," Carpenter claimed. But the fact is that Elko's antipathy to the federal government has been an exercise in futility, and hardly a reason for celebration. After all, a federal mediator recently decided that the road could only be rebuilt after federal standards protecting wildlife were observed. Not only is the "Shovel Brigade" a losing cause, but it also does nothing to serve the long-term interests of Elko residents nor protect the environment.

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