Las Vegas community members push to turn public land into national monument in east valley [Video]

LAS VEGAS (KLAS) – Conservation groups and some community members are looking to turn public land on the outskirts of east Las Vegas into a national monument.

The stretch of recreational land including Frenchman Mountain right off Lake Mead Boulevard is managed by the Bureau of Land Management. Trash and glass are littered across the area after parties and people visiting the land.

“We absolutely need to get this land protected,” Taylor Patterson, the Executive Director of the Indigenous Voices of Nevada explained.

She said Frenchman Mountain is one of the few places people in east Las Vegas can enjoy public land without a fee.

“This whole area has really been [an] important piece of Southern Paiute history and I really hope that we can preserve that so future generations can have that same experience,” she added.

Nearly 35,000 acres of the land is what she and Bertha Gutierrez, Program …