The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) Las Vegas Field Office is asking for public input on its proposal to develop a Travel Management Plan for Nevada's Muddy Mountains Wilderness area, the U.S. Department of the Interior announced recently.
“We look forward to the public’s valuable feedback to help develop the Muddy Mountains Travel Management Plan and Environmental Assessment,” Catrina Williams, acting manager of the BLM Las Vegas Field Office, said in the April 12 news release. “The most helpful comments at this time will be those that focus on specific trails or areas; provide information on the season and type of use for the trail or road; identify destinations or purpose of trails and roads; and provide information that has not yet been considered.”
The 48,019-acre Muddy Mountains Wilderness, located 50 miles northeast of Las Vegas, was designated in the 1998 Las Vegas Resource Management Plan as a Special Recreation Management Area, the release reports. The area is managed by the BLM and the National Park Service (NPS). Only BLM-managed land will be included the Travel Management Plan, which will identify and designate routes as open to the public, for administrative use only, and to be closed and rehabilitated; the plan may also identify new routes, according to the release.
In 2007, the DOI, in partnership with BLM and NPS, published the Muddy Mountains Wilderness Final Wilderness Management Plan and Environmental Assessment. The plan included six wilderness management goals: to provide for long-term preservation and protection of the area’s wilderness character; to manage the wilderness for the use and enjoyment of visitors; to manage the wilderness using the minimum tool, equipment or structure necessary to successfully, safely and economically accomplish the objective; to manage nonconforming but accepted uses permitted by the Wilderness Act and subsequent laws to prevent unnecessary or undue degradation; to manage the BLM and NPS portions of the wilderness through a single management plan; and to manage the NPS portions of the area in a manner that furthers the purpose of the NPS Organic Act of 1916.
The scoping period is open until May 12, according to the release. Two meetings will be held to take public comment on the Muddy Mountains plan, the release reports. The first is an in-person meeting from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. April 27 at the Overton Community Center in Moapa Valley, Nev. featuring an open house, a presentation and a public comment section. The second meeting will be held virtually from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. May 2 and will feature a presentation, a question-and-answer section and a comment period. The second meeting will also be published on the BLM Nevada YouTube channel, the release states.
BLM Nevada states that comments submitted by May 12 will be the most helpful in the development of the draft Environmental Assessment and Travel Management Plan. Comments can be submitted by emailing BLM_NV_LVFO_Muddy_Mt_TMP@blm.gov; online at https://eplanning.blm.gov/eplanning-ui/project/2023975/510; and mailing to BLM Las Vegas Field Office, Attn: Kenny Kendrick, Supervisory Resource Management Specialist, 4701 N. Torrey Pines Drive, Las Vegas, Nevada, 89130.
