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April 22, 2009 Caring for the Sheldon National Wildlife Refuge Friends of Nevada Wilderness is a member of the newly-formed Sheldon Refuge Network, an informal association of many diverse groups that share a love for the Sheldon National Wildlife Refuge in northern Washoe and Humboldt counties. See the latest news, below. What a great Reno Earth Day celebration
Thanks go out to all the volunteers who helped out and the hundreds of folk who stopped by to chat at Friends'Earth Day booth last Sunday. It is great to see all the enthusiasm that our fellow Nevadans bring to the protection of our wildlands. |
If you care about the Sheldon National Wildlife Refuge, the refuge needs YOU now. Please read and join us in the Sheldon Refuge Network. The 572,000 acre Sheldon National Wildlife Refuge (Sheldon Refuge) is one of the few intact sagebrush steppe ecosystems remaining in the western states. It was established back in the 1930's to protect pronghorn and other key wildlife. Right now, the Fish and Wildlife Service is revising the management plan for this important refuge. This Coordinated Conservation Plan (CCP for short) will address the importance of the Sheldon for wildlife and the factors needed to sustain wildlife. Outside the Sheldon Refuge, the future for wildlife could be less secure because of fire, weeds, energy development, recreation use, livestock, feral horses, transfer of water to cities, urban expansion and other impacts. The draft CCP will be released for review this summer, and it will address wildlife, mining, feral horses, boundaries, recreation, wilderness and other uses. When completed, the CCP will be the guiding document for the refuge for at least the next 20 years. It's important to put effort into making this the best plan possible for all the wildlife in the Sheldon Refuge. The purpose of this occasional newsletter is to collect and distribute pertinent information about the Sheldon Refuge which will be of value in your reviewing of the draft plan. We also hope to provide you with a sense of wonder on what a special place the Sheldon Refuge is and why it is so important to get involved, in this network, in seeing it managed well for the future. We also want to invite you to put June 19-21 on your calendar and join us for a weekend of work projects and sightseeing in the refuge. More details on this will be coming in future emails. Hope to see you there! If you can't participate in this trip, please let us know if you would like to be included in a future one. We will be planning several over the summer. Future editions of this newsletter will address the foundation of the Sheldon Refuge, its plant and soil base, current wildlife numbers and opportunities for the future, mineral exploration and filing, roads, etc. As always this is a community effort. Your contributions are welcome. Future editions of this newsletter will address the foundation of the Sheldon Refuge, its plant and soil base, current wildlife numbers and opportunities for the future, mineral exploration and filing, roads, etc. As always this is a community effort. Your contributions are welcome. For descriptions of the Sheldon Refuge, refer to the USFWS website. Friends of Nevada Wilderness has posted information on the Sheldon Refuge plan. A new organization devoted to the pronghorn antelope is Antelope Gatefree Paradise. We look forward to your participation. |
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