Buckwheat or big bucks?

LAS VEGAS -- The Las Vegas buckwheat seems like a small, unassuming plant.But if conservationists get their way, this little flowering shrub could halt development of some of the last remaining open space in the Las Vegas Valley.Although the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has said the plant deserves government protection, the buckwheat is at the end of a long line of other species that officials say are more deserving. Because the threats to the buckwheat, which grows only in parts of Clark and Lincoln counties, aren't imminent, the feds have said its designation can wait.Rob Mrowka, the local conservation advocate for the national Center for Biological Diversity, disagrees. On Monday, the group, which recently opened an office in Las Vegas, petitioned the federal government to speed up the process.If the feds list the buckwheat as an endangered species, it will stop homes or parks from being built in several areas in the valley where it now grows, including on federal land set to be sold under the Southern Nevada Public Lands Management Act.It would become the latest species to be caught up in the fight over what little open space is left in the valley. While homebuilders and city officials think land should be available for development, conservationists are asking whether it might be time to stop expanding and start protecting natural resources such as the buckwheat."Do we want to give up public lands for development and sacrifice this rare plant that's not found anywhere else in the world, or do we want to value what's unique to Las Vegas and set aside those areas and protect them?" Mrowka said.Scientists didn't determine the Las Vegas buckwheat was its own species of shrub until 2004, Mrowka said. And if it continues to be destroyed in Clark County at its current rate, it will soon disappear from Earth altogether, experts say.In 2004, the plant held up the sale of public land to developer Olympia Group. In the end, the company was forced to set aside a 300-acre conservation area, including 59 acres of buckwheat, of the 2,675 acres it had purchased.Champions of development point to the deal as just another case of a single, pesky species holding up progress in Las Vegas.But Mrowka sees it as another step toward extinction of the buckwheat.The Nevada Natural Heritage Program, part of the state Conservation and Natural Resources Department, has twice petitioned the state to list the buckwheat as a critically endangered species, which is separate from the federal designation. The state rejected the requests.Although the petition is being considered one more time, Mrowka said the plant can't wait any longer for protection, so his group is pushing for a federal designation instead.That would help protect 127 acres of buckwheat in the Upper Las Vegas Wash, an area of open land coveted by developers for its moneymaking possibilities and by conservationists for its natural resources, including the buckwheat, the rare Las Vegas bear poppy and Merriam bear poppy plants.Under the Southern Nevada Public Lands Management Act, about 13,000 acres of the wash have been designated for "disposal," government-speak for sale to developers or transfer to another state or federal agency.Although the areas that contain buckwheat and fossils were not originally slated to be sold by the Bureau of Land Management when the act was created in 2000, they were added in 2002 in a process that critics say was less than completely open.So now conservationists, hikers and archaeologists find themselves having to fight to preserve those special resources."It's tough to stand in the way of people who think that almost every acre of land in the Las Vegas Valley should be developed," van Ee said.The BLM expects to release a preliminary environmental review of the 13,000 acres this summer. The review will eventually determine how much of that land should be preserved, who should take care of the preserved acres and what can be built on any land sold to developers.Sharon Powers, president and chief executive of the North Las Vegas Chamber of Commerce, says a mere plant shouldn't stand in the way of the economic engine that drives this valley."Where does it stop? We can have a great conservation area where all this land is protected, but if it doesn't bring jobs and commerce into an area, what good does it do?" Powers said.(Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service, www.scrippsnews.com.)