Conservation Lands Foundation Applauds Nevada Wilderness Bill
Contact: Jocelyn Torres at 702-767-2089 or [email protected]
LAS VEGAS, Nev. (December 20, 2019)—Senator Catherine Cortez Masto has introduced the Desert National Wildlife Refuge and Nevada Test and Training Range Withdrawal and Management Act, co-sponsored by Senator Jacky Rosen. Conservation Lands Foundation released the following statement applauding the introduction:
Brian Sybert, Executive Director, Conservation Lands Foundation:
“The bill introduced today by Senator Cortez Masto is the largest Wilderness bill in Nevada history. We want to thank Senator Cortez Masto for her leadership, and look forward to working with her on making this the largest conservation bill ever passed in Nevada.”
About the Desert National Wildlife Refuge
The Desert National Wildlife Refuge, on the northern boundary of the Las Vegas Valley, is the largest in the lower 48 states. President Franklin Roosevelt established the 2.25 million acre Desert Game Range (now the Refuge) in 1936 to provide habitat for wildlife species, particularly the desert bighorn sheep. In 1974, as part of a Wilderness review required by the Wilderness Act of 1964, 1.4 million acres of the Refuge were proposed as Wilderness by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. These acres have been managed as Wilderness since that time. The Act would grant permanent Wilderness designation on 1.32 million acres. In the 1940's, the military gained joint administration with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service of the western half of the Refuge.
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