| Accomplishments & Recognition |
| Eastern Nevada Landscape Coalition is slowly building a portfolio of accomplishments. We plan to continually expand this portion of our website as our portfolio continues to expand. |
| 2005 Projects ENLC employees have worked on a variety of projects since early April. From April through the end of August we had crews collecting vegetation data in the Spring Valley Watershed. We also had crews mapping all of the roads and trails in the Spring Valley Watershed and in the desert tortoise habitat in Lincoln County. A third crew was working on checking all of the mine permits both active and expired throughout the Ely BLM district. While mine permits and road inventories may seem a stretch from our mission, we are actually providing the BLM with data they need in order to develop their watershed assessments. Once the assessments are completed then the BLM can determine where best to proceed with restoration. We have also, at long last started thinning the trees in the Gleason Creek watershed and will commence sagebrush treatments in mid-September. The Aspen project we started last fall in Gilford Creek was completed by the end of July. This project involved the removal of fir trees from an aspen stand. Once the firs were removed the aspen stand was divided into three sections, the first was left unfenced, the second was fenced with barbed wire, and the final section was fenced with elk fence. This was a joint project with the Forest Service. ENLC partner Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation provided the funds for the fences and ENLC received grants from the Forest Service and Patagonia to cover the cost of the labor. We completed the project with enough funds left over that we are starting a second fir removal project in Box Canyon in the Snake Range. |
| ENLC's field crews came across some amazing and beautiful things in Nevada's back country. Above: Michelle Gubler is lying on a huge tree that had fallen across the canyon, she was about 20 feet above the canyon floor. |
| Above: An ENLC employee demonstrates how deep the erosion from the heavy spring run off is (she is over 5'9" and is standing on a boulder. |
| 2004 Gleason Creek Project Late in the summer of 2004 ENLC and the BLM initiated a sagebrush restoration project in the Gleason Creek Watershed. This project will be continued in 2005 and into 2006, thanks in part to a Congressional earmark that Senator Reid secured for ENLC. The complete project will involve using a rotary chopper on the decadent sagebrush, using crews to thin the pinyon and juniper trees and spraying all weed infestations. ENLC is also planning another volunteer day following the 2005 Workshop and Field Tour to clean up some illegal dumps in the Gleason Creek Watershed. Due to the late start in the season last fall ENLC and the BLM were only able to chop approximately 60 acres of sagebrush and thinned 13 acres in pinyon and juniper. Work will resume on this project as soon as the ground drys in the spring of 2005. |
| 2004 Baker Sage Grouse Project In 2004, ENLC partnered with the Nevada Land Conservancy to initiate restoration work on a piece of property that was donated to the Nevada Land Conservancy. The 160 acre parcel was bisected by the road to Great Basin National Park, but the land had been sage grouse habitat and still offered some attractive features to grouse such as easy access to water and wet meadows. ENLC was able to obtain a grant from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to cover the restoration costs. The first item of business was to fence the property, to prevent uncontrolled use by livestock. ENLC hired the Nevada Division of Forestry crews to set all of the fence posts. Then ENLC recruited volunteers to string the wire for the fences. |
| 2002 Weed Work: In 2002 ENLC purchased a large ATV and had it equipped with spray equipment for treating weeds. This equipment was donated to ENLC's partner and member the Tri-County Weed Program. Tri-County has used this ATV for the past two seasons and has treated many weed infestations in country where the large spray trucks can't travel. In addition to controlling weeds, Tri-County actively conducts inventories on public and private land every year. Over the past three years they have surveyed more than 4 million acres and identified over 3,000 weed infestations. |
| 2003 Cress Spring Project In 2003 ENLC worked with the Ely BLM office to protect a spring head called Cress Spring. The spring was located in an area that had high numbers of wild horses, but was also used by livestock and wildlife. The spring head was deteriorating because of trampling, heavy grazing, and pinyon and juniper encroachment. ENLC volunteers fenced the spring head, while leaving access to a small pond for wildlife, livestock and wild horses to water at. The volunteers also removed all pinyon and juniper trees from within spring head enclosure and from the area immediately adjacent to the fence. ENLC staff also collected baseline vegetation data. |
Once the fence was in place ENLC used an ATV with a seed spreader to
seed the areas which needed reseeding. The seed mixture used was a
combination of native grasses and forbs that was recommended by the
biologist from Great Basin National Park.
seed the areas which needed reseeding. The seed mixture used was a
combination of native grasses and forbs that was recommended by the
biologist from Great Basin National Park.
After spreading the seed, ENLC contracted with the Baker Ranch to use 300 head
of their replacement heifers to tromp the seed into the ground.
The heifers were fed native grass hay each day in the project area. The feeding
location was moved each day and their mineral and water sources were also
located away from the feed. The goal was to maximize the amount of ground the
heifers covered each day - thereby tromping more seed into the ground and also
maximizing the amount of decadent sagebrush that they trampled. After 16 days
the heifers were removed and we hoped for rain or snow. Our hopes were
answered and we received several days of gentle rain.
In the fall of 2005 ENLC staff will visit the project site and collect monitoring data.
Baseline data was collected prior to seeding and the vegetation manipulations by
the heifers.
of their replacement heifers to tromp the seed into the ground.
The heifers were fed native grass hay each day in the project area. The feeding
location was moved each day and their mineral and water sources were also
located away from the feed. The goal was to maximize the amount of ground the
heifers covered each day - thereby tromping more seed into the ground and also
maximizing the amount of decadent sagebrush that they trampled. After 16 days
the heifers were removed and we hoped for rain or snow. Our hopes were
answered and we received several days of gentle rain.
In the fall of 2005 ENLC staff will visit the project site and collect monitoring data.
Baseline data was collected prior to seeding and the vegetation manipulations by
the heifers.
| Pre and post treatment sagebrush photos. Fall 2004 |
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In the adjacent photo the
ATV is being used to treat a
thistle infestation in an old
chaining.
ATV is being used to treat a
thistle infestation in an old
chaining.
| Right: June 2005 - post Black Sage Brush Treatment |
Eastern Nevada Landscape Coalition
Eastern Nevada Landscape Coalition
| 2007 Fire Monitoring Crew member takes a minute to smile for the camera (above) while working on a plot (below). |
| Above: Jennifer and Lise take a minute to pose for the camera. Photo by: R. Jackson Right: Randy and Lise on the final plot for the field season. Photo by: J. Brickey |
| Above: Volunteer Day 2007 Photo by: J Brickey |
| Above & Below: Some of the beautiful landscapes and animals ENLC employees encountered during the 2007 field season. |
| 2006 Projects 2006 was a busy year for ENLC. ENLC and partners impacted over 2,374,800 acres through restoration, treatment, inventory and data collection. We had crews working on collecting vegetative data on a total of 672,225 acres that burned during the past three year, and crews working on collecting vegetative cover data on 150,000 acres in the Spring Valley watershed, 150 acres in the Gleason Creek watershed, and 590 acres in the Smith Valley watershed. In addition to vegetative data collection we also worked with our partner Tri-County Weed and were able to treat 5,938 acres for weeds. ENLC employees also inventoried 153 minerals notices for compliance, restoration, and noxious weed infestations. This information is also used by the BLM when developing their watershed assessments. ENLC was also able to initiate restoration work in Smith Valley using a variety of mechanical means to remove Pinyon and Juniper from sagebrush stands. Treated 470 acres of public land. The project was funded by a 2005 Congressional earmark and BLM research funds. ENLC was also able to host their first winter invasive species meeting, which was a great success. |
| 2007 Projects During 2007 ENLC employees worked on a variety of projects including fire monitoring, vegetation surveys and road mapping. Vegetation survey technicians worked hard and were able to collect vegetative cover data on 1.2 million acres in White Pine and Lincoln Counties in the South Spring Valley, Cave Valley, Hamblin Valley Meadow Valley Wash, and Dry Lake Valley watersheds. ENLC staff also assisted with the development of emergency stabilization and rehabilitation plans on 3 fires involving 4,656 acres and collected vegetative monitoring data on 751,146 acres that burned during the past three years. This year we were able to start preliminary work on restoration of a riparian area private land owned by the Smith Creek Ranch. ENLC is partnering with Smith Creek Ranch, USFWS and NDOW on this project. This project will continue next year. Through our partnership with Tri-County we were able treat 3,472.8 acres for weeds and inventory 957,555 acres. This year has been very successful for Eastern Nevada Landscape Coalition and we look forward to the projects planned for 2008. |
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2007
| Diane Rombalski (Above) is pictured searching for unknown springs in the Kolcheck Basin (Schell Creek Range) - Photo by: J. Brickey Jade Gelskey (Below) records data in the Weaver Creek Drainage (Snake Range)- Photo by: J. Brickey |
2006
| Tenille Lenard, Diane Rombalski & Jennifer Brickey (Above) take down measurements and data in the Ranger Creek Drainage. Photo by: J. Gelskey (Below): ENLC crews learn about Spring Monitoring from the NPS at Pine-Ridge Creek. Photo by: J. Brickey |
| Watershed Research |
| Fire Monitoring |
| Spring Surveys |
| Photos from Left: - ESR Crews take down data at one of the field plots. -One of the many interesting animals encountered during the summer. -ESR Crews work on a steep grade while acquiring data. -Greg Gust works on one of the PDA's while sitting down at one of the plots. |
| Fire Monitoring |
| Fire Monitoring |