This Is Nevada...

Camouflaged namesake in the Sheep Range of the Desert National Wildlife Refuge (photo by Kurt Kuznicki)

Where the Wild Places Are: Tent Trio in the Desert Refuge

All photos by Kurt Kuznicki

This Is Nevada...

Spring Monitoring in the Black Rock-High Rock National Conservation Area (photo by Brian Beffort)

Celebrate Women and Wilderness with a Glass of Wine on August 26

The free, informal social gathering is being held to learn about state and regional wilderness protection opportunities and reach out to members and friends.

Starting at 3pm with libations and light appetizers, Broads’ and Friends’ Board of Directors, staff, members and supporters will be on hand to discuss how to help protect wild public lands. At 3:30 pm, the all-women band QUIRKY, featuring Cindy Grey, will perform bluegrass music. At 4pm, Veronica Egan and Shaaron Netherton, Executive Directors of Great Old Broads for Wilderness and Friends of Nevada Wilderness, respectively, will talk about current programs and activities.

The event is free and all are welcome. Younger generations – our future stewards – are especially encouraged to attend. Sponsors include Patagonia, Great Basin Brewery and Total Wine. For more information and directions visit greatoldbroads.org. To RSVP, please call (970) 385-9577 or email Ellen Stein at ellen@greatoldbroads.org. A similar gathering will be held Tuesday, August 28th, at Alpine Meadows in partnership with the California Wilderness Coalition. Visit www.greatoldbroads.org for more information on this event.

This Is Nevada...

A snowy morning in Gold Butte (photo by Kurt Kuznicki)

This Is Nevada...

Smiles in Bridge Canyon Wilderness (photo by Brian Beffort)

Journey to the Center of the Wild: Quantifying Wilderness Quality in Central Nevada

By Shaaron Netherton, Executive Director
Photos by the Inventory Crew

Five hardy souls are spending their summer out exploring some of Nevada’s best kept wild secret places looking for BLM areas with wilderness character. The wilderness inventory crew will be providing timely and quality data about lands that have wilderness character to the Battle Mountain and Carson City BLM Districts. Both of these districts are in the process of creating new land use plans that will guide how these public lands are managed into the future. The Battle Mountain District encompasses about four counties in central Nevada (Lander, Eureka, Nye and Esmeralda). The Carson City District includes several counties as well (southern Washoe, Douglas, Carson City, Mineral and Lyon). The BLM is required by law to keep up-to-date inventories on all of the resources they manage including wilderness.

Funding for this effort is coming from a grant and is being coordinated in partnership with Friends of Nevada Wilderness and the Nevada Wilderness Project. The data is being collected using the BLM’s Wilderness Inventory Manual 6310. This includes providing individual route evaluations, photo logs, and details about each of the wilderness characteristics: size, naturalness, outstanding opportunities for solitude and/or primitive and unconfined recreation.

At the end of the season, the data collected by the crew will be turned into formal reports that will be given to the BLM along with briefing presentations to the BLM district’s management team and planners. The bottom line of this effort is to help identify lands with special wilderness character and protect them for recreationists and wildlife and for future generations to enjoy unspoiled Nevada’s beauty and solitude.

Cutting Torch Work in the Black Rock-High Rock National Conservation Area

Team Stewardship from Friends of Nevada Wilderness headed out to the East Fork-High Rock Canyon Wilderness to put their torching skills to work! 

Their cutting torch skills, that is! Stewardship Director Pat Bruce and Stewardship Technician Renee Aldrich trained on safety and use in early July to do work with a cutting torch safely in wilderness areas, and finally got a chance to apply their skills during the last week of July. Bureau of Land Management staff had pinpointed old development items like windmills and troughs that needed to be removed from the Black Rock-High Rock National Conservation Area, one of the 16 National Conservation Areas in America.

The team gathered nonreusable development items, mostly consisting of old wind mills, and cut the metal into smaller pieces with the torch before removing it from the area.

Karen Dallett from Friends of Black Rock-High Rock joined in the fun, and helped haul 6.5 cubic yards of cut nonreusable debris for transportation out of wilderness.

Safety first! The work area was cleared of brush and wet down to avoid sparking a wildland fire. Torchers also wore welding gloves and coats, and face shields - all required Personal Protective Equipment for the project.

You can volunteer to improve the wildland quality of the Black Rock-High Rock NCA, part of the BLM's Conservation Lands - contact Pat Bruce for dates and projects at pbruce@nevadawilderness.org today! Southern Nevadans can help their local National Conservation Areas as well - Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area and petroglyph-rich Sloan Canyon National Conservation Area are home to some of Clark County's wildest landscapes! Contact Jose Witt for details on volunteering in southern Nevada at jose@nevadawilderness.org.


All photos courtesy of Renee Aldrich