20 



TESTIMOHY BEFORE THE SENATE COMMITTEB OH 



ENERGY AND NATURAL RESOURCES 



SUBCOMMITTRB ON PUBUC LANDS, NATIONAL PARKS AND FORESTS 



JUNE SO, 1987 



S. 59j National Foreats and Public Lands of Nevada Enhancement Act of 1987 



Mr. Chairman, memben of tha committee, Nevada apprectatti the opportunity 

 to enter testimony today on 9. 59, the National Forests and Public Lands of Nevada 

 Enhancement Act of 1987. 



We all recall that more than two years ago the Reagan administration unveiled 

 a massive land interchange proposal, involving more than 35 million acres of land 

 nationwide. Public response was swift and clear. This was too massive a change and 

 was proposed with too little attention to the impaeti on local communities and private 

 citizens. 



In Nevada, the original land swap proposal would have virtually wiped out our 

 national forests. Nevadani roae with one voice in defense of the national fores;5°' 

 the state. Ranchers, miners, conservationists and wildlife advocates were united in 

 opposition to the transfer of more than 80% of the land managed by the ForeNt Service 

 to the Bureau of Land Management The rallying cry was to keep the green on the 

 map of Nevada. 



In my taatimony' on that original proposal, given at a public hearing almost 

 exactly two yean ago today, I stressed that "the complex needs of the public lands 

 that oomprisc one third of our nations's lands cannot be adequately addressed with a 

 dngle broad-brush plan dlotated from the national level It was a mistake to start 

 at the top with one national concept map that mandated wholesale transfer of entire 

 regions, without consideration of special rasouroa conditions and the Impacts on local 

 and regional eoonomiea." However, I pledged our cooperation with mere sensible efforts 

 to simplify agency boundaries on a stat*-by-stata basis. 



