Arc Dome Wilderness- September 8, 2007

Friends of Nevada Wilderness worked on restoring an illegal vehicular trespass along the beginning of the North Twin trail in the Arc Dome Wilderness. There were eight Friends of Nevada Wilderness volunteers and staff along with a Forest Service employee working on the project.

The volunteers camped at Spencer Hot Springs Friday night and met up with the District Ranger and seasonal employee of the Austin-Tonopah Ranger District Saturday morning at the project site. The crew scattered rocks and transplanted sagebrush and native plants from the surrounding environment along half of the two-track, leaving a single tread path open for hikers and stock. The rocks and vertical mulching helped to disguise the trespass, while also helping to speed up natural reveggetation and allow for seed collection. The volunteers were careful to totally avoid the archaeological sites, where there are old stone structures from many years ago. The volunteers worked transplanting native plants onto the route and scattering and placing rocks in a manner that would discourage motorized vehicles from trespassing, then placed a couple of carsonite signs. One sign was placed at the beginning of the trail where there is now an established turnaround and parking area for vehicles, indicating that from that point in the area is closed to motorized vehicles, and the other sign was installed further in to indicate the wilderness boundary.
After the route restoration work was completed, the volunteers hiked up the South Twin River trail to an old abandoned barbed-wire fence and removed the wiring and some of the posts. The wire and materials were left in a pile to be carried out safely at a later date.

*There were a total of 138 volunteer hours recorded for this project.
*There was a total of $2,070 saved through the use of volunteers that the U.S. Forest Service would otherwise have had to spend on in-kind labor. (Based on government protocol $15.00/hr)

Quinn Canyon Wilderness- August 4, 2007

Over the weekend of August 4th-5th, Friends of Nevada Wilderness performed a volunteer monitoring and restoration project in the Quinn Canyon Wilderness. The project involved assisting in monitoring efforts for invasive weeds and campsites in the wilderness along with trail maintenance along the Cherry Creek trail, which had not been maintained in years and had become inaccessible to visitors. There were six Friends of Nevada Wilderness volunteers and staff along with three Forest Service seasonal employees helping out on the project.
The volunteers arrived to the Cherry Creek campground Friday night and met up with the Forest Service Saturday morning. The volunteers split into three groups and accompanied the three Forest Service employees on different projects. One group went with April Johnson, the Forest Service Wilderness Ranger, to complete some monitoring work along the Hooper Canyon trail and along the boundary. The group documented and dismantled four different campsites, documented an invasive weed, and placed a couple wilderness boundary signs in needed locations. Another group went to find out if the Pine Creek trail existed and flagged and GPS’d the trail, which was in rough shape. The remaining volunteers joined Jim Proctor, Forest Service Trails Technician, to help clear the Cherry Creek trail of brush, excessive vegetation and downed logs. The trail work entailed pruning and lopping where the vegetation had crowded in the trail and also filling in some severely eroded and washed out sections of the trail where the creek had taken over. The Friends volunteers cleared the trail about 1/2 mile in to the wilderness, making it accessible for hikers and stock so that the wilderness resources can be protected from the creation of social paths and other negative impacts.

Volunteers worked to stop erosion of the trail along Cherry Creek.

The Friends of Nevada Wilderness volunteers and Forest Service employees enjoyed dinner and campfire that night, and the following morning a couple Friends volunteers continued with the trail work along Cherry Creek while the others were able to go for a hike through the Quinn Canyon Wilderness and enjoy the scenic views. There is still a large section of the Cherry Creek trail further into the wilderness that will need more maintenance work, but the Friends volunteers got a good start on the first section of the trail and will be back again to finish it off.


*There were a total of 156 volunteer hours recorded for this project.
*There was a total of $2,340.00 saved through the use of volunteers that the U.S. Forest Service would otherwise have had to spend on in-kind labor. (Based on government protocol $15.00/hr)

Alta Toquima Wilderness- July 28, 2007

On July 28th, Friends of Nevada Wilderness organized a volunteer restoration project in the Alta Toquima Wilderness. The project involved restoring the Pasco Canyon trail, which had not been maintained in years and had become inaccessible to visitors. There were six Friends of Nevada Wilderness volunteers and staff along with two Forest Service employees helping out on the project.

The volunteers arrived to the trailhead Saturday morning and worked along the trail filling in severely washed out areas with rocks, brush and dirt, and pruning and lopping where the vegetation had crowded in the trail. The trail was completely grown over with wild rose and other vegetation in some places and the tread was barely visible. The Friends volunteers cleared the trail about ¾ of a mile in to the wilderness, making it accessible for hikers and stock so that the wilderness resources can be protected from the creation of social paths and other negative impacts. There is still a large section of the Pasco Canyon trail further in that will need some work, but the Friends volunteers got a good start on clearing the first section of the trail.

After a long day of hard work, half of the volunteers headed to the Spencer Hot Springs to relax and soak in the hot springs and camp for the night. The following morning, Friends provided transportation to visit the Toquima Caves and view some archaeological sites before the ride back to Reno. Thanks to the hard-working volunteers of Friends of Nevada Wilderness and the U.S. Forest Service, visitors will again be able to access the Pasco Canyon trail and enjoy the Alta Toquima Wilderness.

*There were a total of 104 volunteer hours recorded for this project.

*There was a total of $1,560.00 saved through the use of volunteers that the U.S. Forest Service would otherwise have had to spend on in-kind labor. (Based on government protocol $15.00/hr)