This is an excerpt from an article FSC Board Member Alan O’Neill wrote with Searchlight resident Judy Bundorf in Sierra Club’s Desert Report newsletter. Learn more and sign the petition to create Avi Kwa Ame National Monument at honorspiritmountain.org.
In Southern Nevada, we have the opportunity to protect some of the most visually stunning, ecologically diverse, and culturally significant public lands in the entire Mojave Desert. Stretching from the Newberry Mountains in the east to the New York, South McCullough, Castle, and Piute Mountains in the west, these lands feature a cacophony of plant and animal diversity, dramatic peaks, scenic canyons, and natural springs. It includes sloping bajadas covered with ancient Joshua tree forests, unique grasslands, and a rich history of rock art and other cultural sites. It is also an area designated by Audubon as an Important Bird Area.
A coalition of tribes, conservation groups, recreation interests, and others is working to establish the Avi Kwa Ame (Spirit Mountain) National Monument to permanently protect these unique lands. Avi Kwa Ame is the Mojave name for Spirit Mountain. Lying partly in the proposed monument and partly within Lake Mead National Recreation Area, it is designated as a Traditional Cultural Property on the National Register of Historic Places.
Energy developers recently tried to build two large wind farms in the heart of this dramatic landscape, and new proposals may come at any time. Such development would forever scar these valuable lands and degrade their world-class habitat and their nationally recognized cultural resources.
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