Stereotypes about federal employees being lazy paper pushers might fit the agendas of government-hating Neanderthals. The reality, though, is usually far different.

For example, you won't find two more passionate federal employees than Fish Springs National Wildlife Refuge manager Jay Banta and Great Basin National Park's Andy Ferguson. These two men seem to always be on duty and often work weekends and long hours to protect their remote corners in one of the least populated regions in the lower 48 states.

In some ways, the two are the antithesis of straitlaced federal bureaucrats. Banta wears a beard, though it's not as long as it was at one time when it almost reached his waist. I asked him about it once and he laughed, saying "I won't shave until Utah elects a Democrat to Congress." Ferguson has a long Fu Manchu mustache and actually seems to enjoy hanging with the locals.

"One of [Ferguson's] strongest attributes is building support for the park with the local communities," said Lynn Davis, program manager for the Nevada Field Office of the National Parks Conservation Association. "Residents of White Pine County, where the park is located, have not always recognized the intrinsic value of the park. In fact, when the park was created in the '80s, many viewed the park service as the big bad land manager. That sentiment has shifted, and Andy is hugely responsible for that shift."

Perhaps the biggest reason Ferguson and Banta are gaining credibility among rural ranchers and farmers who usually hate the federal government is both have taken a stand against Las Vegas water interests that want to pipe millions of gallons out of the west desert aquifer, which could threaten not only farming and ranching but the existence of Fish Springs and the ecology of the famed Lehman Caves at Great Basin. Banta and Ferguson are not shy about their feelings, even if it means bucking powerful politicians.

"I don't claim to be anything close to a geohydrologist, but given the best professional speculation about the source of our water, I have grave concerns that removing anything close to the volume of water that SNWA [Southern Nevada Water Authority] has applied for would seriously impact the refuge flow," said Banta. "It is my conviction that it would not be a matter of if but rather a matter of when. Water is the very lifeblood of what we strive to do here, and there is simply no way to mitigate for a reduced flow. Until the science of the aquifers and their supply sources is adequately understood, it is a stab in the dark on allocating additional water rights in the Snake Valley to anyone."

Ferguson concurs. He says Las Vegas should not be entitled to take a lion's share of water from a sparsely populated rural area because it has outgrown its local resources.

"We hope to demonstrate by developing the best science-based information our belief that the taking of 50,000 acre-feet of groundwater annually from Snake Valley will adversely impact cave resources and natural systems that have created and maintained the park and the surrounding area for all these years," said Ferguson.

It might be safer for Banta and Ferguson to remain silent rather than anger powerful politicians. But then they would be derelict in doing the job taxpayers pay them to do, which is to protect and preserve two fragile, important and wonderful parts of a world too few appreciate. That's simply not their style, and those of us who love the Great Basin need to thank them for that.

Tom Wharton is an outdoors and travel columnist. Reach him at wharton@sltrib.com or 801-257-8909.