The draft legislation would instead carve out 1.1 million acres of Desert National Wildlife Refuge to be used “primarily for the military purposes” and only “secondarily” as a nature preserve. The military wants to add as much as 260,000 acres of the refuge — the largest in the contiguous United States — to the testing range. “The Air Force has conducted a four year process which included all identified stakeholders to examine the best way to meet the emerging test and training requirements,” it said. It would jettison an environmental review that has happened every 20 years and exempt the area from wildlife refuge law, opening the way for the Air Force to mine sand, gravel and other materials from within the refuge for construction. ADThe political battle over this vast stretch of southern Nevada desert will ultimately be waged 2,000 miles away, in Congress.

Source: Washington Post November 03, 2019 19:52 UTC