Among the dozens of bills signed into law by the governor after the legislature adjourned is a number of those designed to protect Nevada’s natural resources.
One of them creates a new state Division of Outdoor Recreation. It will be under the umbrella of the State Department of Conservation and Natural Resources.
“The primary purpose and responsibility of the new Division of Outdoor Recreation, we believe, will be to build and construct the amenities, the infrastructure, that we need in our outdoors to make sure our public really has access to the outdoors. After that, the primary goal is to ensure that people are aware that those outdoor recreational assets exist,” said Dominique Etchegoyhen, the deputy director of the Department of Conservation and Natural Resources.
Etchegoyhen said many people in Nevada don't know about the recreation that is available to them just beyond the mountain range they can see. The new division will work to make sure they can "explore their Nevada," he said.
And outdoor recreation is a big business that is growing, he said. It generates about $12.6 billion in consumer spending a year and creates about 87,000 jobs.
Besides the education piece and economic development part, the new division will have a conservation component.
“These resources are limited resources that we need to protect," Etchegoyhen said.
Protecting the resources protects the all the benefits we get from those natural resources, he said.
The new division will work closely with state parks, tourism and cultural affairs, and the Governors Office of Economic Development.
The first step to setting up the new office will be to hire an administrator. Etchegoyhen said his office expects to do that by July 1, which is the start of the new fiscal year.
Dominique Etchegoyhen, deputy director, Department of Conservation and Natural Resources