Las Vegas Sun

March 29, 2024

Public Lands Week in Nevada will conclude with park clean-up

Proposed National Monument

Steve Marcus

A view of Spirit Mountain during a tour of a proposed national monument south of Boulder City, Wednesday, Feb. 12, 2020. A coalition of Native American tribes, conservation groups and Searchlight residents are asking Nevada’s Congressional delegation to consider the establishment of a new national monument.

Environmental leaders across Nevada this week are hosting virtual and in-person events for Nevada’s annual Public Lands Week. In its fifth year, the celebrations honor the state’s environment, biodiversity and indigenous communities.

Chispa Nevada, Friends of Nevada Wilderness, Get Outdoors Nevada, Institute for a Progressive Nevada, Native Voters Alliance of Nevada and Nevada Conservation League are all sponsoring the events, including a park clean-up at 9 a.m. Saturday at Mountain’s Edge Regional Park on Public Lands Day.

“There’s no better way to honor your public lands than going to your local park and cleaning it up,” said Angelyn Tabalba, communications manager with the Nevada Conservation League.

A key aspect of the week’s programming is its focus on Avi Kwa Ame, known as Spirit Mountain, Tabalba said.

Indigenous and environmental community leaders are calling for the land to be selected as a national monument for its historical and cultural significance to Indigenous communities. It is also essential to preserve its biodiversity and therefore the state’s, Tabalba said.

Shortly after President Joe Biden took office in January, he set a goal to protect 30% land and water in the United States by 2030. Designating Avi Kwa Ame as a national monument would contribute to hitting this target, Tabalba said.

“It really just has a lot of cultural, spiritual value for our tribal communities, and it’s obviously going to be a really huge pillar as we get to the 30-by-30 goal,” she said.

At a resource fair last week hosted by Make The Road Nevada, Xochitl Garcia, VP of Fifth Sun project, said that land conservation is ingrained in Indigenous cultures like her own.

“We are naturally land protectors, so we always want to do what’s best for the land, what’s best for the animals,” Garcia said. “We do eat a lot of plant-based stuff, and we do try to take care of the earth in whatever ways we can.”

Public Lands Week will kick off at 6 p.m. Tuesday with virtual town featuring State Treasurer Zach Conine and State Senator Chris Brooks, who are part of the Nevada Recovers Listening Tour to hear community members’ input on how American Rescue Plan funds should be spent regarding the state’s tribal and public lands, wildlife and recreation areas.

The second virtual event at 6 p.m. Thursday will be hosted by local organization Battle Born Progress, which will discuss wildlife conservation in Nevada.

Battle Born Progress has hosted many virtual town halls every week as a form of community engagement during the pandemic. For those familiar with this programming, the set up will be the same during Public Lands Week, said Will Pregman, communications director for Battle Born Progress.

“We find it’s a very effective program to educate, not just our listeners, but also the community at large,” he said. “ We work to get our stream shared by a variety of different organizations and coalitions to experience the conversations that we host with state leaders about various topics and also to ask their questions.”

Public Lands Day was enacted in 2017 by then-Nevada-Gov. Brian Sandoval, who designated the day as a holiday in Nevada. Since then, the day has been celebrated through park gatherings and conversations around environmental conservation and climate change.

Typically, the events are family-oriented, with entertainment like music and dancing, free food and face-painting stations defining previous years, Pregman said. Due to the pandemic, only the clean-up and conference will occur. But this is the first year that Public Lands Day has been extended from a one-day celebration to a week’s worth of events, Tabalba said.

“During public lands day, we recognize the historical, scenic, and economic values brought by our public lands while also encouraging Nevadans to participate in volunteer stewardship activities,” she wrote in an email.