Las Vegas Review-Journal (Sunday)
Zinke must uphold Gold Butte’s new protected status
By revealing that he will consider tearing up the order declaring Gold Butte a national monument, Ryan Zinke has officially become a cause for alarm in Nevada.
Zinke, President Donald Trump’s nominee for secretary of the Interior, told senators at a confirmation hearing Tuesday that he planned to review former President Barack Obama’s declaration order. However, Zinke said he would visit Nevada before making a decision on the 300,000-acre area.
Zinke, a U.S. House member from Wyoming, is more than welcome to visit. But there’s only one acceptable outcome to his decision-making, and that’s to keep the order firmly in place.
For proof, Zinke should start by talking to William Anderson, former chairman of the Moapa Band of Paiute Indians. After the announcement that Obama had signed his order, a grateful Anderson gave an impassioned speech outlining why the area was an environmental and cultural treasure that deserved protection. He described the land’s importance to the tribe, which has been living on it for centuries, and the pain that tribe members felt in recent years after seeing ancient petroglyphs in the area desecrated by vandals and the ecology damaged by campers and riders of off-road vehicles.
“Part of my culture, part of my heritage was being taken away,” Anderson said.
Gold Butte must be preserved, and Obama’s order was only a first step. Now, not only does Zinke need to leave the order in place, he needs to support funding to keep it clean and secure.
Zinke has said he would not sell, give away or transfer public lands, but he’s also said he’d consider changing the way the federal government manages public lands and, just this month, voted in favor of a House rules package that makes it easier to give federal lands to states.
That’s worrisome, as it could open the door to coal mining, oil and gas drilling or other environmentally destructive activity on public lands.
In the case of Gold Butte, such development makes no sense. In terms of generating energy, its biggest potential would be solar power, and there’s more than enough space elsewhere in Nevada to plant solar arrays in areas that aren’t environmentally or culturally sensitive.
Another detrimental effect of overturning the designation order is that it would no doubt be seen as a victory by rancher Cliven Bundy and those who support his extremists causes. Bundy has grazed cattle on Gold Butte for decades without paying fees, claiming the government has no right to the acreage. His dispute with the government came to a head in 2014 during what became known as the Battle of Bunkerville, an armed standoff between government agents who were rounding up the cattle and a group of Bundy supporters that included militia members.
Granted, the method behind the declaration wasn’t ideal — it would have been wonderful if Nevada congressional delegates would have succeeded in pushing through a legislative solution. But Obama’s order was acceptable and appropriate.
Assuming Zinke makes his visit here, that’s the message he should hear loud and clear from state leaders.