The growth of Clark County is mirrored by the changes at Red Rock over the years. For a thousand or so years the area was used by Native Americans for food and shelter. In the early days of Las Vegas, some of the area was homesteaded. In 1960, as recreational use increased, the State became interested in preserving the land, and by the early 1970s a combination of State and Federal actions had led to protection for some 62,000 acres.
The focus of the area was changed from recreation to conservation in 1990, reflecting the need to better protect the increasingly popular area. Continued population growth led to the expansion of the conservation in 1994 to 195,610 acres while there was still something there to conserve.
There are now well over a million visitors a year and Red Rock Canyon is being affected. Just as the increase in residents and visitors strains our own local infrastructure and our nerves, the ever-increasing use of the roads and trails at Red Rock creates strains there. Perhaps more so, because the fragile desert is easily destroyed by people who wander off the trails in search of ever-elusive solitude. Those resulting unofficial trails multiply rapidly, scarring the land and contributing to a number of environmental problems.
Outdoor recreation should provide rejuvenation, a physical and mental re-creation, if you will. That becomes less likely to happen as more visitors create more conflict. Hikers, bikers, climbers, riders all compete for space and a piece of nature. As the city creeps ever closer, the numbers of people with easy access to the canyon will increase, and, inevitably, each person there views his or her desired use of the areas as the right and proper one.
The effects of increasing numbers of people on desert plants and animals are often not evident until almost too late to reverse. There hasn't really been a lot of research in this area, so often things that happen do catch us by surprise. For instance, the population of ravens has increased in the Mojave Desert as reliable sources of food -- people -- increase. The tidbits they provide will allow the birds to stay around and breed more often than they would otherwise. And the young desert tortoises, the tortoises being a threatened species themselves because of habitat destruction, now find themselves under a more direct threat. It takes several years for the tortoise shell to harden enough to resist a raven's beak, and with more and more of the clever, sharp-eyed ravens about, all too many of the young tortoises simply wind up as a quick snack.
Coyotes thrive where people live and are especially happy to see well-watered suburbs in the desert. Rather than decimating their natural prey, however, they prefer to go after something a little slower and a little less clever -- our cats and dogs. This creates a people versus animal scenario the coyotes can only lose.
In fact, as we know, plants and animals are impacted by growth throughout the county, not just in the Red Rock area. A proposed conservation plan devised by the county and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is designed to allow continued development in areas containing threatened plant and animal species, beginning with some 79 already on the list. This could be a good first step to ensuring that those species do not go out of existence, but only as long as funding is adequate for proper monitoring. And I might also add that increased funding for the Harry Reid Center for Environmental Studies at UNLV, whether that money comes from the State, from the university itself, or from the Federal Government, would go a long way in pointing out prospective problems that could be cut off before they become too impossible to solve.
Air pollution, of course, is a county-wide problem edging ever closer to Red Rock. If you climb Turtlehead Peak on a winter's day, chances are you will see Las Vegas enveloped in a yellow and brown cloud. With houses and casinos being built right to the edge of the conservation area now, how long will it be before Turtlehead Peak itself is covered by this same air? We have heard a lot today about various programs and projects underway to make sure this air is clean and kept clean. Well, let's hope that the county, prodded by the Environmental Protection Agency, can keep this from happening. A greater push toward alternative fuels and better mass transit, as we have also heard about today, would be a start along that road.
Any change of direction can only happen if certain things come together. Education perhaps is number one. People recognize the problems caused by growth but too often will just throw up their hands in helplessness when faced with solving those problems. They just seem too big. Showing that solutions can come a step at a time encourages action. In dealing with environmental issues, sometimes simply showing how everything is connected can open eyes.
And finally, I think good political leadership is a must. The changing emphasis on regional cooperation, which we have heard today, again is something that has become more and more prevalent over the last couple of years to tackle the many regional issues. Too many local politicians remain local; they talk a lot about managing growth while doing too little about it.
A 1996 University of Nevada poll indicated that 81 percent of southern Nevadans are looking for growth to slow or, at worst, stay the same. We have heard today about any number of initiatives designed to make our growth smarter. Mayor Goodman's inner-city proposal would be one that would greatly benefit both the human inhabitants of Las Vegas and the plant and animal inhabitants of the county. Hopefully, these and others will be successful.
And Senator, one thing, as long as everyone is here asking for money, that you could perhaps initiate is ensuring the funding for the BLM, as they manage Red Rock Canyon, is constant as more and more personnel are needed that are not covered by the fee demonstration program. And also a suggestion that the Rainbow Gardens recreation area over on the other side of town is kept as a project going full force. And not to forget Lake Mead as a national recreation area which is in dire need of personnel and all kinds of things that only Federal funding can bring. So that would be my only plea for money.
I thank you for inviting me here today.