Hi Friends! Take a moment to learn about and get involved with conservation efforts around our state. Below are the top campaigns we're working to protect wilderness and public lands in Nevada. Find out what we've been doing to score a conservation win.
Esmeralda/Fish Lake ACEC - Friends of Nevada Wilderness formally identified the Esmeralda/Fish Lake Area of Environmental Concern (ACEC) and submitted it to the BLM in August of 2023. It was based on years of detailed field inventory identifying lands with Wilderness character. This portion of Esmeralda County is an amazingly intact volcanic wonderland. The proposed ACEC covers 849,170 acres and comprises 508,867 acres of lands we identified as having Wilderness character and significant for their natural integrity and intactness. The remaining 337,303 acres include interconnected valleys, watersheds, important springs and aquifers, and playas that provide ecological and wildlife connectivity between that lands with wilderness character.
Wild Washoe - Senator Rosen introduced the Truckee Meadows Public Lands Management Act on January 16, 2024. This bill would protect permanently protection nearly a million acres of Wild Washoe Public Lands. This legislation aims to expand economic and housing development opportunities, support local Tribes, promote conservation, and improve public lands management in Washoe County.
Thank you for all your support getting us to this point. We are grateful for Senator Rosen and her staff's hard work on getting this bill introduced.
The bill and map can be found Here
Pershing County - The Pershing County bill has been reintroduced numerous times over the last number of years. There has been strong support over the years for protecting the seven areas in Pershing County as Wilderness. We hope that the areas proposed for Wilderness will get the protection they deserve in 2024. This bill will also help block up the crazy checkerboard land pattern along the railroad/I-80 corridor through Pershing County.
Douglas County - The Douglas County bill has been reintroduced numerous times over the last decade. There has been strong support over the years for protecting Burbank Canyons as Wilderness. We hope that it will get the protection it deserves in 2024.
Desert National Wildlife Refuge - The Desert National Wildlife Refuge, just outside the city lights of Las Vegas and home to one of Nevada’s largest desert bighorn sheep populations and well over a million acres of proposed wilderness has been under assault by the military. While 1.3 million acres of the refuge was proposed as Wilderness by the US Fish and Wildlife Service we are still working hard to get those areas permanently protection for future generations and to keep the military from expanding their use into these precious places. We are hoping to do this in 2025.
Other Opportunities
You can also make a difference by joining other great folks on wilderness stewardship trips where you learn to heal the land (and have a good time!).
