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Help Protect the Gold Butte Region
ACTION NEEDED: Please Please take a minute to
contact:
Congresswoman Berkley to thank her for introducing
the legislation
The Clark County Commission and ask them for their
support for this legislation, and
Congressman Porter and ask him to support this
legislation.
Addresses and phone numbers are to the right.
Gold Butte legislation introduced
On Friday, September 26, 2008, Congresswoman Berkley introduced
the Gold Butte National Conservation Area Act. This act would create the Gold Butte
National Conservation Area and designate 7 BLM managed areas as wilderness and 6
National Park Service areas in the Lake Mead NRA.
Some of the areas include the BLM Million Hills Wilderness
Study Area, Bitter Ridge, Billy Goat Peak as well as the Scanlon Wash and Twin Springs
Wilderness in Lake Mead NRA. This legislation is supported by the local government
in Mesquite as well as by the Clark County Commission. The legislation is also
consistent with the BLM’s travel plan for the Gold Butte region. Read the bill.
Background
Northeast of Las Vegas waits the
350,000-acre region known as Gold Butte, which offers wondrous geology, intriguing
history and prehistory, remote and undeveloped camping opportunities, important and
fragile wildlife species, and timeless solitude.
Impressive rock outcrops in the Gold Butte region © Ron Hunter
Gold Butte lies east of the Overton Arm of Lake Mead, west
of the Arizona border, south of Virgin Peak, and north of the Colorado River. In
this region, the Great Basin, Mojave, Sonoran and Colorado Plateau eco-regions all
meet, each contributing a colorful piece to the region. The Bureau of Land Management
has designated several Areas of Critical Environmental Concern (ACEC) in the region
to protect critical habitat for desert tortoise and 77 other plant and animal species,
fragile rock art and other cultural resources, historic mining districts and unique
scenery. Unfortunately, ACECs are administrative, which means they can be removed
and don’t offer the permanence of Congressional protection like wilderness or
national conservation area designation.
In 2002, the Clark County public lands bill designated two
small wilderness areas—Lime Canyon and Jumbo Springs. But these two areas comprise
only 28,000 acres of this large, beautiful landscape. Many other places, such as
Billy Goat Peak, the Million Hills Wilderness Study Area, Black Ridge and North
Bitter Ridge are home to wonderful biological, cultural, scenic and historic
resources that deserve protection from short-sighted ignorance and recklessness.
It’s also feeling the brunt of excessive and uncontrolled
off-road vehicle use and other disrespectful human activities. The lack of management
or control of human activities in Gold Butte leaves means that many of the things
that make this region wonderful might be destroyed before it’s too late.
Poll Shows Strong Support for Gold Butte
A recent poll of Clark County voters found broad, robust
support for permanent protection of public lands in the Gold Butte region, which
lies south of I-15 and Mesquite in southern Nevada. The poll was commissioned by
the Nevada Wilderness Coalition and Friends of Gold Butte to determine public
opinion about conservation of the Gold Butte region.
You can read the entire press release.

Vista from Billy Goat Peak © Ron Hunter
Why this legislation is important
Gold Butte is the unprotected orphan of Grand
Canyon-Parashant National Monument, which lies on the Arizona side of the state
line. Gold Butte contains equally beautiful and valuable landscape, wildlife and
cultural history, separated only by an arbitrary state line.
Gold Butte is Nevada’s piece of the Grand Canyon.
Gold Butte is important to numerous wildlife species,
including desert tortoise, desert bighorn sheep, the banded Gila monster, great
horned owls and a great variety of reptiles, birds and mammals.
Gold Butte has abundant archaeological resources,
including rock art, caves, agave roasting pits and camp sites dating back at
least 3,000 years.
Gold Butte also has notable historical resources that
deserve conservation, including Spanish and pioneer mining camps dating back to
the 1700s.
Uncontrolled off-road vehicle use ravages sensitive
soils and sensitive desert tortoise habitat. Irresponsible vehicle use, vandalism,
theft and littering are destroying rock art sites and other pieces of Gold Butte’s
priceless archaeological heritage.
A combination of wilderness and national conservation
area status will provide Gold Butte the management presence and information visitors
need in order to learn how to respect this under-appreciated national treasure.
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How to take action:
"Wilderness is disappearing like a snow bank in the hot August
sun."
- Robert Marshall
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