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The Toiyabe Chapter has over 2,200 members in Nevada and Eastern 



California. We have been closely following this proposed land exchange 



since early in 1986, Then, we had three initial concerns which have not 

 changed: 



o First, the environmental impacts of a rocket-testing facility on 

 critical desert tortoise habitat and on several species of 

 endangered pupfish dependent on desert springs supplied by 

 the aquifer under Coyote Springs Valley; 



o Second, the question of whether the public interest is served in 

 the loss from the public domain of a considerable area of public 

 lands in Nevada (including initially parts of three Bureau of 

 Land Management Wilderness Study Areas) for relatively 

 unimportant private lands in Florida — especially where the 

 exchange ratio is based on an apparently inadequate appraisal; 



o And third, the irregular process pursued by advocates of this 

 exchange. Including the deliberate circumvention of the National 

 Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) and the lack of provision for 

 early public involvement in the environmental studies. 



While we share with our Nevada delegation support for economic 

 diversification in the State of Nevada, there has been no commitment 



