Letter to the Editor

Too much of Nevada in hands of feds

I recently witnessed dumping of trash onto BLM land about one mile due east of the Nugget beyond the new laboratory nearing completion.

Stumbling onto the scene of what appeared to be bagged household garbage tossed from the back of a pickup, my initial feelings were quite negative towards the dumpers. Didn’t matter though, as they drove off before I could get the license plate. But then I started thinking: What is the real crime being committed?

Is not the cavalier attitude that so many have towards the land because nearly all of it is owned by the federal government? So if people have no stake in the land owned by an entity 2,500 miles away and seemingly accountable only to elite “environmentalists”, most of whom don’t even live in Nevada, why not treat it as a garbage dump?

The first opportunity for Nevadans to take charge of their destiny is right now during the comment period about “Areas of Critical Economic Concern” (ACEC) identified in BLM’s “Resource Management Plan.” Of greatest concern to Pahrump are three proposed ACEC’s: “Old Spanish Trail,” “Pahrump Valley to McCullough Mountains” and “Pahrump Valley” totaling 367,280 acres totally foreclosed to human enjoyment.

Notably, 274,061 acres of that were designated by the Nevada Department of Wildlife. As with the water fluoridation ads, it’s disappointing that organs of Governor Sandoval’s administration are working in cahoots with the Obama administration.

The “E” in ACEC also stands for Economic as in “Areas of Critical Economic Concern.” Looking around Nye County and Nevada I see many signs of economic desperation aggravated by the impediments of so much land locked up in the federal deep freeze.

Let the feds know how unacceptable this situation is by emailing your comments to: sndo_rmp_revision@blm.gov or via the web at http://tinyurl.com/qzvaht7. Comments must be submitted by February 6.

Bill Stremmel