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OBITUARIES
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NO OBITUARY NOTICES
WERE PUBLISHED IN
THIS WEEK'S EDITION
OBITUARIES FROM THE
JULY 15TH ISSUE
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03-04-2010 National Conservation Area Proposed
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National Conservation Area Proposed
By Dave Maxwell
A plan to create a 600,000 acre National Conservation Area (NCA) in Garden and Coal Valleys, in Lincoln and Nye counties, was discussed during the regular meeting of the Lincoln County Commissioners March 1.
Mary Heizer, wife of Garden Valley
sculptor Mike Heizer
Photo by Dave Maxwell
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The legislation idea is from the office of Senator Harry Reid, and would include the City, a massive outdoor sculpture being built by artist Michael Heizer. Commissioners are seeking to take input on what language they want to put into draft comments for the legislation.
Lincoln County Commissioners can only deal with issues that are on the Lincoln side and not the Nye County side.
Commissioner Ronda Hornbeck said the conservation area had not been proposed by either County, and read from a letter Katie Sorenson, director of the External Art Foundation, giving a brief synopsis of what is being proposed.
The letter stated in part, “The conservation area would come into existence when BLM acquires a conservation easement on private land under, and surrounding, the City sculpture. That easement would guarantee responsible public access to the sculpture upon completion of the artwork.”
City is an enormous unfinished complex in the Garden Valley area in northern Lincoln County, over a mile long and 1500 feet wide. City comprises five phases, each consisting of a number of structures referred to as complexes. It is reported to be in complete harmony with the surrounding landscape and appears at a distance to be only small mounds in the desert.
The letter Hornbeck read continues that creation of the NCA “would not affect existing rights, i.e, roads, rights of way, mining claims or other valid existing rights. Nor would it affect hunting, grazing, fishing, trapping in the area. All of those would continue in the conservation area in accordance with state and federal laws that exist now. Access to and use of other private parcels within the conservation area would not be affected.”
The Bureau of Land Management would take over the management of the NCA.
Motorized vehicles would be allowed on all roads and trails designated for those uses in the management plan, and would insure the plan provide ranchers with the ability to drive in, without being required to stay on established roads. Salt blocks for cattle grazing in the area would also be allowed.
Hornbeck said one of her greatest concerns that needed to be put into the legislative language would be that “all existing uses remain in place.”
After much discussion on the matter, Commissioners stated public hearings would have to be set up to take further comments and make any needed changes before sending the draft back to Senator Reid’s office. The first public meeting was scheduled for March 10 at 3 pm in the meeting room at the Alamo Ambulance Barn.
Ely rancher Gracian Uhalde said he supported the proposal, “because being third and fourth generation ranchers in Garden and Coal Valley, we feel this is taking the steps to protect our way of life. We very keenly support the thought of a local stakeholder group to start out with the management and set up the plan.”
Uhalde said he has known and valued Mike Heizer as a neighbor and “view his work as an asset.”
He suggested to Commissioners the legislation should also contain certain basic principals, which include “not effecting the historic livelihoods and rights of local ranchers, will not and does not effect our private property rights, that we will have continued access to, and be able to continue our range improvements and build new ones if needed, that the Eastern Nevada Landscape Restoration continue as outlined in the Ely Resource Management Plan, and the management of the NCA needs to be conducted through a local stakeholder committee, a key component to the committee, and an imperative to the success of the NCA.”
He also said he believed “the boundary lines on the western border, Cherry Creek, Pine Creek and Cottonwood, should be adjusted to exclude private property, unless the private property owner chooses to be included in the NCA.” He also said he wanted to be informed in case boundaries might need to be further adjusted on future proposed changes.
Wendy Rudder said the NCA would also serve to preserve Garden and Coal Valleys from “invasive development such as railroads, pipelines, and now solar and wind farms.”
She said she thought the City complex would be finished by 2017, or sooner, and cost in the neighborhood of $20 million in labor and materials.
Mary Heizer, wife of sculptor Michael Heizer, said when the project is completed, and open to the public, most visitors will be coming in through Alamo on U.S. Highway 93, going over to Coal Valley and then Garden Valley. “From the Seaman Wash turnoff (between mile marker 16 and 17 on highway 318) to our property is 30 miles,” she said.
Hornbeck said she thought 600,000 acres was far more than was needed for a NCA and said questions she is getting from local people are asking “Why such a big footprint?”
A conservation easement agreement with BLM is required first before the NCA plan can move forward, Mrs. Heizer said, but they have not worked on that yet. They hope to have the agreement completed in about three years.
Not all persons at the meeting were in favor of such a large NCA. Alamo resident Vaughn Higbee said he was opposed to it, and asked Commissioners to be very careful in their considerations, “because as long as I can remember, this has been a multiple use area that has some potential for development possibilities there that really need to be looked at.”
He asked that before the proposal even moves into public hearings, the Dia Art Foundation, which sponsors City, should provide Lincoln County with approximately $250,000 to conduct an independent study of the entire Garden Valley and Coal Valley area, “of all of the economic and social impacts that would be created in this area if this moves forward.”
He said he thought the NCA “would be nothing more than a wilderness area, administered by bureaucrats, a highly regulated area that limits our rights.”
Commissioners did not say if they would or would not ask for such a study to be done, and planned the first public hearing for Alamo on March 10.
Commission Chairman Paul Mathews said in discussions he has had with members of Senator Reid’s staff, “it was discouraging for me to hear that as a Commission and a County, if we did not play ball to produce constructive comments regarding the conservation area, they would want to go with a monument alternative.”
He felt, therefore, “there are plenty of reasons to place the most constructive public comments that we can, even as far as size, scope, scale, protecting public uses, etc. As a County, we’ve been pulled into this and we’re going to have to do our homework here.”
Commissioner Tommy Rowe said he thought the NCA was much too big for what it is proposed for, and that “It looks to me like a continued land grab for government control.”
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