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When Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke came to Nevada last summer to review the state’s two newest national monuments — Gold Butte and Basin and Range — he blew off key stakeholders like local Paiute tribes and then cut out after reducing a planned two-day tour to one day.
About a month after Zinke made his cursory fly-by, the Interior Department recommended reducing the monument to “the smallest area compatible” to protect historic objects and remove springs with water rights out of the monument area.
Justifiably, advocates for the monument cried foul, saying they didn’t get an opportunity to provide Zinke with a full view of why the area deserved full federal protection.
Now, however, Nevadans have an opportunity to tell the Department of the Interior everything they didn’t get a chance to tell Zinke.
The department is seeking public comment on the Bureau of Land Management’s proposed Southern Nevada District resource management plan, a comprehensive document that will determine how an immense swath of public land in our region is stewarded.
Gold Butte is part of the district, so the resource management plan process offers the public its first chance to tell federal officials how they believe the area should be overseen.
It’s also an opportunity to express to the federal government that the monument’s boundaries should be left alone. The Trump administration has not made a decision on whether to act on the Interior’s recommendation to shrink the area’s acreage.
Here’s hoping Southern Nevadans take full advantage of the chance to offer their input on Gold Butte and other public lands in our region.
To help residents make their voices heard, the Sun today offers information from the Friends of Gold Butte advocacy organization not only on how to submit comments but how to make them resonate with Interior officials.
We also offer a guest column from a Southern Nevada business owner who offers perspective on why protecting Gold Butte is critical to the area’s economy and our quality of life.
Finally, we’d invite commenters to share their remarks with the Sun for possible publication in a future edition. If you’d like to let the community know what you told the BLM, please email a copy of your remarks to Ric Anderson, the Sun’s editorial page editor, at [email protected], or send them via mail to Ric Anderson, Greenspun Media Group, 2275 Corporate Circle, Henderson, NV 89074.
To those sharing their remarks, we’d also encourage you to send us photos you’ve taken at Gold Butte. Photos can be emailed or mailed to Anderson.
As the BLM weighs its management plan, the stakes are high for our region.
The plan will cover various uses of public land — recreational, agricultural, oil and gas exploration and more.
For Gold Butte, especially, full federal protection is vital. The monument is home to ancient Native American petroglyphs and other artifacts, sensitive native plants, at-risk wildlife such as bighorn sheep and desert tortoises, fossil track sites dating to millions of years ago, and some of the most breathtaking topography on Earth.
It’s also a centerpiece of the region’s efforts to expand its outdoor tourism industry, a key piece of a broader initiative to diversify the state’s economy and reduce its reliance on gaming and resort tourism.
In short, Gold Butte is a treasure for our region — environmentally, historically, culturally and economically.
We owe it not only to ourselves to protect it, but to future generations and to those who stewarded it across thousands of years. Allowing it to be reduced or subjected to management practices that would put its environment or artifacts at risk is unthinkable.
Zinke may not have wanted to hear all of that during his visit last summer, but his department needs to know it now.