The Wild Sheep Foundation welcomed today a new step toward long-term security for desert bighorn sheep and other wildlife on the Desert National Wildlife Refuge. The National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) signed into law over the holiday advanced two important issues in the conservation of this southern Nevada landscape.
Under the new law, the Air Force will be able to install training equipment and must complete an agreement on operations with the Fish and Wildlife Service within a year.
The 1.6-million-acre Refuge, half of which is a training area for the Air Force, is jointly managed with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Close and transparent cooperation is necessary to achieve the joint mission of military readiness and wildlife conservation.
Cooperation has been challenged recently by disputes over the construction of electronic target simulators and a 20-year delay in producing a written agreement on the specifics of training and conservation activities. The NDAA approved the simulators, guided their placement on the Refuge, and required completion of the cooperative agreement.
“The Wild Sheep Foundation is proud to support our military while also ensuring this historic cradle of desert sheep conservation is maintained for future generations,” said WSF President & CEO Gray N. Thornton. “This refuge was established by President Franklin Roosevelt in 1936 for the conservation of desert bighorn sheep.”
The Wild Sheep Foundation continued its long-term commitment to DNWR by working with the Nevada Congressional delegation, the Nevada Department of Wildlife, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and many conservation and environmental partners. Representatives Steven Horsford (NV-4-D) and Mark Amodei (NV-2-R) played central roles in drafting and negotiating the final bill text.
“We recognized the value of target simulators to the Air Force and the security of our Country from the start,” Thornton said. “The questions were about where these big boxes would be built, what other activities would be needed, and how we can get more certainty that wildlife management activities can happen when and where they are needed.”
The target simulators will sit on concrete pads up to a half-acre in size. Under the new law, they must be placed along existing roads inside areas previously designated for live-fire operations. The question of whether additional simulators may be placed in areas designated for wildlife conservation has been added to the agenda of the coordinating committee established in law two years ago.
“What makes all this work – and what will keep it working as new issues arise – is the completion at long last of a written agreement on daily activities,” explained Thornton. “This agreement was required 20 years ago but never completed. The new law grants a 1-year extension of that deadline. We will help the Air Force and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to finalize it, but it’s really up to them.”
The pending agreement mainly concerns scheduling access in the joint-use area of the Refuge. Military training requires secure areas for safety. Wildlife management, such as servicing watering stations and conducting an annual hunt, requires certainty for planning and deployment.
“Over the last few years, cooperation on the Refuge has improved among many of us and still has room for improvement,” Thornton concluded. “We encourage the Air Force, in particular, to engage more actively. Negotiation has prevailed again and is the best path forward.”
