Document Type:  Newspaper Article
Publication:  Las Vegas Review-Journal
Date: Tuesday, November 21, 1995              
Page: 2B
Title: State wildlife officials reach hunting pact with Nellis Air Force 
	Base
Author:  Susan Greene, Review-Journal
  
State wildlife officials tentatively have reached a pact with Nellis Air 
Force Base that would allow hunting for about one month each year 
on part of the base's massive range complex.

Mike Cox, a biologist with the Nevada Division of Wildlife, said
Monday his agency would like to see more concessions from Air 
Force officials, but the agreement "probably is as good as we're going 
to get from the military."

"It shouldn't be this way, but the thing you learn in dealing with the 
Air Force is that you take what little they give you when you can get 
it," Cox said.

The agreement comes more than a decade after the Air Force 
withdrew 89,000 acres of Bureau of Land Management wilderness
in 1984 to use as a buffer zone around the classified Area 51 -
or Groom Lake air base - in Lincoln County.

When the Alr Force neglected to mitigate or compensate for that 
withdrawal as required by Congress, Cox and his staff asked that 
Nevadans be able to use land within the 3.5 million-acre Nellis Range 
Complex for hunting and other recreational uses.

Air Force officials responded by earmarking 16,640 acres at 
Stonewall Mountain near Goldfield strictly for use by hunters during 
the bighorn sheep hunting season, which typically lasts
for one month in the fall.

The 8,300-foot, pinion-covered mountain is considered a prime
hunting ground not only for bighorns but also for mule deer and
chukars. Under the proposed pact, it would remain under Air Force
ownership and be restricted from the public the rest of the year.

Cox said he will encourage Nellis officials to allow hikers and bird 
watchers access to Stonewall Mountain throughout the year, although
he is skeptical they will allow it.

The Air Force offilcer representing the base in the talks declined
Monday to be interviewed.

Nellis officials have assured the state that the area, which has never
been used for target practice, is free of unexploded bombs.
Nevertheless, the Air Force wants to require hunters to take safety
courses teaching them to avoid metal pieces or unexploded ordnance
that might be on the ground.

Cox said that stipuiation is holding up the agreement and needlessly
bogging down his agency with red tape.

"If it's true that there are no bombs out there in the first place, then
why should anyone have to take precautions?" he asked. "There's no
safety issue out there, although they're making this into one.

"It's just an extra headache they're asking us to face."

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