Nevada is losing more than $5 million in federal funding after the Department of the Interior (DOI) last month refused to issue funding for more than 100 previously approved National Park Service agreements.

Nevada parks will lose out on roughly $5.4 million — approximately 20 percent of a nationwide $25.9 million cut in funding — across Southern Nevada's Lake Mead National Recreation Area, Tule Springs Fossil Beds National Monument, parks in the Mojave Desert and Death Valley National Park, which spans across California and Nevada.

According to the Colorado-based Center for Western Priorities, which broke down the DOI's disapproval of the projects, the parks had already secured the funding through congressional appropriations or other venues.

But DOI, which reviews the final step before the money can be released, withheld the funds. That withholding was first reported by The Washington Post; their reporting indicates the funding can be redirected elsewhere.

Most of the agreements were to go into effect Oct. 1.

The Washington Post previously reported that, according to DOI, the funding was being withheld for projects that are "actively working against the best interests of the American people and the priorities of this administration."

According to the center, Lake Mead National Recreation Area in Southern Nevada lost the largest single funding agreement, with nearly $3.5 million slashed for cultural resource surveying and other projects at the reservoir.

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The money would have funded work by the Nevada-based Desert Research Institute to survey and map unapproved roads and nearby cultural resources at the Overton Arm and Government Wash.

As of 2024, there were a documented 824 miles of illegal roads at Lake Mead, although estimates paint that number at two to three times as many. At least 87 miles of documented illegal roads are in the Overton Arm area and another 172 miles are in Government Wash, one of the park's most popular backcountry camping areas and the closest portion of the recreation area to Las Vegas.

In the Overton Arm area, some of the roads pass through a "highly significant cultural site." 

In addition, the Center for Western Priorities reported that more than $400,000 will be withheld for weather stations and bat monitoring in the Mojave Desert and another $179,000 was cut for projects at Tule Springs Fossil Beds National Monument.

Death Valley National Park is losing $1.3 million for projects, including the closure of abandoned mines.

Across the parks, the projects largely would have been administered by the Great Basin Institute and the Nevada-based Desert Research Institute.

"The Interior Department says these groups were 'working against the best interests of the American people,'" according to Kate Groetzinger, communications director for the Center for Western Priorities. "That makes no sense. … Blocking these agreements did not save a dollar."