As Lake Mead recedes, illegal roads grow. $8.6M may change that

Destructive attempts to access the water at Lake Mead have long led to environmental degradation. Now, public land sales are funding efforts to address those unintended consequences.

With an $8.6 million grant, the National Park Service now has the money to address illegal roads that previously led to the closure of Government Wash, a popular camping site. The financial backing comes from the Southern Nevada Public Lands Management Act, a unique law that allows public land sales in and around Las Vegas to fund conservation efforts in the Silver State.

“This will be a heavily partnership and community-oriented project,” park Superintendent Mike Gauthier said in a statement. “We look forward to working closely with the public, tribes, and conservation-focused partners to help protect cultural and natural resources in these key park locations.”

The agency estimated there were 824 miles of illegal roads across the recreation area, but rangers now believe that number has doubled, mostly in Government Wash and Overton Arm, according to a news release on Thursday. These remote areas are where law enforcement officials have seen higher rates of crime.

In general, off-road vehicles can be a detriment to plants and animals, such as the Las Vegas bearpoppy, a resilient flowering plant that thrives in the Mojave Desert’s harsh, gypsum-rich soil.

“In desert areas, off-road vehicles can be quite destructive,” Jeff Ruch, director of the Pacific Regional Office of Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, told the Las Vegas Review-Journal in September. “They rip up whatever vegetation is there and make the land uninhabitable for wildlife.”

Contact Alan Halaly at ahalaly@reviewjournal.com. Follow @AlanHalaly on X. Staff writer Estelle Atkinson contributed to this report.