Conservation department seeks bond funding, IT consolidation and more park staff

DCNR Director James Settlemyer told the subcommittee the department seeks to modernize processes, consolidate IT services, and secure bond funding to support parks, habitat restoration and wildfire resilience.

Why it matters: DCNR funds and manages state parks, heritage programs, forestry and water resources; requested IT and bond investments would affect public access, permitting, fire‑risk reduction and grant support for local conservation projects.

Major requests and reforms: Settlemyer outlined a proposed reorganization to create a Bureau of Information Technology Services in the director’s office to centralize IT staff that are now dispersed across divisions; the change is intended to improve accountability, retention and cross‑division implementation of digitization and transparency projects. He said the department had not received approval for additional IT support staff since 2014 and that consolidation would permit clearer career ladders for IT specialists.

Parks and deferred maintenance: DCNR asked for additional state parks staff — a park supervisor and eight park rangers statewide — plus continued funding for the reservation system previously set up with restricted funds. The department said deferred maintenance needs across state parks exceed $100,000,000 and requested $5,000,000 in bond or one‑time funds for high‑priority repairs and improvements; it also requested replacement vehicles and UTVs for field operations and body cameras for park law enforcement following an officer‑involved shooting last year.

Conserve Nevada bonds and competitive grants: DCNR and an outside commenter (Nature Conservancy) emphasized the Conserve Nevada bond program, which funds drought planning, recreation, habitat restoration and resiliency projects. DCNR staff and a later witness said the agency is seeking roughly $63,400,000 in bond packages and flagged that $20,000,000 would be reserved for competitive grants across the state; other line items mentioned included $23,000,000 for Lake Tahoe environmental work and funding for Las Vegas Springs Preserve exhibits.

Forestry, water and environmental protection: DCNR requested $6,000,000 for shared stewardship to reduce catastrophic wildfire risk, replacement crew carriers and additional forestry positions as the division moves away from older conservation camp models. The department also proposed digitization positions in the Division of Water Resources to publish interactive maps and datasets so stakeholders can view the same information the state engineer uses when making water determinations. In environmental protection, DCNR requested additional technical staff for drinking water and underground injection control (UIC) permitting and new monitoring equipment for harmful algae bloom detection.

Questions and context: Committee members asked about positions funded with American Rescue Plan Act dollars and whether those should be continued as ongoing state expenses; Director Settlemyer said some ARPA‑funded positions support programs that remain in demand and described a pragmatic approach to continuing high‑priority functions. Brandon Bishop (DCNR) summarized bond allocations and said about $20,000,000 of the requested bond package would fund the competitive Conserve Nevada grants.

Next steps: DCNR will provide additional detail to the committee and to interim and capital budget processes; the department emphasized transparency and digitization as cross‑cutting priorities.