Friday, May 2, 2003 | 9:10 a.m.
The Nevada champions of public land use and protection are at it again.
The Blue Diamond mine site that the Bureau of Land Management has resisted making an offer on for so long may finally be considered for purchase. After years of work getting Congress to pass legislation that created new wilderness areas, the new Sloan Canyon National Conservation Area and a disposal boundary that gives the Las Vegas Valley enormous areas for development, Sens. Harry Reid and John Ensign watched with the rest of us as Jim Rhodes tried to despoil Red Rock. They must have been as dismayed as I was.
I remember not too many years ago when development threatened the beautiful Deer Creek area in the Spring Mountains. It was Reid who was instrumental in getting that area into the hands of the Forest Service, protecting it for all of us.
With federal money that has been raised by the sale of land here in the valley, it is only right that Blue Diamond Hill should be purchased and included in the Red Rock National Conservation Area. Apparently it takes a senator with the kind of influence in Washington that Reid has to get the job done.
Thank you Harry Reid and John Ensign. I will remember you both come election time.
MARK BEAUCHAMP
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