Friends of Nevada Wilderness

On Indigenous Peoples' Day, we’re celebrating the rich cultures, traditions, and contributions of indigenous communities in Nevada, including the Washoe, Northern Paiute, Southern Paiute, Western Shoshone, and Fort Mojave, and the many other communities who also have ties and ancestral homelands in our state. Learn more about the lands you live on and enjoy at https://native-land.ca. 📸 Kurt Kuznicki: Mount Irish Petroglyph Site

Just three days left until the Las Vegas Wild and Scenic Film Festival on Saturday, October 12 at Spring Mountain Ranch State Park, and we couldn't host this wonderful community event without the support of our longtime film fest sponsor, Knit | Designing Community! Knit truly embodies community conservation spirit with their support of community events like this one as well as the time their staff spends on the ground volunteering for important causes. Knit believes architecture can elevate and transform lives, and foster community. Each of these areas is a critical component to a resilient and successful community. Come take a look and be part of the conversation about the places where you live, learn, work, and play. You can chat with representatives from Knit at the film festival this Saturday - get your tickets now: https://lnkd.in/gjgYYMTJ

We're excited for the Wild and Scenic Film Festival this Saturday, October 12, at the Spring Mountain Ranch State Park! We couldn't hold this wonderful community event without support, so we'd like to thank WestStar Credit Union for continuing their sponsorship of the Las Vegas Wild and Scenic Film Festival! A little about WestStar - WestStar Credit Union has served employee organizations across Nevada for nearly 50 years. Their efforts continue to focus on understanding the unique needs of Nevada organizations in service, excellence, and convenience. They are continually expanding and revising their products and services to exceed your expectations and provide the most from your membership. You can chat with representatives from WestStar this Saturday - get your tickets today: https://lnkd.in/gjgYYMTJ

Today is the final day to submit feedback on the BLM's Western Solar Plan, which would open 11 million acres of Nevada public lands to industrial-scale green energy development. We support green energy, but BLM-managed lands are not just for solar - planning must take into account wildlife, cultural sites, and healthy watersheds: https://lnkd.in/ghypsEh4 Check out this op-ed from Patrick Donnelly, Great Basin Director for the Center for Biological Diversity, that highlights what Nevada stands to lose, and what a better path forward could look like. "Under this plan, some of the best-known and most beloved landscapes in Nevada would be open to solar development: -National wildlife refuges such as Ruby Lakes and Ash Meadows could have tens of thousands of acres of solar panels right on their borders. -Great Basin National Park would be circumferentially surrounded by lands available for solar. -The proposed Bahsahwahbee National Monument, a sacred site of incomparable value to the Western Shoshone and Goshute peoples, has 7,000 acres made available for solar within the 25,000 acres proposed for protection. -Gerlach, gateway to the Black Rock Desert and the famous Burning Man festival, would be surrounded by lands available for solar. -And finally our beloved Highway 50, the Loneliest Road in America, one of the best places in the Great Basin, cuts through hundreds of miles of lands available for solar." Read more in the Nevada Independent: https://lnkd.in/gkqiyiqt Speak up for Nevada's wildlands, and let the BLM know their planning process must take into account the wildlife of the Esmeralda/Fish Lake Proposed Area of Environmental Concern, sacred cultural sites like the Bahsahwahbee Proposed National Monument, and delicate watersheds like the Amargosa. Check out our new blog post for talking points: https://lnkd.in/gTVDSnhk

We’re celebrating 60 years of the Wilderness Act this month! Today, we’re highlighting the When of Wilderness – the wildlands in Nevada protected thanks to the passage of the Wilderness Act in 1964. 🌲September 3, 1964: Under the newly signed Wilderness Act, the Forest Service, Park Service, and Fish and Wildlife Service were authorized to manage Wilderness. Jarbidge Wilderness in Nevada’s Elko County is designated as Nevada’s first Wilderness. 🌲1976: The Federal land Policy and Management Act allows the BLM to manage Congressionally-designated Wilderness. 🌲1989: The Nevada Wilderness Protection Act of 1989 creates 13 new Wilderness Areas totaling 733,400 acres in Nevada, protecting Mount Rose and Mount Charleston. 🌲2000: The Black Rock Desert-High Rock Canyon-Emigrant Trails National Conservation Area Act designates the National Conservation Area along with 10 new Wilderness areas totalling 752,000 acres. 🌲2002-2006: Senator Harry Reid works with local stakeholders and Congress to protect key wildlands in Nevada through the county bill process. 43 new Wilderness Areas are designated in Clark (2202), Lincoln (2004), and White Pine (2006) counties. 🌲2014: Pine Forest and Wovoka Wilderness Areas are designated with the passage of the National Defense Authorization Act. 🌲2022: Three Wilderness Areas - the Clan Alpines, Desatoyas, and Cain Mountain - are designated as part of the National Defense Act. 🌲2024: Legislation currently pending for Wilderness in Pershing, Washoe, and Clark counties. 📸 Ed Ruiz: Mount Moriah, Mount Charleston, and Arc Dome, designated with the 1989 Nevada Wilderness Protection Act.

The Bureau of Land Management’s #WesternSolarPlan makes over 11 million acres of public lands available for industrialization, including lands within the proposed Bahsahwahbee National Monument. “‘I am stunned and confused that while our Tribes are in discussions with the Biden-Harris Administration about establishing this monument, the BLM just issued a plan allowing the graves of our massacred ancestors to be bulldozed,’ Amos Murphy, chairman of the Confederated Tribes of the Goshute Reservation, said in a statement.” Green energy has its place on public lands, but not within a proposed National Monument with legislation pending. Public lands managed by the BLM are not just for solar development, but for wildlife, outdoor recreation, and the preservation of our wild and sacred places. Read more from the Las Vegas Review-Journal: https://lnkd.in/gfvyTMEZ

Just one month until the twelfth annual Las Vegas Wild and Scenic Film Fest at the beautiful Spring Mountain Ranch State Park: https://lnkd.in/gjgYYMTJ Doors will open at 4:30pm with a community fair to allow folks to get to know local conservation organizations and have an opportunity to grab some food and reserve their spot on the lawn so folks can enjoy our films while immersed in the natural beauty of Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area. The films will begin at 6:30pm and we expect to wrap up at about 9pm. Proceeds from the film festival help Keep Nevada Wild through our stewardship, advocacy and outreach programs! 📸 Olivia Wolff

The nights may be getting cooler, but our trail crew is still getting great work done in Nevada's backcountry! The crew headed back into Jarbidge Wilderness in late August thanks to the support of our all-star packers with the the Backcountry Horsemen High Desert Chapter, including Danny and Vikki Riddle, Wayne and Harlene Nebeker, and other wonderful riders! Our trail program relies so heavily on their niche expertise, since Wilderness only allows primitive tools and no mechanized transport. These wonderful volunteers packed the crew into Jarbidge for three consecutive work hitches! The crew experienced some wintry weather up at their 9,000ft basecamp - we're used to late September snow storms on trail crew, but late August is definitely less common! Despite the chilly weather, the crew completed 3.7 miles of the Jarbidge River trail, connecting all the way down to the E. Fork of the Jarbidge River. They repaired tread, brushed, cleared trees, and added drainage on sections of trail that lay in the fall line (when a trail goes straight up or down- following the path of water). Once they completed that, they finished their hitch over where the Emerald Basin Trail, East Fork Jarbidge River Trail, and God's Pocket Peak Trail all meet up. Tip for those looking to get out in Jarbidge - avoid traveling on the E. Fork Jarbidge River trail between the junction of Jarbidge River Trail and Emerald Basin Trail (see red X on photo 3). This section of trail is in an old burn area and you will end up crawling over hundreds of trees if you go this way; it was not safe for our crew to work there because there were too many hazard trees. #TrailTuesday

Congratulations to our springs monitoring AmeriCorps crew, who just successfully completed their 1,700 hour AmeriCorps term with us - that’s a full year collecting baseline data on springs across Clark County! During that time they visited 150 springs and helped us wrap up a five-year agreement of intensive monitoring for the Forest Service, Fish and Wildlife Service, and the Bureau of Land Management that was funded by the Southern Nevada Public Lands Management Act (SNPLMA). In the year they have spent with Friends, the crew has gone to all corners of Clark County from low lying valleys in Avi Kwa Ame to near the top of Mount Charleston and everywhere else in between. The data they collected will help land managers continue to ensure the ecological function of these Mojave Desert springs are kept intact for future generations, and will help Friends pinpoint important restoration projects you’ll be able to join us on. A big thank you to Cameron, Carlos, Etienne, and Jesus. We will miss them but can’t wait to see where they go next! And thank you to the Nevada Outdoor School AmeriCorps Program for making this work possible! Check out our flickr gallery of memories from a year of monitoring: https://lnkd.in/gz4zVeQE

Today, we're celebrating 60 years of the Wilderness Act! This bedrock conservation legislation which was signed into law by President Lyndon B. Johnson on September 3, 1964. "A Wilderness, in contrast with those areas where man and his works dominate the landscape, is hereby recognized as an area where the earth and its community of life are untrammeled by man, where man himself is a visitor who does not remain....[L]and retaining its primeval character and influence, without permanent improvements or human habitation, which is protected and managed so as to preserve its natural conditions." Beyond its formal definition, Congressionally-designated Wilderness holds a special place in the heart and mind. From personal solitude to social benefits like clean air and water, healthy wildlife populations, and a protected cultural legacy, Wilderness ensures treasured public lands are protected for current and future generations to experience. Ed Ruiz: Jarbidge Wilderness, the only area in Nevada designated in 1964 with the Wilderness Act