With less than three weeks to go before the green flag is set to drop, Nevada Reps. Mark Amodei and Cresent Hardy are calling on the Obama Administration to approve an off-road race through the state’s newest national monument.
In a letter sent Wednesday to Secretary of Interior Sally Jewell, the Republican lawmakers said there is no regulatory or scientific reason to deny a permit for the 20th annual Best in the Desert “Vegas to Reno” race, which is slated to cross a portion of Basin and Range National Monument in Lincoln and Nye counties. The Bureau of Land Management is still conducting an environmental review of the 643-mile race slated to begin Aug. 19 near the Lincoln County town of Alamo and end Aug. 20 in Dayton, just east of Carson City.
This year’s proposed route has drawn opposition from conservationists because it includes 37 miles of existing dirt road through the southern half of the 704,000 acre national monument designated by President Obama last year.
In their letter, Amodei and Hardy argue that the race could mean up to $40 million in revenue for the rural communities along the route. To deny the race a special recreation permit despite a favorable environmental assessment “would mean the BLM has abandoned its mandate in favor of appeasing special interests,” the letter states...
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1 comment:
I'll say. If the Burners can do their thing on the Black Rock, this off-road race is a shoo-in. Anyone who has been to the said National Monument will be underwhelmed to be polite. I drove through it, across it many times during the course of my work with USFS on the Quinn Canyon division, as well as, a fur trapper.
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