Reno Gazette Journal - August 2, 2006 

Ensign, Reid introduce new land bill

Washoe County could buy future parkland near the historic Ballardini Ranch, and federal funding could be provided for a decade-long effort to reduce fire danger at Lake Tahoe under a lands bill pushed by Nevada lawmakers.

U.S. Sens. John Ensign and Harry Reid introduced on Tuesday the White Pine County Lands Bill, bipartisan legislation designed to expand economic development in the financially troubled Southern Nevada county while providing for sale of federal land there.

But the bill also amends the existing Southern Nevada Public Land Management Act to provide substantial benefits to Northern Nevada, the senators and others said.

In Reno, the legislation could save Washoe County taxpayers millions of dollars to acquire as much as 220 acres near the Ballardini Ranch, a scenic hillside property that was the focus of controversy.

Last May, Washoe County commissioners abandoned efforts to condemn the 1,019-acre Ballardini Ranch and seize the land for a public park. A settlement pact with the ranch's owners, Minnesota-based developers Evans Creek Ltd., left open the possibility the county could purchase 222 acres still owned by the Ballardini family, located south of the ranch.

Language authored by Reid and Ensign would allow money raised from the sale of federal land in Las Vegas Valley to go toward the Ballardini deal. No precise amount of funding was identified, but the money could go toward the purchase and development of the property into a park with trails.

"It's a good deal for everybody. Everybody wins," said Bob Larkin, chairman of the Washoe County Commission. "This is going to add a definite point of access into the national forest lands that's been needed for a long, long time."

The bill also provides for a 10-year program to reduce wildfire danger around the Lake Tahoe Basin, the Carson Range and the Spring Mountains near Las Vegas.

"This bill will protect Lake Tahoe and the entire Sierra Front from the threat of catastrophic fire," Ensign said.

The Southern Nevada Public Land Management Act has already provided millions to thin Tahoe's forests and reduce fire danger, but the new legislation provides a much higher degree of certainty for future funding, said Allen Biaggi, director of the Nevada Department of Conservation and Natural Resources and chairman of the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency.

"It provides the necessary dollars to address the very real fire danger in the Tahoe Basin," Biaggi said. "It is the number one priority for the board and this is exactly what is needed."

The amount of money needed to reduce fire danger by thinning forest and similar activities would be identified year-to-year and no figure is in the legislation. Cost of a decade of work in the Lake Tahoe Basin and along the Carson Range could be about $250 million, according to Ensign aides.

Biaggi also praised parts of the legislation that would significantly expand two existing state parks and add more than 6,000 acres to the Steptoe Valley Wildlife Management Area.

The bill also designates 545,000 acres as wilderness in 13 new areas, including in the Schell Creek Range and Mount Grafton areas of Eastern Nevada.

"The wilderness component of the bill protects some of Nevada's outstanding wild lands," said John Wallin, director of the Nevada Wilderness Project.

JEFF DELONG
8/2/2006