Interior secretary announces new Vegas-area land acquisitions

LAS VEGAS - More than $33 million will be spent on environmentally sensitive land purchases and park, camp and trail improvements in southern Nevada, Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt said Wednesday.

The funds came from sale of public lands in the Las Vegas Valley to developers. The purchases are the first under a 1998 federal law that lets Nevada use proceeds of such sales within its borders to protect environmental treasures such as the Las Vegas Wash and the Spring Mountains, Babbitt said.

''It's going to benefit a lot of people all over Nevada,'' Babbitt said, noting that two-thirds of the money will go for property on Mount Charleston, northwest of Las Vegas in the Spring Mountains, plus habitat for threatened and endangered species along the Virgin and Muddy rivers, northeast of the city.

Another $5 million will be used for trail and campground improvements and other upgrades at Lake Mead, Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area, Mount Charleston, the Desert National Wildlife Refuge near Moapa Valley and in other parts of the state.

The remaining $4.2 million will help develop the Clark County Wetlands Park, on the edge of the Las Vegas Wash.

Babbitt, standing on the edge of the wash, credited Nevada's Democratic senators, Richard Bryan and Harry Reid, with keeping the proceeds of the public land sales within Nevada.

''This is the only state ... in history, which has arrived at such a simple, logical concept,'' he said. ''This really is a historic moment.''

Bryan and Reid, on hand for Babbitt's announcement, helped to craft the law that requires 85 percent of the proceeds from sale of federal lands in the Las Vegas Valley to buy environmentally sensitive areas.

The sensitive areas includes wetlands and other water sources that affect the quality of Lake Mead, the source of Las Vegas' drinking water.

Up to 7,800 acres eventually could be purchased, including 665 in the Las Vegas area.

''We have protected the open space around the city and now we come back to the heart of the city so we can have green, living, pulsing space,'' Babbitt said.

Rep. Jim Gibbons, R-Nev., and Reid have introduced similar legislation covering public lands not included in the Southern Nevada Public Land Management Act. If passed, the measures would give rural areas more control over land purchases.

Gibbons has cautioned that he wants to hear from the public on the land deals.