Boost for Great Basin

Stretching from the Rockies to the Sierra Nevada, the Great Basin was dreaded territory for the wagon-trains of the great westward migration. With no outlet to the sea, the rivers--when they flowed--ended in alkaline sinks or disappeared into the desert. When heat wasn’t the enemy, the cold was. Nor was the basin flat, as the word implied. The emigrants had to struggle over seemingly innumerable summits of the north-south mountain ranges.

The pioneers did not conquer this territory. They--most of them, at least--merely survived its passage. But more than a century later, Americans can appreciate the wild scenic beauty and natural variety of the Great Basin, ranging from the alkali flats to snowy summits, alpine meadows, aspen groves and bristlecone pine forests. With a final affirmative vote in the U.S. Senate, America will celebrate the uniqueness of the region with the establishment of the Great Basin National Park in east-central Nevada.

Mining and ranching interests long stymied the efforts of the late Sen. Alan Bible of Nevada to create a Great Basin park even though virtually all the land already was in federal ownership. Now, except for Sen. Chic Hecht (R-Nev.), the Nevada delegation has agreed on a compromise 76,800-acre park bill. Hecht, who had opposed anything larger than a 44,000-acre park, can guarantee Senate approval.

Politics, not a lack of natural qualities, have delayed admission of the Great Basin to its rightful niche in the national park system. Now is the time to correct that omission.