Trust bureaucrats with land-use decisions

To the editor:

In response to your Aug. 21 editorial about the closure of Henderson’s Pipeline Road:

State and federal land managers, even under the Bush administration, cite off-road vehicle use as one of the major sources of damage to our public lands. Off-roaders show little responsibility in their activity, creating new roads that cross archeological sites, sensitive habitats and highly erosive slopes.

The direct cost to the taxpayer for the degradation of public lands includes increased wildfire frequency, introduction of invasive species and dust and soil deposited into our air and streams. In Clark County alone, the cost of dust mitigation from off-road vehicles is estimated to be around $16 million.

The Review-Journal editors are incorrect when they state blowing dust is a normal feature of the desert. Dust is a feature of a damaged landscape and — with the exception of dry lake beds or sandy deserts — a healthy desert will produce little dust in high winds. The breaking of the cryptobiotic crust by off-road vehicles exposes the soils beneath to the winds, creating dust storms with resultant respiratory problems.

Off-roaders need to understand that the Bureau of Land Management and Forest Service manage the land for all of us, not for a minority who scar the land, introduce noise where we should reasonably expect quiet and degrade the outdoor experience for all other users.

A right of access to our public lands does not translate into the foolish argument of a right to drive vehicles all over the place regardless of the impact. Excluding vehicles does not “lock people out” because humans have colonized islands in the middle of the Pacific Ocean and every continent, except Antarctica, without motorized travel.

When citizens seek to protect an area for its beauty and biological integrity, the Review-Journal editors have advocated they purchase the property. Organizations including the Nature Conservancy, the American Land Conservancy other national and regional environmental organizations have done just that.

But when confronted by folks whose activities degrade our landscape, the editors don’t advocate the same approach — purchasing land for off-road activities — or even an expectation of behaving responsibly, but rather assert that off-roaders have a nonexistent “right.”

The roads the BLM and Forest Service are closing are generally user-created and exceptionally destructive. It is foolish to argue that folks who use our public lands merely as a backdrop for racing across the landscape or seeing how high up a hillside they can go are in a better position to decide land management policies than college-educated professionals in our state and federal land agencies.

Steve Brittingham

MOUNT CHARLESTON

Suicide prevention

To the editor:

Many thanks to the Review-Journal and Annette Wells for Friday’s excellent article spotlighting suicide prevention efforts in Nevada. I applaud you for carefully following the guidelines for “safe reporting on suicide” from the Suicide Prevention Resource Center (sprc.org).

Since my son’s death by suicide in 1993, Nevada’s suicide rate has consistently hovered around double the national average. I’m encouraged by the establishment of the Nevada Office of Suicide Prevention and the Nevada Coalition for Suicide Prevention — and the Garrett Lee Smith Memorial Act federal youth suicide prevention grant that was awarded to Nevada in 2005. All three programs are dedicated to collaboratively implementing the Nevada Suicide Prevention Plan on a daily basis, and we thank you for letting our community know that help is available and lives can be saved.

To further increase public awareness about suicide prevention, the Nevada Coalition for Suicide Prevention will host “Walk in Memory — Walk for Hope” on Saturday at UNLV. For more information, please call the Office of Suicide Prevention at 486-8225.

LINDA FLATT

HENDERSON

In debt

To the editor:

The national media has completely missed a major negative milestone. On Sept. 5, the national debt went over $9 trillion. America’s debt is now at $29,739 per person. The interest to be paid on the debt in 2007 will be about $385 billion.

Without paying anything on the principal, each citizen is paying an average of $1,271 in interest. An average family of four owes about $5,085 per year in debt maintenance taxes.

President Clinton’s last year in office saw a rise in the debt of $17.9 billion. President Bush has raised the debt more than $3.34 trillion. Basically, Mr. Bush has been borrowing all of Mr. Clinton’s 2000 debt amount every 13 days.

What sort of a country could we have if the taxpayers were not burdened with this debt? In 1863, President Lincoln stated, “The South is in front of me and the bankers are behind me. I fear the bankers more.”

Our national debt is far worse than 9/11. An internal problem of this magnitude is more dangerous than any external problem.

PATRICK HAYNES

LAS VEGAS