Amid worsening weather disasters and what is likely to be another “hottest year on record,” some Western states are aggressively attempting to upend the public lands policies that are so integral to addressing the climate and extinction crises. And, if President Donald Trump’s last time in office was any indication, come January, this effort will be emboldened by the incoming administration.
The state of Utah recently filed a lawsuit seeking to seize 18 million acres of public lands, which is now supported by Nevada’s Elko County. If successful, it could threaten at least 210 million acres of public lands across the West and Alaska and encourage other states to pursue similar claims. Since states would not have the budget to manage these lands, this would likely lead to the sale and privatization of many of the public lands we love and cherish.
It’s been nearly four decades since I first journeyed across Nevada’s public lands with our amazing Mojave Desert. My father, a midwestern dairy farmer accustomed to green pastures, looked out across Nevada’s expansive arid landscape and scowled, thinking as many do, “What a barren wasteland!” This “barren wasteland” is the place I call home, the place where I raised my family and shared my love of art and nature, the place where my adoptive tortoise lives and feels right at home. These desert lands are wondrous and harsh. But, are they a barren wasteland? Only if we allow them to be treated as such.
Public lands in Nevada, and throughout the country, are immensely popular. We saw this when the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) recently strengthened its existing authorities by finalizing its Conservation and Landscape Health rule, also known as the Public Lands Rule. Good for Nevadans and nature, the rule places conservation on equal footing with other uses in managing our public lands and prioritizes the restoration of degraded habitats and ecosystems using data, science, and Indigenous knowledge in guiding management decisions. The BLM received more than 200,000 comments for the Public Lands Rule with 92 percent public support. It’s championed not only by environmentalists, but also elected officials, scientists, law experts and businesses.
Yet some Republican members of Congress and state leaders are trying to undo this important new policy and even public lands themselves, locking us into a destructive pattern of land management that overwhelmingly favors private industries such as oil and gas development, mining and other extractive uses. We can expect more of these threats to public lands and our communities in the new Congress and with the new administration.
Approving polluting and water-intensive projects on our most vulnerable, natural and arid lands, often at the expense of communities and the environment, is not sustainable. Desert landscapes, once disturbed, take hundreds of years to recover. Nevadans take pride in being the world’s fourth-largest producer of gold, but the scars of our toxic mining legacy are nothing to brag about.
Extractive waste from gold, silver, copper and lithium mining makes us the most polluted state in the country. According to the Toxics Release Inventory, a dataset that tracks certain chemicals posing toxic threats to human health and the environment, Nevada ranks first and worst of 56 states and territories. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) estimates that 40 percent of the country’s rivers and 50 percent of all lakes have been contaminated by abandoned hardrock mines.
Even more concerning, in many parts of our state, groundwater is being extracted from aquifers faster than it is replenished. Roughly 56 water basins across the state are overpumped, and, according to the Legislative Counsel Bureau’s Research Division, Nevada has 1.5 times more water commitments than the estimated 2 million acre-feet that is actually available.
Plagued by drought, our agricultural public lands are increasingly susceptible to wildfires and the proliferation of invasive non-native plants. Out of the 155 million acres managed for livestock grazing across the United States, Nevada leases 43 million acres, more than any other state. Livestock grazing is responsible for some of the most pervasive long-term degradation of Nevada’s natural landscapes and ecosystems.
Conserving public lands would protect the threatened Mojave desert tortoise from extinction. In Southern Nevada, we continue to see declining numbers of one of our state’s most iconic species, the Mojave Desert tortoise. The abysmal survival rates of tortoises, translocated to recovery units in efforts to save them, should give pause to approval of development in its critical habitat.
Moreover, our desert should be managed for something that we rarely give it credit for, drawing down the excessive atmospheric carbon responsible for heating up our planet and hastening the extinction crisis. According to a report by biologist and plant ecologist Robin Kobaly, deserts such as the Mojave should be valued as some of our nation’s most important natural carbon sinks, storing carbon in their extensive root systems and calcium carbonate rich soils.
Public lands belong to us, the people, the public. Nearly two-thirds of Nevada’s land, 48 million acres, is managed by the BLM and considered public. At risk of privatization, we must speak out against these anti-public lands efforts and speak up for our public lands that are under assault.
Management of our public lands should address our climate and extinction crisis. The thousands of voices that supported the new Public Lands Rule should not be overruled. Placing conservation on equal footing with other land uses is a crucial step toward safeguarding our lands. Our Nevada senators, Jacky Rosen (D-NV) and Catherine Cortez Masto (D-NV), must stand firmly in opposition to attempts to seize millions of acres of our public lands and in support of keeping conservation policies and designations in place. In doing so, we can continue to preserve Nevada’s natural heritage for future generations.
Linda Stout is a parent, former educator and volunteer conservation co-chair for the Toiyabe Chapter of the Sierra Club.
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