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NORA Proposal - Senate Bill 59 



SUPPORTING RATIONAL 



Descriptions of the boundaries of the following areas can be 

 found in our Proposed Amendments and Addenda to Maps "A" or "B ". 



AREA I: AFFECTED LANDS IN THE SPRING MOUNTAINS 

 (Clark and Nye Counties) 



In AREA I your proposed boundary would transfer 

 approximately 250,320 acres of BLM land to the USES. No USFS land 

 would be transferred to the BLM. The subject lands are well 

 blocked up, with no administrative inholdings, and private 

 inholdings the exception rather than the rule. Our proposal would 

 transfer about 235,000 acres from the BLM to the USFS, and about 

 640 acres from the USFS to the BLM to improve management. 



One of the key measures to be taken to rationalize and 

 thereby improve management in the Spring Mountains is to resolve 

 quickly and expeditiously the issue of wilderness on lands 

 currently administered by BLM. Potential wilderness areas exist 

 on Forest Service administered land but are the subject of 

 ongoing Federal legislation and need not be dealt with directly 

 in this Bill. 



There are three BLM Wilderness Study Areas in the Spring 

 Mountains: Mount Sterling (NV-050-401) , LaMadre Mountains 

 (NV-050-412) , and Pine Creek (NV-050-414) . The proposed 

 legislation would transfer all of Mount Sterling and a large 

 portion of LaMadre Mountains WSA's from BLM to Forest Service 

 administration and leave Pine Creek WSA which is adjacent to 

 LaMadre with BLM administration. The northwest portion of LaMadre 

 is also contiguous with a RARE-II proposed wilderness in the 

 Forest Service Mount Charleston Unit. Most of the remainder of 

 the LaMadre WSA and nearly all of the Pine Creek WSA are in the 

 BLM designated Red Rock Canyon Recreation Area. If the WSA's are 

 transferred to the Forest Service before they are dealt with by 

 Congress they become "orphaned" because they are administered 

 under BLM laws executed by the Forest Service. The Forest Service 

 RARE-II lands are already a matter of legislation in which these 

 BLM transfers do not fit. As they will be administered by USFS, 

 no one will want to deal with them in a BLM Bill either! The 

 result could well be that they would exist forever in a state of 

 limbo. 



This welter of contesting administrations can, however be 

 rationally sorted out. The current BLM WSA's represent the only 

 tracts in the area whose boundaries are defined by 

 characteristics to be found on the- ground. As such they should be 

 the fundamental planning unit. Each of the three WSA's has a core 

 area recommended by BLM as suitable for inclusion in the National 

 Wilderness Preservation System. As a start to rationalization of 

 administration. Congress should designate these recommended areas 

 as wilderness, and thereby make them part of the formal 

 wilderness system. Portions of the WSA's found non-suitable by 



