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A Hearty Wild Thank You To Our Generous Donors These trucks will help lighten the load this stewardship season and beyond!
If you donated to us during Nevada's Big Give last year, you helped us tremendously in our efforts to secure a stewardship truck! Combining the funds raised with an incredibly generous donation by Bill Thorton, we were able to purchase a work truck (pictured above) to be utilized for our stewardship projects, transporting even more volunteers and equipment to better serve our wild lands!
That's not all! Thanks to another generous donation from our founding board member, Karen Boeger, we now have two work trucks! Karen graciously donated "Big Red", a truck that has served her well over the years. Although she will miss taking it out to explore the vast empty of Nevada, she is thrilled that it will be used to keep those lands wild!
Thank you Karen Boeger, Bill Thorton, and all of our incredibly generous donors for helping our stewardship team provide the tools necessary to help our volunteers get out in wild Nevada and keep up the critical restoration work they do throughout the state!
Keep up the momentum! Schedule a donation today!
Submit Your Art Today!
The Art of Wild Nevada
Erik Holland's A Sunny February Morning
Let your art speak up for wilderness! During this year of the 50th Anniversary of the Wilderness Act, we are proud to announce two very exciting opportunities for artists to get involved in the celebration!
Our first project is an Artown exhibit we will be hosting for the month of July entitled 50 Years of Wild Nevada. We are currently seeking all mediums of art (photography, paintings, drawings, etc.) to be considered for selection. All art in the exhibit will be for sale (please only submit art you're willing to part with!) and we are asking artists to donate 20% of the proceeds to benefit our programs throughout Nevada. A very special opening reception will take place on July 12th at our headquarters in Sparks - complete with live music, food, refreshments, and a chance to talk with the artists. The art will then be on display until the end of the month. This is the perfect opportunity to get your name and art out there while getting folks excited about wilderness in Nevada!
For more information on how to submit, visit http://www.nevadawilderness.org/artown.
Secondly, we are now currently seeking photo submissions for our 2015 Wild Nevada calendar. Amateur and professional nature photographers welcome! We publish the Wild Nevada calendar each year to help the public appreciate and support Nevada’s beautiful public lands, so we can all enjoy them for generations to come. The Wild Nevada calendar is a great venue to advertise your photographic talents and help protect Nevada’s wildlands.
For more information on how to submit, visit http://www.nevadawilderness.org/call_for_photos .
If you are interested in submitting for both opportunities, you may use the same images. For additional questions, e-mail Shevawn at [email protected]!
Not an artist? You can still help by sharing our call for submissions far and wide!
Updates in Wild Nevada
I Dream of the Park Range
 Photo by Kurt Kuznicki
Lots of folks dream about vacations to faraway exotic places...few dream of adventures in the remote spots of our Silver State. For those who do, however, it is harder to find a more remote place than the 47,000+ acre Park Range Wilderness Study Area. The Park Range is located in Nye County, southeast of Eureka and southwest of Ely and is a jumbled mass of volcanic rock covered by a surprisingly dense and, at times, impenetrable forest. The real gems of this central Nevada range are the little “parks” of tall native grasses and towering volcanic spires that dot the range’s high country.
Earlier this month, a group of hardworking Friends of Nevada Wilderness volunteers teamed up with the BLM’s Ely District Wilderness Team for several restoration projects in the area. Volunteers rehabbed some small site disturbances and installed permanent wilderness signs in order to preserve the wilderness character and protect wildlife habitat. Later that evening, everyone was treated to delicious home cooked meals from Chef Pat’s Cowboy Kitchen. The next day, folks shouldered their packs and followed an aspen lined dry creek bed up to one of the little parks. To say it was awe inspiring would be an understatement; it was truly magical. We not sure when our next outing will be to this remote part of the state so for now we will just have to dream about our adventures in the Park Range.
Sweep the Peak 2014
 Photo by Jose Witt Southern Nevada's annual Sweep the Peak 2014 was an outstanding success! A seemingly ordinary Saturday afternoon turned extraordinary as a stewardship army of 271 strong descended upon Mt. Charleston with trash bags and garbo-grabbers in hand. Every year, Go Mt. Charleston, in partnership with the U.S. Forest Service, organizes this spring cleaning event to take care of a mountain that sees thousands of visitors every year. People of all ages and walks of life came together and removed over 256 bags of trash, totaling over 3,450 lbs! Friends of Nevada Wilderness has been a piece of the spring cleaning puzzle for the past 5 years. This year our 46 volunteers, including employees from MGM Resorts and the Las Vegas Mountaineers Club, collected and removed 30 bags of trash, a 5 gallon bucket filled with nails and glass, a shopping cart, a large 2 ft. x 4 ft. piece of sheet metal, and a 12 ft. PVC pipe. This totaled an estimated 50 lbs of trash removed from the Sawmill Trail and nearby picnic area/campground. We were excited to be a part of such a meaningful project! View all of the photos from Sweep the Peak here!
Restoring Wildlife Habitat in the Santa Rosa Range
 Rockstar volunteer, Jim Neveln, planting seedlings among the wildflowers.
Photo by Richie Bednarski
We've had a great season of seedling plantings in the Santa Rosa Mountains so far. In April, 14 volunteers came out and planted 800 bitterbrush seedlings in the Hansen Fire area. Just this last week, 5 volunteers made the trip out to the Santa Rosas and planted an additional 500 bitterbrush seedlings in the ground - also in the Hansen fire area! That's a total of 1,300 native plants to restore critical habitat that all types of wildlife depend on...including the sage-grouse. Thank you to all of our incredible volunteers who traveled to the Santa Rosas to do critical work for our wilderness areas and for keeping the 'public' in public lands!
Removing Invasive Weeds in Mt. Rose Wilderness
On May 10, 2014, Friends of Nevada Wilderness teamed up with Keep Truckee Meadows Beautiful for the Great Community Clean-Up. Twenty-one volunteers came out to the Hunter Creek drainage in Mount Rose Wilderness to pull out roughly 2,000 weeds. The following weekend, a small core group of volunteers returned to the site and pulled another 450 weeds! A huge thank you to our awesome volunteers, the Community Foundation of Western Nevada’s Truckee River Fund, and the National Forest Foundation for making this work possible!
Although a lot of weeds have been removed from this trouble spot in our backyard wilderness area, there's still lots of work that needs to be done. If you’re interested in helping in this effort, we currently have weed pulling events scheduled for June 3, 7 and 10. The Hunter Creek Trail has re-opening so these volunteer events are sill.
Support Friends of Nevada Wilderness While Shopping!
What better excuse to shop than to support Nevada's wild places? Now, whenever you shop at AmazonSmile, Amazon will donate a portion of the price of your eligible AmazonSmile purchases to Friends of Nevada Wilderness. Just click the following link and make sure to log onto AmazonSmile whenever you make a purchase! Thank you for your continued support!
Upcoming Events: Join us in keeping Nevada wild!
South
June 7: National Trails Day Join Friends of Nevada Wilderness in celebrating National Trails Day and the 50th Anniversary of the Wilderness Act! This fun-filled day will involve improving and maintaining the beautiful Bonanza and Bristlecone Trails, which will include trail work and the installation of a very special commemorative 50th Anniversary of the Wilderness kiosk at the Bonanza Trail. This project was made possible by a grant from the National Wilderness Stewardship Alliance. Our fantastic partners for the event - the U.S. Forest Service, the Bristlecone Chapter of the Backcountry Horsemen, and the Sierra Club, will also provide educational components throughout the day. Anyone 12 years or older are welcome to join the fun! For more details and to RSVP, visit http://www.nevadawilderness.org/national_trails_day_2014_the_bonanza_trail.
North
June 3: Mt. Rose Weed Removal The invasive weeds in Mt. Rose Wilderness are in full force and we need all the manpower we can get to stay on top of these pesky plants! After the damage of the Hunter Falls fire, these weed pulls will act as critical fire restoration work in the area. Renee - our in house weed warrior - has set up a series of volunteer opportunities in this area to try to hit 'em where it hurts. Plus, seeing as how all of the removal sites are in the Hunter Creek drainage area, it's a great way to get in a hike, see the gorgeous waterfall at the end of the trail, and even stay after for a picnic! Click on each date for more information and to RSVP! Or, e-mail [email protected] if you have additional questions. June 3June 7June 10
June 14: Dog Valley Meadows Barrier We're partnering with the Hills Angels 4x4 Club and the U.S. Forest Service to install a turn around/parking area barrier at Dog Valley Meadows. Your help will protect the sensitive riparian habitat and help folks know where to park. This is a large project - please consider helping out! RSVP online or e-mail [email protected]June 20-22: Santa Rosa ATV Cattle Guard Installation Join us in the Santa Rosa Range as we install UTV/ATV cattle guards. Installing these guards will help reduce instances of gates accidentally being left open (ensuring cattle remain in their designated range) while allowing easier travel for ATV/UTV users. Everyone wins! For more information, visit our event page by clicking here or e-mail [email protected]. June 27-29: Sheldon Last Fence Pull Can you believe it? The last miles of barbed wire fence in the Sheldon National Wildlife Refuge will be removed during this once-in-a-lifetime volunteer opportunity and you can be a part of it! We set aside the last miles of fence in a flat, easy-to-access location so that everyone can participate - bring the family, experience the beauty of Refuge, and be a part of a fence-free Sheldon! BBQ to follow. Contact Renee for more details at [email protected] or visit our event page by clicking here. July 4-6: 50th Anniversary of the Wilderness Act Celebration Join us in the Black Rock Desert NCA at Stevens Camp for a celebratory campout! We're celebrating the 50th Anniversary of the Wilderness Act with a fun-filled weekend of dutch oven cooking, guided hikes, photography contest, writers and photography workshops…and so much more! Visit our website to RSVP or e-mail Shevawn at [email protected] for more details! On-going: Mt. Rose Solitude Monitoring Would you like to volunteer for Friends of Nevada Wilderness but haven't been able to find time in your busy hiking schedule? This summer, you're in luck! We have an opportunity for you to combine both your love of hiking with volunteering. We are helping the Carson Ranger District collect data on where visitors are spending most of their time in the Mount Rose Wilderness and which parts of the wilderness you can find the most solitude. Interested? E-mail Renee for more information at [email protected]! For a complete list of upcoming events, click here.
The Trail Muse
In honor of National Trails Day, our good friend Dolly Chapman wrote this inspiring article on trail work that we wanted to share with you. Dolly is the owner of Chapman's Crosscut Saws and will be spending time with our stewardship team and Bonanza Trail Crew to teach crosscut skills - critical to trail work in wilderness areas. Enjoy!
"Your Trail...You look for a trail in every view. Out the window, across a field, through the crowd. Your eye and your mind seek a line, a path, a way. Trails connect people to the land. Trails serve big ideas: migration routes, railways, orbits. Trails connect all people together across space and time. And trails are personal. As a metaphor, the trail is a plan, an intention to go somewhere. Being on the trail, on track, means progress. And you think of the stepping stones, the landmarks, the easy runs and the tough climbs along the trail that is the journey of your life.
You think of a trail into Wilderness. You step out: seeking. A few miles or a few yards and your journey becomes elementary. You connect with the land. You go somewhere. There are no distractions from the business of encountering your land, your people and yourself. A Wilderness trail offers that journey to each of us. You think of a Wilderness trail that you may not take -- but you think of it! Your mind leads you on a journey too far or too strenuous or too frightening for real footsteps. But you dream of it! You revisit journeys from years ago to places now out of reach. But your mind leads you back and there is joy in knowing that the trail is there.
You have an instinct to work on trails. To mark a route and make a good way. To build steps and divert floods and lay out grades that ease the work of climbing. The metaphor of working with others to make progress along a route is irresistible. No wonder trail crew friendships are such fun. No wonder friendships made on the trail go the distance! Then with the confidence that builds along the way, you see that your trail is not just the path ahead of you. Your trail is what you leave behind."
Learn more about Dolly by checking out her website:
www.sharpcrosscut.com
Become a Member Today
"Philanthropy is the rent we pay for the joy and privilege we have for our space on this earth" - Jerold Panas
Become a member of Friends of Nevada Wilderness and support clean air and water, wildlife habitat, and opportunities for people to get out and enjoy the wonders of nature. Your generous donation will go towards getting volunteers on the ground in wilderness areas and help get new wilderness areas protected! Membership levels begin at $25 per year.
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