Paleontologists meeting Las Vegas gives Tule Springs conservation a big boost

Written by Jim Sloan

Saturday, 26 November 2011 18:13

Efforts to make the 13,000-acre Tule Springs at the northern corner of the Las Vegas Valley a national monument got a boost earlier this month when the Society of Vertebrate Paleontology held its annual conference in Las Vegas.

Tule Springs is considered the “most significant ice age fossil site” in the United States because it’s chock full of fossils from animals that roamed the area between 7,000 and 200,000 years ago. There are 438 Ice Age fossil sites. Those critters included everything from mammoths to ground sloths – as well as the lions and other predators that came by to hunt them.

According to the Las Vegas Review Journal, certain archaeological features of the area have already been covered by housing developments or damaged by off-road vehicle traffic. Gov. Brian Sandoval, Sen. Harry Reid and a host of local leaders support creating a national monument managed by the National Park Service, but there’s no word on when a federal bill will be introduced.

One hitch is that NV Energy wants to put a transmission line through the area. The utility thinks Nevada can have both a transmission line and a national monument, but supporters of the park say putting in infrastructure projects can impact the 200,000-year archaeological story that is currently on display in the area.