Las Vegas Review Journal – by Henry Brean
The Bureau of Land Management has told its employees and contractors to stay out of a disputed swath of public land in northeastern Clark County after shots were fired near a survey crew’s camp last week.
The FBI and Metro police are said to be investigating the June 5 incident, which unfolded in a remote area at the northern tip of Lake Mead where Bunkerville rancher Cliven Bundy continues to graze cattle in defiance of federal authorities.
No one was injured, but the three surveyors from the Nevada-based Great Basin Institute packed their gear in the dark and quickly left the area after they said someone fired three shots from a nearby road and then returned an hour later to fire three more.
The agency later directed that “all personnel and contractors are not to work in the Gold Butte area at this time,” said Great Basin Institute co-founder and executive director Jerry Keir, reading from the incident report submitted by his survey team.
A three-person crew was collecting data on springs, seeps and cattle troughs for a BLM inventory of the Gold Butte area. They were scheduled to spend a week in the area about 100 miles northeast of Las Vegas, but at the end of their first day along the western slope of the Virgin Mountains they were approached by two men in a vehicle who asked them what they were doing.
The surveyors said the men identified themselves as ranchers and were “very cordial.”
A few hours later, shortly after the surveyors climbed into their tents for the night at about 9 p.m., they heard a vehicle on the road and saw its headlights shining on their camp. That’s when the first shots were fired.
They told Metro and the FBI those shots and the second series an hour later came from roughly a third of a mile away from their campsite.
“To my knowledge they weren’t shot at, but there was gunfire in the vicinity so they decided they should leave,” said Terry Christopher, the environmental research institute’s associate director in Southern Nevada.
Keir called the incident “highly unusual” for Nevada and “unprecedented” for the Gold Butte area, where hundreds of people from the institute have spent more than a decade monitoring desert tortoise populations and restoring riparian habitat.
He said the institute is now working to strengthen its emergency protocols and review its communication plan with dispatchers and the BLM.
The bureau had little to say about last week’s incident beyond a prepared statement describing what happened.
“The situation is under investigation and the BLM is taking appropriate safety precautions to ensure the safety of its employees and contractors,” the statement read.
Rudy Evenson, spokesman for the agency in Nevada, said he couldn’t offer any additional information.
The survey crew was working in a 600,000-acre area that federal authorities temporarily closed early last year so contract cowboys could round up several hundred cows Bundy left to roam without a permit on federal land. The impound operation lasted a week before being called off on April 12, 2014, after the rancher’s supporters, including armed militia members, shut down Interstate 15 and marched on the corral holding the cattle.
Bundy stopped paying fees to graze his cattle on public land more than 20 years ago amid a dispute over restrictions placed on his operation by federal range managers. The BLM responded by cancelling the rancher’s grazing permit in 1994 and closing the land to livestock in 1999. Bundy ignored those decisions, just as he has two federal court orders directing him to remove his animals or have them confiscated.
It’s unclear if the two men who spoke to the surveyors were from Bundy’s ranch or if one of them was Bundy himself. Messages left for the rancher Thursday were not immediately returned.
Keir said the simmering conflict continues to hamper efforts to study, manage and protect Gold Butte, which has been proposed as a National Conservation Area for its rugged mountains, sandstone ridges, native American petroglyphs and historic mine sites between Lake Mead’s Overton Arm and the Arizona border.
Along the Virgin and Muddy rivers near Lake Mead, for example, security concerns have kept workers away from restoration sites where invasive salt cedar plants are being replaced with native willows. When they do get to the sites, the workers sometimes find the ground trampled and the saplings eaten by rogue cattle.
“There have been complications,” Keir said. “It’s unfortunate.”
Contact Henry Brean at hbrean@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0350. Find him on Twitter: @RefriedBrean
Five bonus points if you get someone who wears a suit and tie.
If you see something like this happening, you didn’t see it. Leave the area, and forget all about it. You know nothing. You didn’t see anything.
see what?
My stinking kike ISP (Hughesnet) drops me down to sub-dial-up speed as soon as I get here, and they do the same thing when I download shows from the liberty tree radio archives.
Other websites load fine, but as soon as I arrive here, everything grinds to a halt. Don’t EVER sign up for internet access with Hughesnet. They have you over a barrel because they make it too expensive to leave. They’re the scum of the internet.
Hi JR, I have HughesNet as my ISP too. I don’t have any problems with speed when I visit the Trenches but I do have some grips about HughesNet. My biggest gripe is having to watch the Status Meter when I watch videos. If I use up my allotted time the speed gets way, way slow and then I have to use the free token to last me until my billing date when it starts back over at 100%. I hate that meter but I was told to use it to balance it like money in the bank. You are right, they do make it too expensive to leave, but out where I am this is all there is as far as I am aware of. I couldn’t imagine going back to dial-up, oh heavens no!!
Hey, CatFon, how goes it with you? 🙂
I only have 6 gigs a month on my internet plan, and once they’re used up, I have to pay more for any additional after that. But my internet speed remains the same, regardless.
Except when our site is being attacked, of course.
Hey #1 NWO Hater I’m doing very well thank you. How are you doing?
On my internet plan I receive 15.0 gigs a month and if I go over the 15. gigs my internet speed slows way, way down unless I use my free once a month token which will bring my speed back to where it was. My problem is that I love watching the videos posted on the Trenches, especially the music videos. I have to treat this like money in the bank and I do try to be careful but sometimes I go over my limit. So far, according to the status meter I am doing well and hopefully I will stay within my range until July 3rd when the new billing date starts. We shall see…..
Enjoy the rest of your day. Please breathe in that fresh Oregon air for me. I know you love living there and I’m so happy for you. Everyday must be a new adventure for you! 🙂
Doin’ great, CatFon. Actually stopped hating life after moving out of that sh#thole L.A.!!! Nothing but trees & mountains all around me now. I really do love this place.
Found a decent spot on the lake (Foster, we have two) where I can limit out in 2 – 3 hrs. on some fair size trout. Only a 10 min. drive. 🙂
The bast@rds still chemtrail up here just as much, though. No getting away from that cr@p!!! 😡
dont blame them for getting touchy ,, people are getting tired of the crap and being pushed around
and if the BLM keep pushing they might just spark something off
as i see it , that was a warning .. because if they wanted them dead they would be , i dont think those guys miss much
“proposed as a National Conservation Area for its rugged mountains, sandstone ridges, native American petroglyphs and historic mine sites” Which is why the feds are trying to sell it to the Chinese.
Good example showing that force is the only thing the commies understand.