The creation of a national
conservation area on public lands around the Gold Butte region south of
Mesquite earned strong support among Clark County residents contacted
in a recent poll.
The poll, initiated by the Friends of Gold
Butte and financed by the Nevada Wilderness Coalition, showed that 66
percent of respondents favored the idea of protecting the wilderness
area around Gold Butte, an old mining town 65 miles northeast of Las
Vegas.
The Gold Butte area, which includes a 32,000-acre swath of
wild lands known as Mud Hills, is culturally rich with artifacts such
as turn-of-the-century gold mining remnants and ancient rock art
etchings in sandstone by Anasazi and Paiute Indians.
"This shows
the support is high for the area to be preserved and the area needs to
get protection," Friends of Gold Butte President Nancy Hall said.
The poll results released Thursday
were based on the responses of 400 likely voters. A telephone survey
was conducted from April 29 to May 1 by Public Opinion Strategies, a
Republican political affairs research firm headquartered in Alexandria,
Va.
The poll's margin of error is plus or minus 4.9 percent.
Support
for the proposal was particularly high among those who identified
themselves as politically independent, voters younger than 45, women
under age 55, and somewhat conservative voters who use public lands for
recreational activities.
Hall said she intends to present the
survey to elected officials to bolster the group's call for a national
conservation area while leaving open 480 miles of area roads, as
proposed by the Bureau of Land Management.
John Wallin, director
of the Nevada Wilderness Project, said his concern is the rate and
acceleration of growth in the Gold Butte region.
"The whole smart
growth or lack of smart growth in the region has become a bigger issue
than it was five years ago," Wallin said.
Environmental advocates
fear that damage caused by off-road vehicles and population growth
around Mesquite will take a toll on cultural and natural resources,
including species habitat, if the area is not given more federal
protection.
Don Wall, president of Southern Nevada Off-Road
Enthusiasts, said that Gold Butte and many public lands areas in Nevada
have historically been used for off-highway vehicle recreation. He
understands the need for preservation, but Wall said there needs to be
balance.
"I appreciate wilderness and there should be land set
aside, but there are millions and millions of acres already set aside,"
Wall said.
The poll question dealing with the national
conservation area informed those surveyed that nonwilderness lands
"would be managed primarily for conservation but would allow for a
wider range of uses such as mountain biking and continued off-road
vehicle use."
The respondents included 184 who identified
themselves as Democrats, 148 who said they were Republicans and 53 who
said they were independents. The rest weren't assigned a political
affiliation.
Some 64 percent of survey participants said they
either frequently or sometimes use public lands in Nevada. Twenty
percent listed their primary use as off-road vehicle riding and 54
percent said they use public lands for hiking or camping.
Contact reporter Keith Rogers at krogers@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0308.
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