John Wallin, director of the Nevada Wilderness Project, writes:

Sue Silver’s letter concerning potential wilderness in Mineral County missed the mark on wilderness and the intent of the Nevada Wilderness Coalition.

The facts do not support Silver’s suggestion that wilderness will cause an economic collapse in Mineral County. The Wilderness Act passed in 1964, creating the National Wilderness Preservation System with nine original wilderness areas. Since then, Americans have broadly, across political, gender and age groups, supported protecting additional lands as part of the wilderness system. Today, there are more than 107 million acres of federal land protected as wilderness in 44 states and Puerto Rico. The reason for this is that wilderness areas, and their associated cultural, economic, social, and biological benefits, are enormously popular with Americans as well as Nevadans.

If wilderness is the imminent cause of an economic meltdown in Mineral County, how does she explain that the county already is the poorest in the state - without a single wilderness?

Silver further suggests that the Nevada Wilderness Coalition is part of a nefarious plan to designate 50 percent of America’s public lands as wilderness. The truth is that the Nevada Wilderness Coalition has a long and credible history in working with local communities and the congressional delegation on successful lands bills in Clark, Lincoln and White Pine Counties. We are proud of our pragmatic, solution-oriented approach, and I would point out to CityLife readers that our coalition to date has mailed close to 175 proposal maps to stakeholders (ranchers, miners, county commissioners and others). No stakeholder involved in any of the lands bills is as transparent and open to discussion as is the Nevada Wilderness Coalition.

We stand ready to discuss specific concerns with stakeholders in Mineral County, and we remain committed to having these conversations because we believe it is the best way to reach common ground on issues of concern to all Americans and all Nevadans.