LETTER: Newly created Tule Springs Fossil Beds National Monument a true treasure

Thanks for the Jan. 15 article “Bare Bones.” More than 10,000 fossils have been found in and around the Upper Las Vegas Wash, some within the newly created Tule Springs Fossil Beds National Monument and others in the adjacent Ice Age Park (a 300-acre state park adjacent to the monument).

Gov. Brian Sandoval, the Legislature, the cities of Las Vegas and North Las Vegas, the Clark County Commission, the Paiute Indians and Nellis Air Force Base all approved of designating the area as The Tule Springs Fossil Beds National Monument.

For more than 10 years, local citizens Harry and Helen Mortenson, Thalia Dondero, Jill DeStefano, Sandy Croteau, Don White and many others worked to protect the area by having it designated a national monument.

When properly developed, the monument and the park will attract many new visitors. The Las Vegas Natural History Museum under Marilyn Gillespie’s able leadership, and other groups such as The Protectors of Tule Springs and The Ice Age Park Foundation, are all working together with the BLM and the Park Service to create a first-rate national monument right here in Las Vegas.

Happily, your article demonstrates that in addition to athletics and gaming there is local interest in academics and the work of UNLV professors Steve Rowland and Josh Bonde, to name a couple of our local paleontologists. Thanks again.

Paul Aizley

Las Vegas

The writer is vice president of The Ice Age Park Foundation.