Change on the range?

Narrow and often overlooked, the Fortification Range now is being discussed in Congress

Mark Vanderhoff

RENO GAZETTE-JOURNAL 9/1/2004 03:27 pm

The Fortification Range doesn’t look like much on the map. It’s one of the shortest, skinniest ranges in Eastern Nevada. Its high point, 8,028-foot Patterson Peak, is dwarfed by nearby Wheeler Peak, the state’s second-highest summit at 13,063 feet. “You probably wouldn’t pick it out when there’s so much else around,” said Joe Fitzgerald, 47, of Sacramento. Considering that wilderness areas often center on lofty, craggy peaks, the Fortifications might seem an unlikely candidate for wilderness designation. Fitzgerald, however, supports wilderness protection for the range after its lush Cottonwood Canyon and its castle-like cliffs surprised him during a visit four years ago. A wilderness area is a congressionally designated piece of federal land that maintains the primitive character of a place by prohibiting mining, logging and mechanized recreation, including off-road vehicles. A swath of the Fortification Range is one of 14 places in Lincoln County proposed as wilderness areas in the Lincoln County Conservation, Recreation and Development Act of 2004. The act was created to aid development in Lincoln County and Southern Nevada. The bill was introduced in the House and Senate this summer. The House held a hearing on it in July, and the Senate has scheduled a hearing Sept. 18. The bill would allow the Bureau of Land Management to sell some land surrounding communities in Lincoln County and would create public rights-of-way for water pipelines and utility corridors. The bill has some conservationists torn. On one hand, they worry the bill makes it too easy for the Southern Nevada Water Authority to take water from Lincoln County without properly studying the environmental effects. On the other hand, the bill preserves nearly 770,000 acres of land. Unusual geography Not many people have visited or even know about the Fortification Range. Fitzgerald has traveled through nearly 80 of the more than 400 mountain ranges of the Great Basin and chronicled his findings on the Web site GreatBasinNaturalHistory.org. Not knowing what to expect, he included the Fortifications in a trip to Eastern Nevada. Upon arrival, an antelope loped ahead of his vehicle, keeping a lead at more than 20 mph before bounding off, he said. “I was pleasantly surprised,” he said. The next day, he worked his way up Cottonwood Canyon. The key-shaped canyon’s narrow slots and a lush wash with cottonwoods, willows, scrub oak, shrubs and wildflowers open up into a wide amphitheater of castle-wall cliffs. He spent the better part of a day climbing to the Fortification’s crest above the canyon. “I kept reaching places that were blocked by cliffs,” he said. “You just can’t tell what kind of terrain lies up ahead.” Fitzgerald never got to see the Gouge Eye, a C-shaped amphitheater nearly four miles wide in the middle, presumably named because it resembles a gouged eye socket. That’s a must-see, said Jack Tribble, the BLM’s lead outdoor recreation planner in the Ely ranger district. Tribble called the range one of his favorites and has been on many day hikes in the area. Change on the range? “The more you get into the range, the more you like it,” he said. The rock walls with their cracks, nooks and overhangs provide shelter for golden eagles, ferruginous hawks, goshawks, falcons and owls. A “relic” stand of Ponderosa pine thrives in the range, left over from a time when Nevada’s climate was cooler and wetter. The stands, which usually don’t regenerate, are rare in Eastern Nevada, he said. The range owes its narrow profile and prevalence of cliffs to the volcanic eruptions that laid its rock foundation, said Eric Christiansen, a geologist at Brigham Young University who was part of the team that mapped the range’s geology. A volcano that erupted millions of years ago where the Fortifications now stand laid down the first layer of debris, called an ash-flow tuff. That small eruption laid down a thick layer of tuff that did not weld, or stick together, very well, making the bottom layer weak. Later, another eruption laid down a hotter layer of ash-flow tuff that welded together very well, making that layer hard. Cliffs formed instead of slopes because the weak bottom layer eroded so much easier than the hard top layer, Christiansen said. Wonders and weeds On an August trip to the Fortification Range, Ely ecologist Lee Turner noticed some sunflowers, penstemon flowers and mints in Cottonwood Canyon. He also noticed some noxious thistle, a type of weed that spreads quickly and interferes with native ecosystems. Many noxious weeds grow best in disturbed soil, so a road creates the perfect way for those weeds to quickly travel to new areas. “Just imagine if you cut a straight swath a mile in either direction,” he said. “Where would the weeds go?” Turner would like to see the Fortification Range become a wilderness area because wilderness designation will help prevent off-road motorists from pioneering roads in the area. “Roads are probably the No. 1 way weeds get in,” he said. An undisturbed Fortification Range also will help create a corridor of habitat that will stretch through Great Basin National Park and the Mount Moriah Wilderness Area, both to the north. Large swaths of such areas help preserve the wildlife and vegetation habitats, he said. Already the area is somewhat protected: Much of the Fortification Range is a wilderness study area, a place identified by the BLM as a potential wilderness area. Visitors must remain on existing roads, said BLM recreation planner Steve Leslie. Someone pioneered illegal roads there to cut firewood a few years ago, he said, but new road building has been stopped there since. Threats like that helped convince John Wallin, director of the Nevada Wilderness Project, that the Fortification Range needs protection. Wallin pointed to the Duck Creek Basin, an area near Ely, where uncontrolled off-road use created a maze of roads. The roads angered hunters who said the motorized vehicles and habitat destruction harmed the wildlife. “Some people say leave it alone and don’t want to draw attention to it, but I believe we need to protect it while we can, before any damage can be done,” he said. Land in Lincoln Under the leadership of Wallin, a group of citizens and environmental groups called the Nevada Wilderness Coalition proposed about 2.5 million acres for such protection in Lincoln County. Fewer than half of the proposed areas made the legislation, and some that did were whittled down in size. U.S. Sen. John Ensign, R-Nev., who introduced the bill and defended it against anti-wilderness attacks in a July 20 hearing, said the bill strikes a good balance among many different interests. “Just like when we did the Clark County act, there are people who say it’s not enough (wilderness) and there are people who say it’s too much,” he said, referring to the Clark County Conservation of Public Land and Natural Resources Act. That bill also allowed the BLM to trade or sell some of the land it managed, created new wilderness areas and set up utility corridors for future development. Like the Clark County bill, the Lincoln County bill has bipartisan support from Nevada’s congressional delegation. Democratic Sen. Harry Reid co-sponsored the Senate version, while Republican Rep. Jon Porter and Democratic Rep. Shelley Berkley are co-sponsoring the House version with support from Republican Rep. Jim Gibbons. The trend of large, multifaceted lands bills has attracted the attention of conservationists for at least two reasons. Part of the Lincoln County bill creates public rights-of-way for water pipelines that will make it easier to ship water out of the county. Ellen Pillard, chair of Nevada’s Toiyabe Chapter of the Sierra Club, worries that could set a bad precedent that will allow large urban areas like Las Vegas and Reno to take already scarce water supplies from rural communities. “In Lincoln County, we’re talking about something like 4,500 people with no economic engine going up against the Southern Nevada Water Authority and their money,” she said. “They can’t possibly compete against all these interests.” Change on the range? Testifying against the lands bill, Pillard had to balance her criticism of the water provisions with her support for the wilderness areas. Ultimately, she believes the Lincoln bill will pass, so her group will push for more studies of water resources and more say for rural communities in water negotiations. Wallin is also critical of the bill’s water provisions, but he focuses on the creation of wilderness areas. Armed with a statewide inventory of lands eligible for wilderness area, he’s ready to fight for more wilderness when legislators propose another lands bill for a different county. “It’s not the wilderness moving the lands bill forward, it’s the water, and we believe any lands bill should include a provision for wilderness protection,” he said. Copyright © 2004 The Reno Gazette-Journal