Gold Butte called more vulnerable to vandals

By Steve Tetreault Las Vegas Review-Journal Washington Bureau

9 years ago

Little Finland, also known as Hobgoblin‘s Playground and Devil‘s Fire, May 22, 2014. The Gold Butte Region, administered by the BLM and the U.S. National Park Service, is located about 2 1/2 hours east of Las Vegas near the Overton Arm of Lake Mead. (Jeff Scheid/Las Vegas Review-Journal)

Gold Butte area as seen at sundown, May 22, 2014. The Gold Butte Region, administered by the BLM and the U.S. National Park Service, is located about 2 1/2 hours east of Las Vegas near the Overton Arm of Lake Mead. (Jeff Scheid/Las Vegas Review-Journal)

A petroglyph in the Gold Butte area, May 22, 2014. The Gold Butte Region, administered by the BLM and the U.S. National Park Service, is located about 2 1/2 hours east of Las Vegas near the Overton Arm of Lake Mead. (Jeff Scheid/Las Vegas Review-Journal)

WASHINGTON — In the aftermath of armed confrontation with supporters of rancher Cliven Bundy, the Bureau of Land Management largely has withdrawn from Gold Butte, leaving the environmentally sensitive Southern Nevada region more vulnerable to intruders and vandals, a preservation group said Wednesday.

Friends of Gold Butte in a 34-page report documented disturbances to the desert landscape since November. It said previously closed illegal roads have been reopened, and are “quite well traveled now.”

Off-road vehicle tracks now mar an area adjacent to one of the area’s signature petroglyph panels, the group said. Signs at a popular campground designated a “no vehicles” zone have been ignored judging from tire markings entering and leaving the area.

One series of photos details an unauthorized water delivery system presumably to support illegal grazing. It is constructed out of an old gas storage tank, trenches of shallowly buried pipes and a makeshift trough of an oversized truck tire cemented to the desert floor. Photos taken in May show a dead roadrunner and another small animal that evidently died trapped in the trough.

The organization said the evidence of lawlessness underscores a need for the federal government to step in and increase protections for the scenic region, 350,000 acres between Lake Mead and the Arizona border that has been called Nevada’s piece of the Grand Canyon.

“This documented and ongoing damage highlights the urgent need to permanently protect Gold Butte,” said Jaina Moan, executive director for Friends of Gold Butte.

BLM had no immediate comment on the report.

The Cliven Bundy connection

The area is designated by the BLM as an Area of Critical Environment Concern, and has been managed to protect habitat for the desert tortoise and Bighorn sheep and to shield petroglyphs and historic mining-era artifacts from destruction.

But the group said the BLM and other federal land agencies have halted activities in the region since April 2014, “due to adverse circumstances.”

It does not say so directly but that is when armed government agents faced off with similarly armed supporters of Bundy over the rancher’s cattle trespassing on federal land.

The potentially deadly showdown was defused but the episode served to further ratchet tensions surrounding land uses in the West. Workers for the BLM and the National Forest Service have been cautioned for their safety and have been under fire, at times literally.

“In the absence of a land management presence, Friends of Gold Butte has witnessed an increasing level of intrusion near historic and cultural sites as well as impacts to sensitive desert areas that are habitat for threatened and endangered species,” the group said.

Moan in an interview expressed sympathy for the BLM.

“We really feel the BLM is doing the best they can under very tenuous circumstances,” she said. “Really, the fact is they need more resources.”

In June, the BLM told employees and contractors to stay out of Gold Butte after shots were fired near a survey crew campsite along the western slope of the Virgin Mountains.

The three-person crew reported three shots were fired from a nearby road, and three more shots were fired an hour later. Nobody was injured but the crew packed up and quickly left.

In April 2014, the Review-Journal documented a gravesite that had been dug up at the long-abandoned Gold Butte town site where mining flourished for a brief period a century ago.

Protection sought from Washington

The Friends of Gold Butte report was issued a month after President Barack Obama signed a proclamation creating the Basin and Range National Monument withdrawing for conservation 704,000 acres of land in Lincoln and Nye counties.

Some environmentalists believe Gold Butte is as deserving of preservation, and have stepped up calls for Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., to use his influence in the final year of the Obama administration to arrange for a similar designation even as residents of northeastern Clark County are deeply split on the idea.

Asked during an Aug. 12 meeting with Review-Journal reporters whether he plans to seek executive action again, Reid said, “Well, I think I’ve asked the president for enough for a little while, so I’m just going to let that work its way through the system.”

But he left the door open, saying, “Sometime I might do it, but I’m not right now.”

Contact Review-Journal Washington Bureau Chief Steve Tetreault at stetreault@reviewjournal.com or 202-783-1760. Find him on Twitter: @STetreaultDC.