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Nevada Gets Range and Basin National Monument

U.S. Depertment of the Interior
Basin and Range National Monument, one of three new National Monuments announced by President Obama Friday.

President Obama announced Friday the designation of three new national monuments including the Basin and Range National Monument in southeastern Nevada. While U.S. Secretary of the Interior Sally Jewell applauds action, Utah Congressman Rob Bishop railed against the President’s use of authority that dates back to the Antiquities Act of 1906.

“It is all politics and no protection whatsoever. And it just creates a different classification of public land that was already public land with protections by it,” says Bishop.

The area covers about 1,100 square miles in Lincoln and Nye counties 2 hours directly north of Las Vegas. Interior Secretary Jewel said in a statement the action builds on local efforts to protect the rugged mountains and sweeping valleys of Basin and Range. She said it also allows traditional ranching practices, recreational opportunities, future scientific study and use by the defense department.

Bob Nelson is a graduate of the University of Utah with a BA in mass communications. He began his radio career at KUER in 1978 when it was still in Kingsbury Hall. That’s also where he met his wife, Maria Shilaos, in 1981. Bob left KUER for commercial radio where he worked for 25 years, and he is thrilled to be back at KUER. Bob and his family are part of an explorer group, fondly known as The Hordes and Masses, which has been seeking out ghost towns and little-known places in Utah for more than twenty years.
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