As green energy projects pop up across Nevada, we want to ensure certain wild places and sacred spaces are defended from development. While we support green energy, planning must prioritize already-disturbed lands like the I-80 and Highway 95 corridors. Furthermore, areas with key wildlife habitat, sacred cultural sites, and delicate ecosystems must be excluded from development.
Public Lands lands are not just for solar, and planning must take into account conservation, wildlife habitat, cultural sites, and healthy watersheds.
This week, we said goodbye to Roberta Moore, longtime board member and friend. Roberta brought her artistic background and love of outdoor education as a retired National Park Service Ranger and Interpreter, always reminding us to find the beauty and art in nature. She was instrumental in the 2005 publication of Wild Nevada: Testimonies on Behalf of the Desert as co-editor, and in her later years, she inspired the biannual Board of Directors book exchange.
Friends of Nevada Wilderness Board Vice Chair Hermi Hiatt, Founding Board Member Marge Sill, Artist and Activist Roberta Moore (before joining the Friends board), and Executive Director Shaaron Netherton.
We need YOU to speak up against the massive Esmeralda 7 industrial solar complex, which would sever key desert bighorn sheep migration corridors and destroy the solitude and wild of the stunning and rugged Proposed Esmeralda/Fish Lake Area of Critical Environmental Concern, submitted to the BLM for considering in August 2023. You can support protecting this wild Nevada gem by signing our petition, or by commenting to the BLM by October 24 - instructions below.
Twenty-one days after the Wilderness Act was signed into law, Patrick George Bruce came into this world in Stonehaven Scotland on September 24, 1964 into the welcoming arms of his parents Yvonne and Mike. His brother Nick was born 18 months later. The Bruce Family moved from Scotland to the Haight-Ashbury region of San Francisco in 1968. Pat graduated from Tennyson High School in 1982 and was of course an Eagle Scout.
In 1989 the family moved to Reno, Nevada and Pat’s love affair with the wilds of Nevada began in earnest. Pat received a BA in Anthropology with a minor in Museology from the University of Nevada, Reno where he focused his work in Great Basin prehistoric archaeology and lithics. Pat roamed the Nevada deserts in his 4-wheel drive vehicles accompanied by his well-loved doggie companions, often with bagpipe music blaring. Not surprising since he had family members in the Black Raven Pipe Band of San Francisco.
Pat worked a variety of jobs including at the Boy Scout’s Camp Fleischmann and at Reno’s iconic Deux Gros Nez coffee shop, which was a gathering place for a wide range of people who would become his life-long friends. It was here in 2006, during an overheard conversation, that Pat connected with Friends of Nevada Wilderness and the rest as they say is history.
Dark skies, wildlife, water, recreation and Ely’s scenic backdrop are all threatened by an extreme proposal from a Salt Lake City real estate developer, rPlus Hydro, that would be located in the Duck Creek Range between Ely and High Schells Wilderness. The White Pine Pumped Storage Project is a proposed energy-storage project that aims to provide battery-like energy storage through a closed loop system of reservoirs – one atop the Duck Creek Range and another in the foothills of Steptoe Valley - and includes two massive paved roads through the scenic limestone cliffs to the top of the Duck Creek Range, cutting through critical big game and sage-grouse habitat.
Sign the petition to speak up for wildlands and dark skies in White Pine County today.
This project would forever alter the viewshed for Ely residents and forever sever seasonal movement corridors essential for elk, mule deer and other wildlife species.
Located west of Tonopah, the Proposed Esmeralda/Fish Lake Area of Critical Environmental Concern encompasses 850,000 acres and includes extensive critical winter and summer bighorn sheep habitat and migration corridors crucial to bighorn sheep breeding and survival. Unfortunately, the core of our proposed ACEC is immediately threatened by an undeveloped section of the Greenlink West Transmission line, the Esmeralda Seven proposed solar development (60,000 acres of industrial development), and the just released 2024 Solar PEIS which would open up 41% of Esmeralda County including much of the ACEC to solar development.
Over the last 39 years, Friends of Nevada Wilderness volunteers have donated thousands of hours to keeping Nevada’s spectacular public lands wild and healthy. Our annual volunteer appreciation party, the Wilderness Wingding, is on December 15th, 2023, and we are partnering with dozens of local and national businesses and individuals to show our volunteers appreciation. Check out this article to see who is giving back and how.
In the vast landscape of American territory lies the National Wildlife Refuge System, a network of special places where nature thrives, where people reconnect with the wild, and where conservation is the primary mission. A testament to America’s enduring commitment to the environment, this system plays a pivotal role in safeguarding the country's natural heritage.
In August 2023, President Biden issued a proclamation declaring September as National Wilderness Month. Wilderness Areas represent some of America's most precious natural resources, and Americans have done a great job in protecting these lands for future generations. The proclamation celebrates the passage of the Wilderness Act in 1964 (60 years ago next year!) which created the National Wilderness Preservation System. Today this system protects nearly over 760 Wilderness Areas totaling over 110 million acres of federal public lands.
Comencé mi camino hacia la conservación como escalador. Antes de eso, no sentía una conexión con la tierra que me rodeaba. La tierra pública no era algo sobre lo que yo tenía mucho conocimiento. La búsqueda de rocas y acantilados para escalar me transportó a muchos nuevos espacios al aire libre, todos en terrenos públicos y algunos en áreas silvestres. A través de la comunidad de escalada, conocí de la administración y la conservación y aprendí la importancia de cuidar la tierra que utilizaba con tanta vehemencia.
