Pneumonia outbreak now called ‘worst case scenario’ for bighorn sheep

Bighorn Sheep are shown on the trail to Icebox Canyon in Red Rock Conservation Area. In what wildlife biologists are calling “a worst-case scenario,” bighorn sheep in four Southern Nevada mountain ranges have now tested positive for bacteria that causes deadly pneumonia, including one herd infected with two different strains. (Anton/Las Vegas Review-Journal)

By HENRY BREAN
LAS VEGAS REVIEW-JOURNAL

In what wildlife biologists are calling “a worst-case scenario,” bighorn sheep in four Southern Nevada mountain ranges have now tested positive for bacteria that causes deadly pneumonia, including one herd infected with two different strains.

Nevada Department of Wildlife officials announced Wednesday that a bacterial pneumonia outbreak first discovered in the River Mountains between Henderson and Boulder City in August appears to have spread to sheep in the Eldorado, McCullough and Spring Mountains.

The herd in the Spring Mountains also has tested positive for a second strain of bacteria that may have spread north from an outbreak that swept through Mojave National Preserve in California.

Bighorn have no natural resistance to pneumonia and tend to die at a high rate. Those that survive become carriers, infecting and eventually killing newborn lambs in a cycle that can diminish a herd for up to a decade, if not kill it off altogether.

The widening outbreak also seriously complicates efforts to restore bighorn to its historic ranges throughout Nevada and the West, since many of the animals being relocated come from Southern Nevada.

“This is a worst case scenario,” wildlife biologist Pat Cummings said in a written statement. “Given the geography between the Spring Mountains and the outbreak area in California, we were concerned this might be possible, especially with the ability of bighorn rams to cover vast amounts of territory in their wanderings. There is no way to limit these animals’ movements.”

There also is no way to treat sick animals or vaccinate healthy ones against the illness, which does not pose a risk to humans.

“We’re almost at the mercy of Mother Nature,” said department of wildlife spokesman Doug Nielsen.

When the outbreak in California was discovered last spring, wildlife managers briefly considered — then decided against — the wholesale slaughter of bighorn sheep to stop the disease from spreading across the entire 1.6 million acre preserve and beyond.

Since then, more diseased bighorns were found in the preserve’s Marble range.

Wildlife officials don’t know for sure how many sheep have died of pneumonia or how many more will die, but population numbers appear to be down in the affected areas on both sides of the border, said Peregrine Wolff, the state wildlife veterinarian for Nevada.

The bacteria that causes pneumonia can linger in bighorn sheep herds and continue to kill off lambs “for years and years and years,” Wolff said. “Our concern is will these numbers ever recover or will they just continue to be depressed?”

Wildlife officials also worry the outbreak could jump to other herds, including one in the Muddy Mountains near Moapa Valley that ranks as the largest herd in Southern Nevada.

Wolff said “nothing really” can be done to stop it. Trying to kill sick animals or eliminate an infected herd to halt the spread of bacteria is “far from an exact science,” she said.

“We’re not going to go in and lay down every sheep. We’re not going to nuke them.”

Instead, wildlife officials are asking the public’s help to chart the course of the outbreak. Anyone who spots sick or dead bighorn sheep is asked to record it, preferably with a picture and GPS coordinates.

Reports can be made by calling the department of wildlife’s Las Vegas office at 702-486-5127 or sending an email to pcummings@ndow.org.

Wolff suspects the outbreak in Southern Nevada has been underway since 2012.

The latest discovery of infected animals came about through testing conducted by the Southern Nevada Bighorn Sheep Disease Investigation Project, a partnership involving the Department of Wildlife and two conservation and hunting organizations, the Fraternity of the Desert Bighorn and the Wild Sheep Foundation.

In November, the partnership collected samples from a total of 33 bighorn, 10 each in the Eldorado and McCullough ranges and 13 in the Spring Mountains. In all but two cases, the sheep were tested and released unharmed.

Since September, wildlife officials have caught, killed and dissected one sick lamb from the Eldorado Mountains and one sick lamb from the River Mountains, both of which showed signs of pneumonia.

Bighorn sheep once roamed nearly every mountain range in Nevada, but unregulated hunting, habitat loss and disease spread by domestic livestock reduced the population to about 1,200 animals in a handful of areas, none of them north of Ely or west of Hawthorne.

Since 1967, wildlife officials have restored Nevada’s official animal to more than 60 mountain ranges and helped boost their total population to more than 11,000 adults, more than any other state. The River Mountains herd played a key role in the recovery, supplying more than a quarter of the nearly 2,900 sheep captured and relocated over the past 45 years. “That was our jewel,” Nielsen said.

Not anymore. Officials have put a stop to the relocation of bighorns from any herd showing signs of the bacteria. Wolff said the infected herds could be off limits for years, if not forever.

945,000 acres protected from mining for 20 years

Federal agency withdraws critical environment in Southern Nevada

Petroglyphs are shown in the Sloan Canyon National Conservation Area. The area is part of 945,000 acres in Southern Nevada that the Bureau of Land Management is protecting from new mining activity in Southern Nevada for 20 years. (Mona Shield Payne/Special to the Sun / File photo)

By Mary Manning
Las Vegas Sun

The Bureau of Land Management signed an order today that withdraws almost 945,000 acres of sensitive public lands from new mining activity in Southern Nevada for 20 years.

The bureau said it had taken the action to protect 24 areas of critical environmental concern in Clark and Nye counties. Existing mining and geothermal claims will not be affected, the order said.

The sensitive areas include cultural sites, such as petroglyphs and archaeological sites, and wildlife habitat that is crucial for survival of the Mojave Desert tortoise, the southwestern willow flycatcher bird, woundfin and Virgin River chub fish and other species in the Ash Springs area.

These critical areas had been threatened from growth in the Las Vegas Valley, the bureau said. In order for threatened and endangered species to recover, their habitats need to be protected, the order said.

The lands affected in the critical areas have been temporarily set aside since the Clark County Conservation of Public Land and Natural Resource Act of 2002 was passed. BLM extended that order in 2007.

The withdrawal order will be published in the Federal Register on Monday.

Last December, the Center for Biological Diversity submitted comments supporting the withdrawal while the public hearing process was under way.

"The BLM's actions demonstrate a commitment by that agency to protect Southern Nevada's natural and cultural heritage," said Rob Mrowka, conservation advocate for the Center for Biological Diversity. "It is significant action, but the threats from sprawl development, groundwater exploitation, illicit off-road vehicle use and poorly located energy projects remain and will continue to be a challenge for federal land managing agencies."

Some of the areas listed in the land withdrawal order include Amargosa mesquite trees, Ash Meadows, Arden historic sites, Arrow Canyon, Gold Butte and town site, Hidden Valley, Keyhole Canyon, Mormon Mesa tortoise habitat, Rainbow Gardens, Red Rock Spring, River Mountains, Sloan rock art and Virgin River critical areas.

Interior Blocks New Mining to Protect Tortoise in Southern Nevada

By PATRICK REIS
New York Times

The Interior Department issued an order today banning new mining on nearly 1 million acres in southern Nevada to protect the desert tortoise and other protected species.

The order blocks new claims for the next 20 years but does not affect existing mine operations. Interior originally proposed the ban in late 2007.

The Bureau of Land Management had already designated the tracts in question as "areas of critical environmental concern," as much of the land forms river corridors that provide habitat for desert tortoises and endangered birds and fish.

The area is also a historic hot spot for gold mining, and U.S. Geological Survey evaluations suggest more mineral deposits remain in the region.

Lisa Belenky, an attorney with the Center for Biological Diversity, which has filed several lawsuits against potential desert development to protect the tortoise, said the order adds desperately needed protection.

"This is a very important step to make sure there won't be mining companies coming in to override the protections," Belenky said, adding that the large quantities of mining wastes were incompatible with protecting natural resources.

But Carol Raulston, spokeswoman for the National Mining Association, said putting almost 1 million acres off-limits to new mining ignores larger threats to the tortoise -- oil and gas development, agriculture and natural predators.

"Mining operations have a great deal of successful experience in protecting the desert tortoise," Raulston said. "As such, it seems incongruous to single out mining."

NV Energy to buy power from Searchlight solar plant

By Steve Green
Las Vegas Sun

The small town of Searchlight in Southern Nevada moved another step toward becoming a big energy center Thursday with the announcement of a deal by NV Energy to buy power from a big solar plant planned for the community.

Searchlight, on U.S. 95 between Boulder City and the California town of Needles, is already proposed to be the site of a big wind energy farm to be operated by Duke Energy. With 161 turbines producing 370 megawatts of power on public land totaling 26,000 acres, that project could serve 100,000 homes.

NV Energy and American Capital Energy announced Thursday they have entered into a long-term power purchase agreement for the sale of energy produced from ACE's 20-megawatt solar photovoltaic power plant to be constructed in the desert near Searchlight, 55 miles south of Las Vegas.

The project, expected to be completed by mid-2010, will be larger than the 14-MW photovoltaic plant completed in 2007 at Nellis Air Force Base. The Nellis plant, toured by President Obama on a recent visit to Las Vegas, is the largest photovoltaic facility currently operating in the United States, NV Energy said.

At 20 megawatts, the Searchlight plant will serve about 4,000 homes, said Tom Anderson, ACE's director of Southwest Business Development. In comparison, Acciona's Boulder City solar plant generates 64 megawatts. It uses a different technology in which concentrated sunlight heats a liquid.

"This is another major step in our commitment to bringing power from renewable resources to the citizens of Nevada," Michael Yackira, NV Energy president and chief executive, said in a statement on Thursday's deal. "Our state is blessed with abundant solar, geothermal and wind resources, and expanding the use of these resources through power purchases of this kind or direct investment in renewable projects is one of our top priorities."

Terms of the power purchase agreement, which is subject to approval by the Public Utilities Commission of Nevada, were not disclosed.

The agreement will assist NV Energy in meeting Nevada’s renewable energy standard, which was recently increased by the Legislature. The standard now requires that 25 percent of energy be generated by renewable resources and energy efficiency and conservation programs by 2025.

The companies said all of the electricity output from the plant will go to customers of NV Energy’s southern service territory.

Construction of the project is expected to create more than 120 jobs and will further develop Nevada’s burgeoning renewable energy workforce, the companies said.

"American Capital Energy is excited about the Searchlight Solar I solar PV project. We are honored to have been selected to work with NV Energy to deliver clean, renewable solar energy to Southern Nevada," Tom Hunton, CEO of Massachusetts-based ACE, said in a statement.

In a presentation earlier this year to the Searchlight Town Advisory Board, ACE officials said the plant is planned for 215 acres of private land 1 mile northwest of U.S. 95 and state Highway 164 headed toward Nipton, Calif.

Anderson said the cost of the project isn't being disclosed and that the deal with NV Energy will help the company obtain financing for the project.

The company plans to work on construction permitting this year and start building the plant in early 2010, assuming the power-purchase deal is approved by the Public Utilities Commission.

ACE, he said, has built about 20 energy projects while its executives combined have built hundreds of such projects.

He said ACE has been working with the Searchlight community and feels it has support there for the project.

"NV Energy is becoming one of the more progressive renewable energy utilities," he added.

Assemblyman blasts park service interference in solar projects

By MARK WAITE
Pahrump Valley Times

Assemblyman Ed Goedhart, R-Amargosa Valley, fired off a scathing letter to National Park Service Regional Director Jonathan Jarvis, saying Jarvis' objections to building solar power plants on public lands was "totally out of step with national policy to create jobs through clean energy and increase national security."

The letter, dated April 27, said Jarvis' letter to Amy Leuders, acting state director of the Nevada Bureau of Land Management, is a "misguided attempt" to influence BLM and U.S. Department of Energy policies.

Jarvis' letter said the National Park Service supports BLM efforts to promote renewable energy. But he added, "The NPS asserts that it is not in the public interest for the BLM to approve plans of development for water-cooled solar energy projects in the arid basins of Southern Nevada."

Solar power plants using water-cooled technology would use large amounts of water, Jarvis wrote. He urged the encouragement of air-cooling and photo-voltaic technology.

Areas with high solar energy potential also are areas of scarce water resources, he wrote.

Jarvis asked the BLM to consider regional impacts of large-scale solar projects on National Park Service facilities like Devil's Hole, Lake Mead National Recreation Area and the Mojave National Preserve.

Jarvis said affects that should be evaluated include water availability, degradation of visual resources like the night sky, air quality impacts from construction and operations, sound impacts if turbines or cooling towers are used and interruption of wildlife habitat.

"Depending on the location of these projects, large-scale concentrating solar energy projects in Southern Nevada that require large amounts of water potentially face several water rights-related obstacles in obtaining the necessary water for their projects," Jarvis said. "These obstacles are based around several rulings and orders that the Nevada State Engineer's office has issued in recent years."

In particular he referred to Amargosa Valley, where the state engineer ruled the basin is over-appropriated by 18,000 acre feet per year and applications for new water rights will be denied.

Goedhart said state engineer's ruling 1197, issued last November, precludes moving points of diversion for water rights in Amargosa Valley closer to Devil's Hole, home of an endangered pupfish.

But Goedhart added, "Farmers who sell or lease their existing water rights can keep the existing wells in place by piping the water to the solar project site. Indeed some water right diversions will be moved north and away from Devil's Hole, mitigating any current effects on Devil's Hole."

"I personally have spoken to the governor's office, and Nevada will not stand in the way of converting agricultural water to commercial water for the purposes of power generation, a higher, value-added, economic benefit," Goedhart wrote.

Jarvis said the state engineer issued an order holding in abeyance applications for water rights in basins north of Lake Mead National Recreation Area, where solar energy projects were proposed pending further studies.

Jarvis quoted ruling 5115 pertaining to that water basin, which states, "The state engineer does not believe it is prudent to use substantial quantities of newly appropriated ground water for water-cooled power plants in one of the driest places in the nation particularly with the uncertainty as to what quantity of water is available from the resource, if any."

"Please note that the deputy engineer does not set policy. We in the Nevada State Legislature, in conjunction with the governor, set policy," Goedhart wrote.

Goedhart said a report by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory showed the construction of 2,000 megawatts of solar power plants in Nevada would create $500 million in taxes, 5,900 construction jobs for six years and 1,200 full-time operation and maintenance jobs.

Goedhart said Nevada's economy is struggling with the contraction of gaming, real estate and tourism.

"Any, and I repeat any attempt to override Nevada water law and compromise its sovereignty over the waters of the state of Nevada will be vigorously opposed," he wrote.

It’s spring in Las Vegas: Mojave Max emerges

By Jeff Pope
Las Vegas Sun





Mojave Max. (BLM)


The temperature topped 80 degrees in Southern Nevada on March 18 and Major League Baseball opened the season on Sunday.

But it didn’t officially become spring in the Las Vegas Valley until Tuesday when Mojave Max, the desert tortoise, emerged from his burrow at the Desert Tortoise Conservation Center. Clark County’s prognosticating weather tortoise emerged officially at 2:37 p.m.

This was the first emergence of the current tortoise known as Max. The previous tortoise died June 30 at an estimated 65 years of age.

The current Max is a male, about 19 years old, that was picked up along Interstate 15 and turned in to the Gabriel Humane Society in California.

Like other Southern Nevada reptiles, he enters a burrow to brumate -- the reptilian form of hibernation -- every winter and emerges when temperatures are right and the days are longer.

Mojave Max has emerged as late as April 14 and as early as Feb. 14 in past years.

Clark County has sponsored a Mojave Max emergence contest so school children can guess when the tortoise will leave his burrow in the spring.

The entries are being tabulated and the official winner will be announced soon. The winning student will receive a year-long pass to federal parks and a laptop computer. The winner’s entire class will receive a field trip to Mojave Max’s habitat, Mojave Max Olympic-style medals and T-shirts, while the winner’s teacher will receive a laptop computer.

Park Service Protests Big Solar Expansion in Nevada Desert

National Parks Will Suffer from Water Withdrawals, Pollution and Habitat Loss

PRESS RELEASE
Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER)

Washington, DC - The National Park Service is sounding an alarm about plans for scores of big solar power plants in Southern Nevada, according to an inter-agency memo posted today by Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER). NPS predicts harm to national parks in the region due to water scarcity, habitat disturbance, air pollution, sound pollution and light pollution lightening night skies.

The February 9, 2009 memo from NPS Pacific Regional Director Jon Jarvis to the Acting Nevada U.S. Bureau of Land Management Director Amy Leuders details concerns about 63 utility-scale solar projects slated for BLM lands in southern Nevada. Jarvis cites potential negative impacts for Lake Mead National Recreation Area, Mojave National Preserve, and the Devils Hole section of Death Valley National Park.

Above all, Jarvis stressed the lack of water to operate the solar facilities:

"The NPS asserts that it is not in the public interest for BLM to approve plans of development for water-cooled solar energy projects in the arid basins of southern Nevada, some of which are already over-appropriated, where there may be no reasonable expectation of acquiring new water rights in some basins, and where transference of existing points of diversion may be heavily constrained for some basins."

"Except for the sun, there is little that will be 'green' about mega-solar plants in the desert," stated PEER Executive Director Jeff Ruch, noting that a key dilemma is that the places of greatest solar potential are also the most arid. "There is not enough water in the desert to run utility-scale water-cooled solar plants."

Concerns about the negative impacts of big solar facilities and the transmission corridors they require to deliver power to market has led U.S. Senator Diane Feinstein (D-CA) to propose the creation of a new national monument covering more than a half-million Mojave Desert acres to exclude BLM solar leases.

Interior Secretary Ken Salazar has promised to assemble a comprehensive energy plan that will presumably minimize these inter-agency conflicts. In February, Secretary Salazar suspended BLM oil and gas lease sales in Utah following protests from NPS about negative effects on nearby national parks.

"A comprehensive energy plan is needed but cannot depend solely on public lands," added Ruch. "America's deserts should not become national sacrifice zones for energy farms."

PEER is urging alternative approaches such as rooftop solar installations. Southern California has vast areas of open roofs that do not require huge new transmission corridors. In addition, there are large private lands, such as degraded cotton and alfalfa farms, that have little current ecological value. On public lands, BLM should limit "Big Solar" power-plants to desert areas that have already been despoiled, such as toxic waste sites and abandoned mines. Co-locating solar plants with already compromised lands not only minimizes loss of wild habitat but also reduces the maintenance burden on BLM of keeping these damaged lands in exclusion.

Eldorado Canyon Mine Tours, where they first went to strike gold

The gold mine was active from 1861 to 1941. Now, it attracts about 10,000 people each year.

By Jay Jones
Los Angeles Times

Reporting from Nelson, Nev. - Long before Las Vegas was incorporated in 1905 -- and even longer before the arrival of casinos -- the desolate, inhospitable and therefore unsettled desert of southern Nevada was known for just one thing: its mineral-rich rock. The land is pockmarked with the remains of old gold and silver mines, most of which petered out almost as quickly as they were dug.

The Techatticup mining camp was one of the exceptions, a place where men "chased the vein" for more than 80 years. From 1861 until the start of World War II, men toiled underground in Eldorado Canyon near the hamlet of Nelson, about 40 miles southeast of what's now the Vegas Strip.

Having operated a canoe rental business along the nearby Colorado River for many years, Tony Werly was looking for a fixer-upper -- a place where he could one day retire -- when he and his wife, Bobbie, bought the dilapidated remains of the Techatticup encampment in 1994.

"Everything had fallen apart. There were no doors or windows," Bobbie recalls, adding that the only residents of the ramshackle, trash-strewn buildings were mice and pack rats.

While exploring the 51-acre property, Tony struck his own pay dirt. Two days before closing escrow, he discovered a long-obscured mine entrance, hidden behind mud and rock.

It took the Werlys and their children five years to clear away the muck and to restore the old buildings. Their labors brought the old mine site back to life, creating an unusual tourist attraction. Here, adults and children can enjoy a tour of an actual gold mine and explore the lovingly renovated buildings.

Bill Ferrence, a visitor from nearby Boulder City, Nev., likes that the attraction -- known officially as Eldorado Canyon Mine Tours -- isn't overdeveloped. Folks in search of a burger and fries will have to look elsewhere; all that's sold here are soda and bags of chips.

"It doesn't appear that they're trying to make a living doing what they're doing. They do, but they don't appear that way," Ferrence says of the business, which attracts about 10,000 visitors a year.

Bobbie Werly gives a tour to seventh-graders visiting on a field trip, beginning with a talk about the area's history before leading the kids inside the mountain.

"Everywhere that you'll see has been hand-drilled and totally done by candlelight," she explains. In the early years -- before dynamite reached these parts -- miners using hand tools could chip away only about 3 feet of rock a day.

The ore was turned into gold bars in the camp's smelter and then hauled to the Colorado River to be moved downstream to Yuma, Ariz., and then on to San Francisco by way of the Gulf of California and the Pacific Ocean.

"This was Nevada's only ocean port," Bobbie says of the period before the construction of several dams ended steamboat traffic on the river.

That, however, isn't nearly as intriguing to most of the students as the fact that Beyoncé did a photo shoot here a few months ago. Jaws drop and eyes widen as they're shown the issue of Cosmopolitan in which the pictures appeared.

Bobbie also shows visitors clips from several of the movies filmed here. They include "3000 Miles to Graceland" and "Breakdown." The place has also provided the backdrop for music videos.

Many visitors -- especially youngsters -- experience a chill once inside the mine, a sensation that has nothing to do with the drop in temperature. They're told about the ghost that haunted the miners.

Tony, who has extensively researched the mine's history, shares that the ghost is apparently that of R.B. Jones, an outlaw who shot a foreman at the mine before being hunted down and killed.

"He would come up and walk beside the miners in there," he explains. "It freaked them out.

"When we take Boy Scouts in there, they'll tell you they're not afraid of the dark, but they won't be the first one down the tunnel," Tony adds, with a chuckle.

He explains that the mine owed its longevity not to the huge amounts of gold inside, but to its remote location, which kept the number of willing workers low.

"They only had maybe 40 men down here at a time. The nearest town was 200 miles away," he says. "Not even a killing was a good enough reason to bring the sheriff out here from Pioche [Nev.], 'cause it's a one-week horse ride."

America's entry into World War II in 1941 brought a shift in national priorities and an end to production in Eldorado Canyon.

But, Tony notes, there still is gold in them there hills. "There's $1 million worth of gold in there," he says. "But it'll cost $2 million to get it out.

"[The price of gold] is going to have to go up a lot more to beat the tourism," he says.

Saving the tortoise

Feds sure have spent a lot of money over the years

EDITORIAL
Las Vegas Review-Journal

Back in 1973, Congress enacted the Endangered Species Act. Fifteen years later, someone looked around and realized there was no way to do a cost-benefit analysis on how much was being spent to "protect" the proliferating list of weeds and bugs in question, so Congress in 1988 added a section to the ESA requiring an annual species-by-species expenditure report.

And about eight years later, the appropriate federal agencies finally got around to issuing them.

And which endangered species do you suppose these government agencies spend the most tax dollars "protecting"? The grizzly bear? The bald eagle?

No.

The 2006 report, the latest released by the Fish and Wildlife Service, estimates $884 million were directly spent "protecting" more than 1,100 species on the list. But there's a wide disparity in how money is doled out.

The top recipients have been salmon in the Pacific Northwest and the Steller sea lion. Hundreds of millions of dollars have been spent on those species since reporting began in 1996.

The pallid sturgeon, a prehistoric-looking freshwater fish, topped the 2006 list at $39 million. But a mere $6 was expended "protecting" a rare Utah herb called the Barneby reed-mustard, which sounds like it might be tasty in a salad.

Another critter ranking high on the list of money spent by state and federal agencies trying to keep it from extinction, according to an Associated Press analysis of the past 11 years of available data, is Southern Nevada's own desert tortoise. From 1996 to 2006, more than $93 million was spent on managing the long-lived reptile, The AP figures. That's more than was spent on the grizzly, the gray wolf or the bald eagle.

There are some odd things about the case of the Mojave Desert tortoise, though. For one thing, its "critical habitat" stretches across 9,600 square miles. Jurisdictions include four states, seven military installations, four national parks and scores of federal, state and county agencies.

For another, for a supposedly "threatened" species, there seem to be a whole lot of them out there. Roy Averill-Murray, desert tortoise recovery coordinator for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in Reno, estimates there are 111,000 to 187,000 adult desert tortoises in areas designated as critical habitat.

Government agencies spent $10.5 million on the desert tortoise in 2006 and more than $11 million in 2007 -- on monitoring, fences to keep them from wandering onto highways, studies on a respiratory disease and stacks of long-range plans.

Problem is, no one's sure if it's done more good than harm.

One of the most ambitious plans was to relocate 770 of the reptiles to Bureau of Land Management land to make way for the expansion of Fort Irwin, a national military training center near Barstow, Calif.

The move started last March, but was put on hold in October after most of the tortoises "relocated" to date -- about 90 of them -- were promptly killed and eaten by coyotes.

"Nobody thought it was going to be an inexpensive proposition," says Ileene Anderson, a biologist with the Center for Biological Diversity, the radical and lawsuit-prone environmental outfit. "But the desert tortoise is a bellwether for the health of our deserts."

One wonders if the Fort Irwin tortoises wouldn't rather be alive than serve as somebody's "bellwether."

One of the region's few surviving ranchers, Cliven Bundy, argues that when federal officials required a comprehensive tortoise population survey before allowing the Kern River gas pipeline to be run through Southern Nevada a few years back, they discovered by far the densest concentrations of tortoises were not out in the dry and barren desert (though there were somewhat more where cattle grazed), but right here in the suburban Las Vegas Valley.

What if it turns out tortoises love lawns and golf courses and other man-made improvements to the environment? What would that do to the theory that mankind and his "development" are some of the things from which the desert tortoise needs to be "protected"?

U.S. seeks comment on tortoise recovery

Deseret News


The federal government wants your help to mull over strategies for recovering the threatened Mojave population of the desert tortoise by commenting on a draft version of the Revised Recovery Plan written by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

A draft of the plan will be published Monday in the Federal Register, which opens a 90-day public comment period. A copy of the draft will be posted at fws.gov/nevada/desert_tortoise.

Habitat for the desert tortoise includes the Mojave and Sonoran deserts in Southern California, southern Nevada, Arizona and the southwestern tip of Utah, along with part of northern Mexico.

The main threat to the tortoise is due to human land uses, which create habitat loss and degradation by way of off-road vehicles and urbanization, livestock grazing, mining and military activities.

Needles in a haystack

Lost in California shuffle, town's City Council considers secession





By SCOTT WYLAND
Las Vegas Review-Journal







NEEDLES, Calif. - Doomsayers predict a chunk of California will break off into the ocean after a cataclysmic earthquake.

But long before that happens, the Golden State might lose a splinter on its east side because of a political storm.

Some city leaders in Needles, a small border town cradled by three states, want to secede from California and merge with Nevada. Given the geography, Clark County probably would inherit the town and its 5,000 residents.

Those screaming for secession say they are fed up with San Bernardino County being so tight with funding. Needles' size and remote location at California's eastern edge have marginalized it politically, they contend.

Resentment boiled over when the county came through with considerably less aid for a struggling city-run hospital than the City Council had expected.

Council members went beyond idle grousing. They voted last week to form a nine-person panel to study the pros and cons of seceding.

"I think it's doable," Councilman Roy Mills said. "It's something Needles needs to pursue."

Mayor Jeff Williams, however, thinks switching to Nevada is an unrealistic course, fraught with hurdles.

Both state legislatures must approve, as well as a majority of voters from both counties, Williams said. Plus, Congress must sign off on it because the state line would be redrawn.

Williams worries that any attempt to annex Needles into Nevada will be a futile exercise that will alienate San Bernardino County and make Needles residents look foolish.

"It's like our council threw a fit like a child," Williams said. "They are thinking with their emotions and not their minds."

He questioned whether Clark County would adopt a city that would go this far to embarrass its home county because it didn't get its way.

'stepchild syndrome'

On the other side of the state line, Clark County Manager Virginia Valentine said information was too sparse now to seriously discuss annexing Needles.

The revenue the county would gain by taking Needles would have to justify the added costs, Valentine said. "It would have to be in the interest of Clark County residents."

Needles should study all the ramifications closely before making such a drastic move, she said. City officials might discover drawbacks, such as the Nevada Legislature possibly wielding more power over cities than California lawmakers do.

As an alternative to breaking from the state, the city is looking at how Needles might form its own county within California.

However, Williams and Mills both say that option would have a different set of snags, and fewer advantages. Because a California county must have at least 10,000 residents, Needles would have to merge with either Barstow or Blythe, Williams said.

And a county that small would be overshadowed by relative giants like San Bernardino, Mills said. "My personal preference would be to join Nevada."

Needles would benefit from Nevada's wellspring of gaming revenue, and the town could add slot machines and perhaps a casino or two, Mills said.

Nevada could tap into the stream of travelers who drive through Needles, he said, noting that the nearby state-border station tallies 4 million cars yearly.

Nevada also would be more likely to upgrade a stretch of Interstate 40 that runs through Needles, a project that is decades overdue, Mills said.

If Needles joins Nevada, it would be 115 miles from the Clark County seat in Las Vegas, he said, compared with 215 miles to the current seat of San Bernardino County.

"We're so far removed out here, we don't even feel part of it," Mills said. "The red-headed stepchild syndrome."

pros and cons

Needles is Mayberry with a rugged, desert edge and 125-degree summer heat.

It derives its name from spirelike rock formations. The town sprang from the railroad built across the Colorado River in the late 1800s. A chunk of Route 66 stretches through the town, the architecture of which denotes a hodge-podge of eras: turn-of-the-20th-century buildings, tract houses and 1960s eateries.

At the local Burger Hut, two Bullhead City, Ariz., construction workers munched on fast food and tossed out opinions about Needles joining Nevada.

It wouldn't hurt if California, one the country's largest states, got a bit smaller and Nevada got a little bigger, said Louie Vasquez, 51.

Needles could bring in gambling and save folks a drive to Laughlin, Vasquez said. "I'm not a gambler, but I'm sure that people would like to see it."

Everyone could use another casino, said James Medina, 24, as long as generic gaming dens didn't nudge out the distinct local restaurants.

"I enjoy places like this," he said, motioning to Burger Hut.

Down the road at the county-run library, Becky Court, a patron, talked of how she receives money from the state and must be a California resident to qualify.

If Needles joined Nevada, she'd have to move 90 miles to the nearest California city, Court said. "I love it here and don't want to move."

Tena McGee-Scott, a library employee, said secession was the silliest idea she'd ever heard. Yes, Needles could set up casinos if it joined Nevada, and, yes, the city could use the money, she said. But she questioned whether that was really good for Needles.

"I've been here 20 years," she said. "If I want to be in Nevada, I'll move to Nevada."

hospital funding

The local hospital is the catalyst for the rift between Needles and the county's board of supervisors.

When Life Point, the company that ran the city's 25-bed hospital, announced it would pull out of California, the county offered to take over.

But falling home values and a tightening state budget took a bite out of revenues, forcing the county to scale back on the long-term aid it could offer the hospital, said Brad Mitzelfelt, a county supervisor whose district includes Needles.

Mitzelfelt said he tried to sell his fellow supervisors on keeping the hospital at its current level of care for awhile, but to no avail.

They instead proposed eliminating the emergency room and overnight care, reducing the hospital to a large outpatient clinic, he said.

That plan was unacceptable to most City Council members, Williams said. They decided to keep it a full-service hospital, using a $1.3 million lease buyout from Life Point to cover costs until money from billing flowed in.

The city is now running the hospital on "a wing and a prayer" with no business plan, Williams said, calling that a high-risk gamble.

long odds

If history is any measure, the odds of Needles seceding are slimmer than winning a million-dollar jackpot.

Local governments' attempts to break from home states have rarely been fruitful since the 19th century.

Needles isn't the first city in a neighboring state to seek to join Nevada. In 2002, the U.S. House gave the go-ahead for Wendover, Utah, to merge with West Wendover, in Nevada, but Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., blocked the bill before it could reach the Senate.

Mitzelfelt argued that over the years San Bernardino County has funded many projects in Needles and created local jobs by putting a courthouse and other government centers there.

But he understands the city's frustration over the hospital, and wishes them the best in what will be a tough quest.

"Bordering cities should have the option of going to another state," Mitzelfelt said. "It shouldn't be an insurmountable challenge."

State Sen. Roy Ashburn, R-Bakersfield, said he backs Needles' effort to join a more business-friendly state. The city has lost bids for big retailers that went to nearby Nevada and Arizona, both of which have lower taxes and fewer regulations than California, Ashburn said.

Ashburn said he will push for California and Nevada to do a joint study on how feasible it is for Needles to secede. Ultimately, it comes down to what's in the best interest of the citizens, he said.

"It's the kind of creative thinking that needs to take place. State lines are arbitrary, and things change."

Mojave Max Emerges

Local Desert Tortoise Says Spring has Finally Arrived



Press Release
Clark County NV




Mojave Max, the famous Southern Nevada desert tortoise, officially emerged from his burrow at 11:27 a.m. today.

This year marks the latest that Mojave Max has emerged. Many residents will agree that this has been a very cool spring for Las Vegas. However, now that he has emerged, we can expect the temperatures in Las Vegas to continue to climb as spring gets going.

Mojave Max is a live desert tortoise residing at the Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area. Like other Southern Nevada desert tortoises, he enters a burrow to brumate (the reptilian form of hibernation) every winter and emerges every spring. Mojave Max's emergence marks the beginning of spring in Southern Nevada. Warmer temperatures, longer daylight hours and an internal clock are factors known to contribute to his emergence every year.

As part of the ninth annual Mojave Max Emergence Contest, students have been studying Mojave Desert weather, temperatures, and conditions to scientifically estimate when they believed Mojave Max would first emerge from his burrow in 2008. They entered their guesses on line at http://www.mojavemax.com/. The entries are being tabulated and the official winner will be announced soon. The winning student will receive prizes including a year-long pass to federally managed fee areas and a personal game system. The winner's entire class will receive a field trip to Mojave Max's habitat, Mojave Max Olympic-style medals and T-shirts, while the winner's teacher will receive a personal computer.

"Now that Mojave Max has come out of his burrow, spring is officially here," said Clark County Commission Chairman Rory Reid, who declared it Mojave Max Day countywide. "Everyone's favorite tortoise is a great ambassador of the desert, helping our local school children understand our environment and how it works."

Questions about the live Mojave Max residing at the Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area should be directed to the visitor's center at 702-515-5350. Volunteers, rangers, and members of the public have been watching Mojave Max's habitat closely for the last few weeks, anxiously awaiting his announcement of spring for Clark County.

Mojave Max's Emergences by year

2000 03/15/00 12:32 p.m.
2001 03/19/01 8:30 a.m.
2002 03/22/02 11:46 a.m.
2003 03/07/03 10:25 a.m.
2004 02/19/04 11:14 a.m.
2005 02/14/05 11:55 a.m.
2006 04/03/06 11:32 a.m.
2007 03/26/07 11:34 a.m.

More information is available at http://www.accessclarkcounty.com/

Exploring Nevada’s sand dunes

Uncovering the mysteries of the hillsides in the Southwest

By Shirley Robinson, Staff Writer
The Rebel Yell
University of Nevada, Las Vegas

Sand that makes music; vast dunes frozen in time; a living tarnish that spreads like a rash across hillsides; aquatic animals that seem to spontaneously appear out of puddles; boulders that blow across the ground. Although these features may sound like something from an oddball alien planet, they’re not. They are all found in and around Southern Nevada – a scientist’s, a child’s and a mystery-lover’s playground.

Among Nevada’s and the Southwest’s most striking characteristics are those smooth, shadowed mounds of sorted sand known as sand dunes. Grains from past, disintegrated mountains are gathered by strong winds and are often deposited against natural barriers where the winds die down. Grains that are very small, such as fine silts, remain suspended in the air and are carried off and aloft.

Although the grains comprising most dunes are pale-colored quartz crystals, streams of black sediments are frequently seen feathered within the peaks. These darker minerals are often heavy and iron-rich, and they are able to be transported along with the quartz sand due to their fine-grain size. Twirling a simple kitchen magnet within the sand may quickly attract a mass of iron filings. One of the most enchanting aspects of sand dunes is the ability of a select few to emit sound. Reports of this phenomenon have poured from all corners of the globe for hundreds of years with some likening the sound to that of a kettledrum or low-flying aircraft and others to that of a trumpet or harp.

It is thought that the sound of these musical sands, which are often called “singing” or “booming sand dunes,” is created from the movement of the quartz crystals as avalanches are triggered either by the wind or by dune travelers. The synchronized sliding of the polished grains emits a rumble, squeak or roar that reverberates across the dunes and can be heard for miles.

More than 30 locations across the world, from Morocco to Hawaii, feature singing sand dunes and over a half dozen of those are found in Nevada and California. Located 100 miles southwest of Las Vegas in Southern California’s Mojave National Preserve, the 45-square-mile Kelso Dunes are among the West’s most popular and highly studied singing sands.

With the exception of the Nellis Sand Dunes, located north of Nellis Air Force Base, the Las Vegas Valley lacks extensive dunes. However, geologists have concluded that this was not always the case.

Vast, barren sand seas (ergs) comparable to those of the Sahara Desert are thought to have blanketed the Las Vegas Valley and much of the Southwest with thousands of feet of sand. Evidence for this lies in the fiery-red cliffs and rounded outcrops of the ever-popular Red Rock Canyon west of Las Vegas. (Although now solid sandstone, petrified over time, the area’s formations were once soft, spilling dunes.)

Las Vegans tend to treasure these “fossil” dunes as their area’s own unique attraction, but the sandstone that makes up Red Rock is also present in the Valley of Fire State Park in northeastern Clark County. It is also in Zion National Park and at Lake Powell in neighboring Utah. Although known as the Aztec Sandstone in Southern Nevada and the Navajo Sandstone in Utah, the red rock is all believed to have been part of the same giant desert dunes.

Distinctive characteristics held by the Aztec and Navajo Sandstone include the streaks of red, orange and purple that stain the outcrops. These color bands are thought to be caused by the circulation of water through the quartz grains after they were petrified; the water essentially rusted the iron-rich minerals within the solid dunes, creating oxidized works of art.

Water has also taken its toll on the structure of the petrified dunes. Rainwater dissolves the cementation between the grains. Moisture also hydrates wind-blown salts that work their way between the sand grains, which swell and consequently pry the sandstone apart. Bizarre geologic forms result, such as deep, smooth hallows, rounded piles of boulders and towering, but teetering, balanced rocks.

Although they no longer look like dunes, the solidified remnants show undeniable evidence of being deposited by wind. Sediments that are carried and laid down by water tend to be stacked into fairly flat-lying planes or beds. The grains of the Aztec Sandstone, however, lie in gently curving, multi-angled layers (or cross-beds), suggesting that shifting winds of the past swirled the once loose sands and deposited them upon the dynamic slopes of restless sand dunes.

One may notice that some surfaces of the old, smooth and sculpted Aztec Sandstone is blackened and almost charred-looking. Although wildfires frequently ravage the desert and can indeed darken rock outcrops, the most probable cause behind these coatings is a life form rather than a flame. It is theorized that microbes living on the rock surfaces trap wind-blown dusts (clay, pollen, etc.) and cement them together with dark manganese and iron oxides. The oxides are thought to be leached out of the host rock, mobilized and concentrated by the microbes, creating the black, laminated film which has been termed “desert varnish.”

As one can imagine, the environment on a dry Mojave Desert rock is far from hospitable – becoming searing hot during summer afternoons and freezing cold during winter nights. Despite the temperature extremes, the microbes stay alive by going into a state of dormancy. Research has shown that the hardy little life forms explode with activity and create layers of varnish only during times of rain. Since precipitation is scarce in the desert, there are only a handful of days out of the year during which the microbes work. It therefore requires many years for varnish to accumulate; the older the coatings are, the thicker and darker they become.

It sounds rather far-fetched that life can survive in a torpid state for extended periods of time without water in such a harsh climate, but the phenomenon occurs more often than people might think.

One of the most amazing and surprisingly prevalent examples of dormancy lies buried beneath the fine silts of the dry lakes and playas throughout the Southwest. Microscopic eggs of a crustacean, known as the long-tailed apus, withstand the drought and heat of sun-baked mud-cracks for months, hatching only when heavy rains bring life-giving puddles to the seasonal lake beds. Adults, which reach two inches in length, mature rapidly as they have very little time to lay their eggs before the water soaks into the thirsty ground and evaporates into the hot air.

Although they have hatched out of the soils of several areas for centuries, these ephemeral creatures were first discovered within the Dry Lake of Eldorado Valley in1936 by a girl from nearby Boulder City, Nev. The news of rain-puddles teeming with life quickly drew local children with jelly jars hoping to catch their own early version of “Sea Monkeys.” Specimens were also collected by curious adults and sent away to various scientific organizations. Definitive answers about the mysterious species came in 1947 when Swedish naturalist Folke Lind identified them as A ”pus Longicauditus,” a tadpole shrimp often found fossilized in sedimentary rock.

Dry lake beds and salt-crusted playas, which form at the base of broad, desert valleys where fine silts accumulate, are among the most level surfaces on the earth. Hence, they make for ideal landing strips and are sought-after for racing high-speed craft. The dry Groom Lake of Lincoln County, Nev., home of the remote test facility “Area 51,” has one of the world’s longest run strips, and the Black Rock Desert, in northwestern Nevada, served as the racetrack on which the current land speed record of over 760 mph was achieved.

One of the most famous playas, however, is known for the “racing” of something other than top-secret aircraft and jet-powered cars. Located within California’s Death Valley National Park, “The Racetrack,” attracts thousands of flabbergasted “spectators” each year with its evidence of cobbles and boulders sliding mysteriously across the playa surface. Although no one has ever actually seen the rocks move, undeniable tracks, left in the now desiccated mud, trail the scattered subjects, which weigh up to 80 pounds.

Individual tracks have measured over 2,000 feet in length and tend to indicate that the rocks follow a straight coarse while traveling. Some, however, have sudden hairpin turns, and many show signs of rolling, tumbling and colliding.

Some investigators propose that the rocks become frozen within thin sheets of ice that are driven across the playa by winter winds. Most scientists, however, believe that the gusty winds of any season which happen to blow across the playa after a recent rain can propel the rocks. It is believed that the slick mud washed in by flood waters create unbelievably smooth surfaces on the flat playas across which wind can travel incredibly fast at ground-level. Stones just a few inches high can be blown across the slippery surface.

Southern Nevada is in the heart of one of the most mysterious regions on earth. By stepping out and exploring its natural wonders, we may unlock the secrets of the Southwest.