A coalition of local non-profits are fighting for a national monument designation in east Las Vegas.
Taylor Patterson, executive director of Indigenous Voices of Nevada, and Bertha Gutierrez, program director at Conservation Lands Foundation, are teaming up with conservationists and geologists to fight to protect public land.
The proposed monument area spans 32,618 acres, including Frenchman Mountain, Rainbow Gardens, the Great Unconformity, and Sunrise Mountain. The boundary would run up to the boundary of Lake Mead National Recreation Area.
“This landscape has a lot of potential. It just needs a little more love, so that’s what we’re doing here,” Gutierrez said.
Gutierrez points out the proposed monument area hosts geological wonders like the Great Unconformity.
The land is also home to the Las Vegas Bearpoppy, a plant that is exclusive to Clark County and vulnerable to extinction.
Patterson says the region is sacred to the Southern Paiute.
“It’s part of the salt song trail, which basically is the songs that tell the life cycle of the of the Paiute people, so this area is special and important to the Southern Paiute community, but also to indigenous people as a whole,” Patterson said.