The Conservation Priorities for Nevada are four pieces of legislation that are the priorities of Nevada’s conservation community. This community is made up of eighteen environmental and conservation groups from throughout the state. The Nevada Conservation League Education Fund leads and facilitates the group.

Process

In the interim period between legislative sessions, the member groups of the Conservation Priorities for Nevada meet to determine key issues that they would like to see the Nevada Legislature address during the next legislative session. The groups narrow their focus to four specific pieces of legislation that become the conservation community’s priorities.

Collaboration and consensus are key points of this coalition. The key is to maintain a unified front to Nevada lawmakers, so that they are clear about what the community supports and what the community opposes. During the legislative session, NCLEF leads the lobbying effort on behalf of the community, lobbying in favor of the four priorities, but also sharing the community’s position on a host of other bills through our weekly Hot List.

Results

This coalition was formed before the 2009 legislative session. During that session, the community was successful in getting all four of our priorities passed into law, including one bill that required an override of a gubernatorial veto. In the 2011 session, we were only successful in passing one of our four priorities, but made significant progress on another and had a third derailed by an unrelated last-minute amendment.

As our coalition sat down to the work of choosing our priorities for this year, we were mindful that some of these issues would present a challenge. We are made confident, however, by the strength of our united front on these issues, and by the strong public support we have seen for conservation. As we enter the 2013 legislative session, we are confident that we have chosen four priorities that will significantly advance conservation in Nevada.