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Over 300 third graders from five schools in Amargosa Valley and Pahrump visited Ash Meadows this

Students were amazed to see wild bighorn sheep for the first time during their field trip to Ash Meadows! Photo by Cyndi Souza/USFWS.

fall for the 6th season of Ed-Ventures field trips!

Ash Meadows Ed-Ventures is an experiential, environmental education program for third graders in Nye County – a highly underserved area. While meeting important cross-curricular academic standards, the program strives to foster an appreciation for the refuge and its precious biological resources in the desert. The hope is that the Ed-Ventures experience will someday translate into a sense of pride and stewardship for our public lands in southern Nevada.

SNAP educator, Stacy Dahl, leads students on a sensory hike to learn about the plants and animals on the refuge. Photo by Jessica Babbitt/USFWS

Prior to the field trips, Ed-Ventures staff visited each school for two fun-filled hours of educational games, skits, stories, and more. Through these activities, students were introduced to what a national wildlife refuge is, the different types of careers at Ash Meadows, what a wetland habitat is, aquatic invertebrate life cycles, and some of the different animals they might encounter on their field trip.

In October, the students, teachers, and parent chaperones visited the Point of Rocks boardwalk for their field trips. Students always arrived buzzing with energy and excitement – for most students this was their first trip to Ash Meadows and their only field trip of the year! The trips always began with awarm, welcome orientation to the refuge by Alyson Mack followed by a group sing-a-long of “The Ash Meadows Song” (with motions!).

Because of the time of year, almost every student was able to watch desert bighorn sheep in the wild as

“Ranger Alyson” helps students identify the aquatic macroinvertebrates they collected from the stream. Photo by Jessica Babbitt/USFWS.

they travelled up and down the Point of Rocks range to drink from the springs below. These special encounters provided the perfect “teachable moments”, capturing the students’ full attention and filling their curious minds with endless questions and amazement!

Throughout the course of the 3.5 hours trips, students went on a “sensory hike” around the boardwalk, observed plankton under microscopes, counted macroinvertebrates from the stream, watched the endangered Ash Meadows Amargosa pupfish swimming in King’s Pool, and shared their experiences with each other over a picnic lunch. The focus of the trip was for students to “think like biologists” by making observations using their senses, microscopes, and other tools, collecting and recording their observations in field journals, and then discussing and sharing their findings with each other. Students were divided into small groups of ten to facilitate the spirit of collaboration and teamwork – important skills for biologists, and any professional, to have!

Students make observations of zooplankton (animal) and phytoplankton (plant) using microscopes, then make sketches in their field journals. Photo by Jessica Babbitt/USFWS.

The Ed-Ventures program is made possible through a partnership with the Death Valley Natural History Association, the Southern Nye County Conservation District, the Amargosa Conservancy, the Great Basin Institute, and the Southern Nevada Agency Partnership. These groups provide funds for school buses, teaching supplies, incredible staff, and more. A big thanks to all of the truly dedicated and passionate individuals who make this happen each year for the students of Nye County!

- Alyson Mack, Great Basin Institute Environmental Education & Outreach Specialist

Last Saturday, 15 people from Amargosa Valley, Pahrump, and Las Vegas came to Ash Meadows to put

The Bennet-Arcan band made it through Walker Pass, and 2 men have returned with horses, good meat, and oranges – hooray! Photo by Alyson Mack/USFWS

their backcountry navigational skills to the test. The group was divided into three teams – the Bugsmashers, the Jayhawkers, and the Bennet-Arcan group – the actual names of three bands who traversed Death Valley from 1849-1850. These teams then embarked on an orienteering challenge course, using only compasses and a route log. The goal? To make the journey from Mt. Misery, through Death Valley, across the Sierras and into California alive!

The challenge course simulated the actual historical routes that the 49ers followed, with the distances adjusted from hundreds of miles over the course of four months to a distance that could be hiked in a couple hours. Along the way, the teams read true accounts from the 49ers treacherous journey – stories of hunger, scurvy, miscalculations, exhaustion, fear of the unknown, and in many cases, death. Like the 49ers, navigation proved to be a challenge. “We lost our way a few times, as with all the 49ers,” explained SNAP education specialist Stacy Dahl, “but we were able to get back on course.”

The event, made possible through a USFWS Connecting People with Nature grant, aimed to not only teach people basic orienteering skills, but also help people to imagine a life before modern conveniences and technologies. “People used to be more intertwined with the environment they lived in,” explained SNAP education specialist Karl Krebs, “They could read messages in the landscape – the wind, the soil, the stars. As a society, we have gotten away from this, but these are still very important skills to have.”

Digging for “gold”. Photo by Alyson Mack/USFWS

By the end of the event, all three teams successfully made it to Rancho San Francisquito. For one young participant, the day had fully captured his imagination. Upon arrival, he immediately started digging a hole in the dirt. “I’m searching for gold!” he declared.

Alyson Mack, Great Basin Institute Environmental Education & Outreach Specialist

A female desert bighorn sheep watches from the top of the Point of Rocks Range at Ash Meadows NWR. Photo by Karen Dorn/USFWS

Ash Meadows was alive last Saturday when 23 people from Amargosa Valley, Pahrump, and Las Vegas, including crew members from the Nevada Conservation Corps, came for a hike up the Point of Rocks Range. Immediately upon arrival, six desert bighorn sheep were spotted walking up the range. Later on, a ewe and her lamb were spotted as well. During the fall, bighorn sheep are seen almost daily drinking from the freshwater springs and streams at Point of Rocks.

But where do these sheep go for the rest of the year? Do they stay in the same groups? Do they have sufficient food, water, and space to graze? Are they healthy? This species is extremely sensitive to disease – currently a form of sheep pneumonia, contracted from domestic sheep, is affecting populations in southern Nevada. The goal of the event was to begin to explore some of these questions by exposing people to real desert bighorn sheep in the wild and discussing the current research and conservation issues surrounding local sheep populations in southern Nevada.

In the 1980s the Sheep Range at Desert National Wildlife Refuge had the largest bighorn population in NV. In 1985, helicopter surveys found 436 adults, but by 1991 only 195 were seen. What could be causing such a drastic decline? Biologists speculated that predation, disease, drying up water sources and other habitat changes could be responsible, but they didn’t know for sure. To begin to find out, a study at Desert National Wildlife Refuge was initiated in 2010 with the goal of providing information for the protection, conservation and management of desert bighorn sheep on federal lands in southern Nevada. During the hike, people saw the radio telemetry equipment that is used to track radio-collared bighorn sheep and mountain lions in the Sheep Range, providing biologists with useful information on causes of mortality, survival rate, movement patterns, and population size.

A ewe and her lamb at Point of Rocks. Photo by Karen Dorn/USFWS.

Everybody was in awe watching the bighorn jump nimbly up the steep, rocky terrain. With their cloven hooves, they are able to zigzag up and down cliff faces with amazing ease, at times using ledges only two inches wide for foot holds, and bouncing from ledge to ledge over spans as wide as 20 feet! Watching these beautiful and fascinating creatures up-close only reinforced the importance of studying them. Once we are able to answer some critical questions about their populations, we will be better able to protect them and ensure that they continue to be a part of the landscape in southern Nevada for many years to come.

- Alyson Mack, Great Basin Institute Environmental Education & Outreach Specialist

Low pay. No benefits. Long days in the lonesome desert. Why do field biologists do it? A thirst for adventure — and a sense of purpose by Joseph Langdon

By MATT UNRAU Free Press Staff Writer elkodaily.com | Posted: Friday, August 12, 2011 8:56 pm

LAMOILLE CANYON — Signs of construction were littered everywhere. Chipped rocks and shifted dirt consistently dotting the new Talbot trail gave evidence of the freshly made route.

However, after seeing only a pair of workers widening out a couple switchbacks in the early going, the trail was practically deserted.

It wasn’t until three miles in that signs of human life once again appeared on the trail starting with a shovel or two and then a long-sleeved shirt and finally turning a corner a row of pickax laden volunteers.

Wearing matching yellow shirts and green pants, a majority of the volunteers were sweating through an aspen grove, breaking up roots as they worked to make the two-foot wide path into a finished, established trail.

The aspen grove was approximately 3.25 miles deep into what will eventually be an 11-mile trail connecting Lamoille Canyon with Talbot Creek.

Starting in mid-May the trail construction group made up of two crews of 20 have punched in an extra 1.5-1.75 miles this summer starting from where the crews finished last year.

“It’s going really well,” Crew Leader Robert Kline said atop the trail on a Wednesday afternoon. “It’s going a lot faster than I thought it would this summer.”

Kline and the other members of the group are part of the private non-profit group called Great Basin Institute out of Reno, which is funded by AmeriCorps.

Kline was especially happy with the groups’ progress this year, because he had been a part of last summer’s crew that had experienced plenty of setbacks having to deal with the rock-heavy western slope of Lamoille Canyon. The rocky area was still in the beginning 1-1.5 miles of the trail, which starts across the road from a paved pullout that is just above the Powerhouse camping ground.

A brown 6-foot tall U.S. Forest Service sign marks the beginning of the trail, but as of yet doesn’t bare the name of the trail.

With all of the rock, including an almost 30-foot long section of straight rock, Kline said they had a lot of setbacks that slowed their progress last summer, adding in that anytime construction of this kind goes without any setbacks it’s a “miracle.”

Along with rock, the first part of the trail sports a lot of switchbacks as it weaves its way up the mountain side. There are 10 altogether until the trail curls around to the northern slope of the mountain, giving wide views of the Lamoille Valley.

Heading into the summer, the crews main effort was to concentrate on those switchbacks, widening them out to be more ride-able for mountain bikes and equestrian riders, two of the three non-motorized uses the trail is intended for to go along with hiking.

In the last month they  also brought in timbers to reinforce several of the switchbacks, helping them turn from a sharp ‘V’ shape into an easier turn.

Even though the trail is still under construction and only a third done the volunteers had already seen it gather use during their time flagging the trail and cutting tread.

“We see the same people every week and they just love it,” Kline said.

They estimated they see about 20 recreation users a week on the trail, including mountain bikers, hikers and horse riders.

For those that have already gotten a chance to experience the ever-growing Talbot trail can see a “way different environment” than what other hikes in Lamoille offers said one of the volunteers.

After 1.5 miles up the switchback there were scattered trees ranging from aspen, mahogany, pinion and juniper trees. With the trees, the freshly turned soil is darker and richer as the trail winds around to the southern side of the Ruby Mountains.

The wildlife includes coyotes, deer, sage grouse, hawks and vultures. As for the plant life, the trail construction workers rave about the ever-changing growth as one volunteer said one week they came back and “it was just ‘poof’ — dense.”

In the first week of July, they explained seeing the lupine flowers bloom and being overwhelmed with the scent of lavender encompassing the trail.

Users also will be able to enjoy the trail much longer than other trailheads that start at the top of the Lamoille Canyon road.

On the first official day of summer this year, snowmobilers could still be heard roaring at the top of the mountain road and even after the Fourth of July, snow patches still dotted hikes such as the Lamoille Lake hike.

Even though the construction workers dealt with snow the first week of the summer, starting on May 23, it was a temporary problem and still offers a much longer hiking season for non-motorized users.

The Lamoille-to-Talbot Trail, once complete will open up access to Verdi Lake located at the back of Talbot Canyon, which was accessible through an off-trail route over a steep ridgeline from Lamoille Canyon.

The trail is part of the bigger Secret-Lamoille Trail Project, a 48.57 mile long route that would eventually connect Lamoille Canyon with Secret Pass and having three major trailheads in Lamoille Canyon, Soldier Canyon and off of Secret Pass.

Check out this video of Nevada Conservation Corps crew doing trail work in the Spring Mountains, located just outside of Las Vegas.

For the full story, please visit the News8 Now website.

Over 80 kids and adults from Amargosa Valley, Pahrump, and Las Vegas arrived to the Point of Rocks picnic area just as the sun was setting at 8pm, Saturday evening.

USFWS biologist Cristi Baldino shows kids how to use a bat detector to hear bats echolocate in the wild. Photo by Sierra Willoughby.

The event sought to expose people to some of the most feared and misunderstood creatures on earth – bats and scorpions – and foster an appreciation for the important role that these animals play in nature and our own lives. To emphasize this point, USFWS biologist Cristi Baldino made a large batch of “bat fruit salad” for everyone to snack on. With mangos, bananas, peaches, figs, dates, cashews, and carob chips, the delicious salad was made only with fruits that are dispersed or pollinated by bats. Everyone agreed that bats make our lives a whole lot tastier!

Kids and adults eagerly crowd around Natural Resource Specialist Sam Skalak to measure the weight of a mist-netted bat. It weighed only 3.5 grams – less than a nickel. Photo by Sierra Willoughby.

While everyone was enjoying the calm lull of evening, Cristi turned on her bat detector. The device converts the sound that a bat makes into frequencies audible to human ears. Suddenly the evening air wasn’t so silent. People stared at the detector emitting its strange buzzes, trills, and chirps, but Cristi was already busily scanning the evening sky for the source. Soon everyone was joining in the search, eager to spot the first bat. Sure enough, a tiny western canyon bat fluttered across the sky. Cristi explained that the detector records the sounds bats make during echolocation and feeding. The recordings can then be uploaded onto a computer, creating an image that biologists call a sonogram. Each bat species produces its own unique sonogram that biologists can use to tell them apart. Thanks in-part to the research conducted by Natural Resource Specialist Sam Skalak, it is now known that there are at least 15 species of bats at Ash Meadows. Several of these species just migrate through seasonally, but others – like the western canyon bats everyone was watching – live at Ash Meadows all year round.

Gloves were worn when handling this western canyon bat to protect from spreading white-nose syndrome – a disease that is decimating bat populations across the eastern United States. Photo by Jeremy Cohen.

While it was still light, Cristi and Sam led everyone over to King’s Pool where they had set up a mist-net – a fine mesh net used to capture bats for research. Everyone waited expectantly hoping that one of the dozens of western canyon bats flying overhead would accidently swoop into the net. While they waited, Cristi explained that mist-netting is an important tool for biologists because it allows them to gather very important information, including the sex, weight, age, health, and reproductive status of the individual bats. Biologists are even able to fit bats with miniature radio tracking devices to determine where they are moving. This information is critical for making conservation and management decisions, especially in light of the fact that more than half of the 47 bat species in the United States are endangered or are in rapid decline.

Eventually, despite wind and the crowd of people, a single bat flew into the net. Sam carefully removed the bat and brought it back to table to collect some information. The bat was determined to be a female western canyon bat, and she was pregnant judging by the rounded shape of her abdomen. Still, carrying a single pup, she weighed only 3.5 grams – less than a nickel. Before she was released, the group crowded around Sam to get a closer look. “It’s all furry,” one child exclaimed in surprise, “and it has tiny teeth!”

Once darkness had fully set in around 8:45pm, it was time for the scorpion search. UNLV researchers,

During the event, UNLV biologist Matt Graham found this scorpion, Paruroctonus bantai, hunting on the Point of Rocks range. It is the first record of this species outside of Death Valley National Park. Photo by Jeremy Cohen.

Matt Graham and Mike Weber, equipped everyone with blacklight flashlights and led a trek along the boardwalk and up towards the Point of Rocks range. Everyone busily scanned the ground hoping to spot a scorpion. Along the way, Mike spotted a woodhouse toad and held it for everyone to touch. Matt, who is currently studying scorpions for his PhD research at UNLV, deftly found 4 scorpions on the rocky hillsides, carefully picked them up with long tweezers and put them in a plastic Ziploc bag for everyone to take a closer look. Matt was thankful to have found any scorpions that night – it had been an unseasonably cold spring and scorpions were not very active yet. On a hot summer night, scorpions can number in the hundreds, coming out of their underground burrows to hunt for spiders, centipedes, and other invertebrates. To Matt’s excitement, the scorpions he found were a species that had never been recorded outside of Death Valley National Park – likely because there have been precious few people out looking. Every day, biologists are still discovering new species that nobody knew existed. Nature is full of surprises in the most unexpected places – it’s just a matter of going outside and exploring.

- Alyson Mack, Great Basin Institute Environmental Education & Outreach Specialist

Welcome to all our new Research Associates, NCC AmeriCorps Members, and International volunteers! Check out this video of Wilderness First Aid Training during orientation week.

This spring, educators from the Southern Nevada Agency Partnership have joined with Ash Meadows staff to provide the Refuge’s 5th season of Ed-Ventures programming. Ash Meadows Ed-Ventures is an environmental education program for 3rd grade students in Nye County – a highly underserved area. While meeting important cross-curricular standards, the program also strives to foster an appreciation for Ash Meadows National Wildlife Refuge and its precious water resources in the desert. The hope is that the Ed-Ventures experience will someday translate into a sense of pride and stewardship for their communities and public lands in southern Nevada.

New this year, the Ed-Ventures program is focusing on Ash Meadows’ number one resource: its wetlands. With over 50 natural seeps and springs, Ash Meadows is an incredible outdoor classroom. During the month of March, the Ed-Ventures team delivered programs at 11 elementary schools in Amargosa Valley, Beatty, Pahrump, and Shoshone – reaching a total of 515 students. Through 2 fun-packed hours of interactive games, dramatization, and even a little singing, students were introduced to the wetland habitats at Ash Meadows, and the incredible diversity of creatures that live there. Students created group skits to explain the life cycle of several aquatic invertebrates – mayflies, caddisflies, dragonflies, and riffle beetles – and were surprised to discover that these insects spend part, or all, of their life underwater. Then they played the “metamorphosis rock-paper-scissors game” and learned that, just like the game, life cycles never end!

In April, the students will go on field trips to Ash Meadows. The students will become stream biologists to study the habitat quality for pupfish and other aquatic critters. They will measure and graph the pH, dissolved oxygen, and temperature of the water and discuss how that translates into suitable or unsuitable conditions for various organisms. Using a plankton net, students will explore the bottom of the food chain in living color under microscopes. They will then move up the food chain to the organisms that eat plankton: aquatic invertebrates. After taking an invertebrate sample from the stream, students will identify the species, and count the number of individuals. This data will be used to provide baseline food web information for FWS biologist Darrick Weissenfluh as part of his endangered Ash Meadows naucorid research. Aside from assisting with real-life research on endangered species, watching squirming damselfly larvae, endemic spring snails, scuds, and slimy planaria is loads of fun!

Also new this year, Ash Meadows is offering an Environmental Education Internship as an opportunity for local high school students to further explore careers in the sciences, gain real work experience, and give back to their own community. A major responsibility of the interns will be to help lead activities during the Ed-Ventures field trips. After reviewing their résumés, letters of recommendation, and interview responses, two exemplary students from Death Valley Academy, Erik Carney and Amber Leikam, were selected. Erik and Amber, along with the SNAP education team, participated in four full days of training, covering the history and ecology of the Refuge, best practice teaching methods, the peer evaluation process, and goal-setting. They are well-prepared to assist with the field trips this April and are eager to share their knowledge and enthusiasm with the 3rd graders they meet! A special thanks to the principal of Death Valley School District, Craig Hill, for his visionary thinking and support of this new internship program.

The Ed-Ventures program is made possible through a partnership with the Death Valley Natural History Association, the Southern Nye County Conservation District, the Great Basin Institute, SNAP, and Death Valley Academy. These groups provide funds for school buses, teaching supplies, incredible staff, and more. A big thanks to all of the truly dedicated and passionate individuals who make this happen!

Field trips run from 9am-1:30pm at the Point of Rocks boardwalk and are scheduled for the following days in April: 1, 4, 5, 7, 8, 12, 13, 14, 15, 19, 20, 21. All FWS staff are invited to come join in and see for yourself what all the splash is about this spring at Ash Meadows National Wildlife Refuge!

- Alyson Mack, Great Basin Institute Environmental Education & Outreach Specialist

March 2011

Ranger Rose explains how the mountains were formed through the spectacular forces of plate tectonics, creating the Amargosa Valley where Ash Meadows NWR is located.

Over 40 people visited Ash Meadows on March 19th and 26th to take part in a 2.5-mile interpretive hike from Point of Rocks to Devils Hole. The events were hosted in partnership by Ash Meadows National Wildlife Refuge and Death Valley National Park.

The day began with a Jr. Ranger Program at the Point of Rocks picnic area. Ranger Rose led several young children in a lesson about the wildlife that lives in the Mojave Desert – and what they might encounter along the hike. The kids enjoyed listening to some Native American legends and touching the pelts of a bobcat, coyote, jackrabbit, and other native animals.

Hikers rest and enjoy the view across Ash Meadows NWR.

Around noon, the crowd gathered at the picnic area and Ash Meadows Outreach Specialist, Alyson Mack, gave a welcome and introduction to the Point of Rocks area. From there, Ranger Rose led folks along the boardwalk and up onto the rocky hillsides for a scenic view across the Refuge. From that vantage point, hikers were able to see the Funeral and Panamint Ranges, between which lies Death Valley. Ranger Rose told the story of how these magnificent limestone mountains and valleys were formed over millions of years, from accumulations along the ocean floor and the great forces of tectonic plates. “This is an incredible place,” she said, “because you can actually see geology taking place before your very eyes!”

Springtime provided a richness of life to explore along the hike. New, lime-green leaves were beginning

Federally threatened, and endemic, Ash Meadows sunray.

to sprout on the leatherleaf velvet ash trees – Ash Meadows namesake tree. Young yerba mansa shoots were emerging from the white, alkaline soils while fresh seep willow leaves lined the gurgling spring-fed streams. A group of teenagers from Las Vegas spent several minutes watching a baby desert cottontail rabbit munch away at the fresh greenery. Budding prickly-pear and barrel cacti dotted the rocky hillsides of the Point of Rocks range, and the bright yellow blossoms of the Ash Meadows Sunray – a federally threatened plant and Ash Meadows endemic – were at the peak of their bloom. Ranger Rose invited everyone to stop for a moment and listen to the melodic whistle of the Phainopepla birds flittering amongst the mesquite trees. Further along the hike, children spotted bighorn sheep and coyote scat, purple blooms of the Mojave aster, the remains of a cow from Ash Meadows’ ranching era, a zebra-tailed lizard, and a beautifully camouflaged horned lizard!

The hike ended at Devils Hole – a disjunctive portion of Death Valley National Park. Ranger Rose told

Ranger Rose points to the hike’s destination: Devils Hole!

the story of how Ash Meadows National Wildlife Refuge was established in 1984, which wouldn’t have happened if it weren’t for the Supreme Court decision to protect one tiny fish – the Devils Hole pupfish. “Thankfully, some people before our time had the insight to save the pupfish, and we have gained so much as a result,” said Ranger Rose, “but for all you young people, the choice will be up to you. The future is yours.”

On a chilly, windy afternoon, this well-camouflaged horned lizard was found stretching its flat body across the warm ground.

Hikers peer down into the Devils Hole cavern, hoping to catch a glimpse of the inch-long, endangered Devils Hole pupfish.

- Alyson Mack, Great Basin Institute Environmental Education & Outreach Specialist