| http://www.elkodaily.com/archives/index.inn?loc=detail&doc=/2001/November/09-810-news2.txt
November 09, 2001 BLM using spy cameras By JEFFRY MULLINS, Associate Editor ELKO - Big Brother is lurking in the wilderness of the Black Rock Desert. A Winnemucca man uncovered a hidden video camera buried in the sagebrush along a wilderness area boundary and when he dug it up, he discovered it was labeled with a U.S. Department of Interior property sticker. Bob Schweigert this week wrote to U.S. Bureau of Land Management officials and the media about his discovery. Winnemucca Field Office Manager Terry Reed today confirmed the cameras were placed at Black Rock by the federal agency. He said they were installed in an attempt to catch whoever has been stealing wilderness boundary markers. Between 100 and 150 of the markers have been stolen, Reed said in an interview this morning during a break in the BLM's Resource Advisory Council meetings at the Elko Convention Center. Schweigert said in his letter he believed the agency was trying to catch people violating the wilderness area road closures, although he found no evidence of anyone driving across the boundaries. Schweigert said he found the camera Oct. 22 on the South Jackson Wilderness, one of 10 newly created wilderness areas associated with the national conservation area established this year by Congress at the request of Sen. Harry Reid and former Sen. Richard Bryan. "I find it absolutedly reprehensible that the Department of Interior should assume Nevadans are criminals, and therefore implement clandestine surveillance of our activities on what were once public lands, but which the Department of Interior now clearly considers to be federal lands," Schweigert wrote. Bob Abbey, state director of the BLM in Nevada, said he didn't know about the cameras until Wednesday. "I will look into it to determine whether or not we had justifiable reasons for placing surveillance cameras there," Abbey said. "We've used surveillance cameras in the past, especially in areas where we have had acts of vandalism occurring," he said, such as significant cultural sites the agency is trying to protect. "We'll take whatever actions we deem are necessary to protect the resources that we manage on behalf of the American public," Abbey said, although the use of surveillance cameras "is the exception rather than the norm." Reed said the signposts were installed "at a considerable expense" because of the size of the 10 irregular-shaped wilderness areas. Video cameras were one of the techniques he and BLM rangers decided to use in an attempt to catch the culprits. "Our obligation is to mark those boundaries so people know where they are and can comply with the legislation," Reed said. "They're not real expensive," he said of the signposts, but maintaining them requires a lot of staff time. Reed said people have been speculating about who has been taking the signs, and the investigation was an attempt to clear that up. But the cameras have yielded no evidence. "As yet we still don't know" who is doing it, he said. Reed said the cameras were set up to operate on a trip-start. He wouldn't say how many cameras were planted and he said he wasn't sure if any had been "redeployed" by BLM rangers. Schweigert said he has filed a Freedom of Information Act request with the department to find out how many cameras have been planted along the Black Rock and where they are located. "If legal, the clandestine surveillance of Americans on public lands by the United States government must be considered a major federal action requiring the completion of an Environmental Impact Statement," Schweigert speculated in his letter. "However, to my knowledge, no public notice was given by the Department of Interior that it intended to clandestinely, or otherwise, surveilled the road closures." The revelation of hidden cameras in the wilderness will undoubtedly have hunters and recreationists wondering who is watching them the next time they head out to the wilderness. "I am not aware of any other cameras being used right now in the State of Nevada," Abbey said."I am going to conduct my own internal review to determine exactly what our law enforcement personnel are doing relative to the use of surveillance cameras," Abbey said, adding that he will personally authorize any future use of the devices. "This is an excellent tool for certain circumstances," he said, but "I don't want to get into the habit of just using cameras for monitoring purposes." Meanwhile, Schweigert is still angry about the Black Rock Desert designation, which he said was overwhelmingly opposed by Nevada residents and their county commissioners but pushed through Congress by Bryan and Reid. "The senators set a hell of an example for the Department of Interior," Schweigert wrote. "Can we be surprised that low- and mid-level bureaucrats, being privy to the surreptitious manner in which the 1.2 million acres were designated NCA and Wilderness, now believe they are justified in the secret surveillance of Americans who use the Wilderness Areas?" |
