News

March 19, 2011

Volunteers from Pahrump and Amargosa Valley unload nearly 300 native grasses and ash trees to plant around Tubb’s Spring. The site was formerly overgrown with non-native weeds.

Twelve volunteers, including high school students from Horizon Academy and members of the Friends of Desert National Wildlife Refuge Complex, helped restore Tubb’s Spring last Saturday morning. The area around the spring had been farmland prior to the Refuge’s establishment in 1984. After years of lying fallow, it had become overgrown with non-native weeds, particularly Russian knapweed. These weeds provide little value to wildlife and have a tendency to outcompete native plants.

Crews from Ash Meadows NWR eradicated the weeds, but the resulting bare soil is highly susceptible to re-invasion by weeds. It is also susceptible to erosion by wind and flood events. Therefore, it became a Refuge priority to restore the site with native grasses and trees that would hold the soil in place and prevent other non-native weeds from reestablishing. The plants also provide food and shelter for native wildlife and help establish a bank of native seeds in the soil.

After an introduction to the project and a basic lesson in plant identification, volunteers got right to work. For four hours, the team busily transported, planted, and watered nearly 300 plants including saltgrass, bunchgrass, scratch grass, and the leatherleaf velvet ash trees that give Ash Meadows NWR its name. Altogether, volunteers donated 58 hours valued at an estimated $1,239 (based on volunteer rate of $21.36/hr; http://independentsector.org/volunteer_time).

Thanks to the Public Lands Institute for providing snacks, water, and assistance and to all the wonderful volunteers who worked to improve our public lands last weekend!

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

February 26, 2011

Despite forecasts for rain and snow, the skies were clear at Ash Meadows last Saturday. Five volunteers from Amargosa Valley and Las Vegas braved the high wind speeds to help cut cattails from Kings Pool outflow. After an orientation to the project by FWS biologist Darrick Weissenfluh, volunteers worked for 2.5 hours, removing cattails with hand clippers along approximately 40 meters of stream channel. The cut vegetation was then pushed downstream and loaded up onto the bank with pitch forks for removal.

While cattails are native to Ash Meadows, historically they were not as abundant as they are today. The reason for their invasive growth in Ash Meadows’ springs and streams is largely due to past habitat alterations – namely, the large-scale farming and ranching that occurred in the 1950s-1970s. During this period, many of the springs and streams were diverted into cement irrigation ditches which greatly affected the natural water flow and surrounding vegetation.

Kings Pool and outflow, located along the Point of Rocks boardwalk, was restored in 1997 and is home to two endemic species: the Ash Meadows pebblesnail and the endangered Ash Meadows Amargosa pupfish. The pebblesnail is only 1 mm long and requires water warmer than 25oC to survive. The pupfish is the only native fish still occupying Kings Pool, is generally smaller than one inch long, and requires warm water (>25oC) to reproduce. Both of these species benefit from cattail removal – cattails are a haven for non-native predators, such as crayfish.

Thanks to the Public Lands Institute for providing snacks and water, and to all the volunteers who chose to help improve our public lands last weekend!

January 22, 2011

Ryan and Hal, of Pahrump, are waist-deep in cattails as they push the cuttings downstream. Photo by Cyndi Souza.

Cool morning temperatures were no excuse to sleep in last Saturday morning. Ten volunteers made the drive from Amargosa Valley, Pahrump, Shoshone, and even Las Vegas to cut cattails – starting at 8:30 a.m.! After an orientation to the project by FWS biologist Darrick Weissenfluh, volunteers literally “jumped right in” to the warm waters of Crystal Spring outflow to start cutting. Working for over 4 hours, volunteers removed cattails with hand clippers along approximately 200 yards of stream channel. The cut vegetation, nearly one dump-truck’s worth, was then pushed downstream and loaded up onto the bank with pitch forks – no easy task!

Trevor, of Amargosa Valley, along with 9 other volunteers worked tirelessly for over four hours! Photo by Cyndi Souza.

While cattails are native to Ash Meadows, historically they were not as abundant as they are today. The reason for their overgrowth in the springs and streams at Ash Meadows is largely due to past habitat alterations – namely, the large-scale farming and ranching that occurred in the 1950s-1970s. During this period, many of the springs and streams were diverted into cement irrigation ditches which greatly affected the natural water flow and surrounding vegetation. Today, the cement channels have been removed along a portion of Crystal Spring outflow and the water returned to its original stream bed. Despite our best restoration efforts, however, negative impacts are still felt. After years of lying dry, the stream bed had eroded and widened. The widened stream has a slower flow and more sunlight, favoring the growth of cattails and, in turn, providing prime habitat for aquatic exotics such as crayfish and sunfish. These exotics compete with native stream inhabitants such as the Ash Meadows Amargosa pupfish. This pupfish is listed as federally endangered due largely to its highly restricted range: it is endemic to the Ash Meadows region. Removing cattails plays an important role in conserving this rare species!

The final product: one dump-truck load of cut cattails. Photo by Joanna Libby.

For more than a decade, Ash Meadows NWR staff, along with volunteers, has been controlling invasive cattail growth in springs throughout the Refuge. Crystal Spring outflow is one location where cattail removal is a priority. We wish to thank all the volunteers who helped improve our wetlands on January 22nd!

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

For the complete news story and video, please click here for the News 3 website.

Las Vegas, Nevada is a sprawling city of nearly two million residents. It is surrounded by natural

From left to right, Eric Delynko (Air Quality and Desert Cleanup RA), Sedona Maniak (Desert Cleanup Coordinator), Nathan Coleman (Desert Cleanup Program Lead), James (volunteer driver representing Cemex at a coordinated cleanup), Dan Chase (Public Lands Institute).

wonders on all sides, including Sloan Canyon, Red Rock, Sunrise Mountain, Rainbow Gardens and Tule Springs. These are just a few of the Bureau of Land Management’s designated recreation and special use areas bordering the city, which has extended its boundaries extensively over the past 20 years. Intermingled with this urban environment, both within and at the edges of the city and its nearby protected areas, are relics of earlier times – parcels of land still owned by the BLM but not designated for special use or consideration. These checkerboard squares, many once slated for sale during the city’s boom which ended nearly a decade ago, bear testament to problems that plague vacant public land throughout the Southwest. Most of these lots harbor scars from motorcycles, ATVs and other off-highway vehicles as well as scattered trash, piles of rubble and construction debris, even the remains of entire foreclosed homes. Limited agency resources combined with the sheer infeasibility of providing law enforcement and monitoring in this jumbled network of lands has produced an historic self-perpetuating cycle of dumping and illegal vehicle use. BLM’s Desert Cleanup Team, consisting of three Great Basin Institute Research Associates (Sedona Maniak, Nathan Coleman, and Eric Delynko), was created to help mitigate this blight.

The Bureau’s multi-faceted approach to the desert dumping problem consists of cleanup, mitigation and education.  Utilizing resources from UNLV’s Public Lands Institute (www.publiclands.unlv.edu), the Desert Cleanup Team organizes an average of two volunteer cleanup events per month with schools and local interest groups. PLI’s website, www.getoutdoorsnevada.org, posts calendar events from several federal agencies enticing individuals and small groups of volunteers to cleanups with the promise of rewarding weekend outings. Nevada Conservation Corps crews and BLM fire crews also augment the team’s efforts at sites requiring concentrated long-term work or at sites requiring specialized equipment or training. Other volunteers for public lands cleanup activities include concerned neighborhood groups, national service groups such as the Boy Scouts of America, and local organizations like the Pahrump Valley Four-Wheelers and the UNLV pre-health student group. Partnerships with local organizations such as these are critical to the long-term sustainability of restored sites because group members gain a sense of ownership and stewardship for the land through their participation in cleanup events. On smaller sites, the team works alone to fill trash bins with dumped garbage or to remove debris by the truckload.

Hollywood & Alto Cleanup Before

Hollywood & Alto Cleanup After

Dumpers don’t discriminate between public and private property boundaries, leaving costly messes at any convenient location. Many dumping problems also occur on land which is leased by BLM to businesses or to state and county agencies through right-of-way grants. In these cases, partnerships sometimes arise between BLM and businesses or stakeholders to mitigate dumping using shared resources and labor. Group events with the Hughes Corporation and Nellis Air Force Base have been among the most successful collaborations to remove acres of garbage on shared sites.

After cleanups are completed the team utilizes a variety of mitigation tactics depending on the scale, location and access to the cleanup site. At most cleanup sites, signs are posted stating regulated activities. Where feasible, roads are blocked with berms or barriers, or fencing is installed, and appropriate restoration plans are implemented.

Over the past few years, BLM has initiated educational programs to make students more aware of dumping and illegal vehicle use. Cleanups add a visceral component to these educational efforts, so several schools and school groups have coordinated ongoing cleanups. Bailey Middle School, for example, has taken on stewardship of a particularly heavy-use area along Lake Mead Boulevard which is home to a geological oddity known as the Great Unconformity. Several times a year, students from the school are bused to the location for trash removal, an interpretive geological trail hike and a wilderness walk. Bailey Middle School received a Take Pride in America award in 2009 for its stewardship activities at this site, and is a model for how community involvement and education can work to help protect public lands.

A sidewinder (Crotalus cerastes cerastes) tries to eke out an existence among the trash piles

Since October, 2008, Desert Cleanup Team Research Associates have coordinated and contributed to the removal of 8,928 cubic yards of waste from Clark County and parts of Nye County. (For the sake of perspective, the average pickup truck bed holds about two cubic yards of material.) Roughly 2,000 acres of contaminated land have been cleaned up, eliminating the impacts these potentially hazardous contaminants can have on the desert’s fragile flora and fauna.

Due to logistics, much of this substantial mountain of garbage has historically landed in the nation’s largest landfill just north of Las Vegas. In the future, BLM and the Public Lands Institute hope to provide more recycling opportunities to large cleanup events. Extending this recycling trend will add a pertinent new educational feature to school cleanup events and show the commitment of both BLM and GBI to a more sustainable environment.

by Sedona Maniak

Have you ever seen a squirrel fly? For most people, the answer is no. For a small group of GBI Research Associates, the answer is yes – many times! Amidst the swarm of summer hikers and mountain bikers at Lake Tahoe-Nevada State Park, a five-person field crew spent long hours searching for, and gathering data on, northern flying squirrels (Glaucomys sabrinus). You won’t see them very often because they’re nocturnal, only foraging for mushrooms and lichen at night. Most Tahoe locals don’t even know they exist. This summer, we often heard, “I didn’t know we had flying squirrels!” or “Yeah right, and flying monkeys too?”

But really, there are flying squirrels in Nevada. They don’t actually fly, but rather use large flaps of skin between their arms and legs to glide from tree to tree during foraging bouts. Plus, the Carson Range, on the eastern side of Lake Tahoe, is the only place they are known to exist in the entire state! So, you can imagine the need to learn more about this unique, rarely seen species, especially since they are an important part of a healthy forest.

David Catalano, Nevada Dept. of Wildlife (NDOW), had already done some winter reconnaissance in the State Park, and because flying squirrels are active year-round (unlike other rodents that hibernate), he was able to photograph several flying squirrels with remote cameras. Since they are considered a species of conservation concern by NDOW, David collaborated with GBI to conduct a three-year study on flying squirrels to learn more about their habitat use within the park. GBI hired a team of four Research Associates to capture and attach radio-transmitters to flying squirrels in an area of the park called North Canyon. This would allow us to track their movements and learn more about where they spend their time foraging and nesting. As you can imagine, it made for an amazing summer filled with early mornings, furry critters, and spectacular scenery.

We started field work in late spring, when some snow was still on the ground, and spent several weeks putting out rodent live-traps filled with bird seed and peanut butter. By the time we finished trapping, we had attached radio-transmitters to 12 flying squirrels. Radio-transmitters were about the size of a small grape and were attached to squirrels with a small collar that fit around their necks. We many other animals too: four chipmunk species, three other squirrel species, woodrats, mice, Stellar’s jays (oops!), and even a couple of long-tailed weasels (stinky!), but we only put transmitters on flying squirrels. We released them all at the base of trees, and watched them climb to the tops and take flying leaps that will not be soon forgotten. One even glided over 100 meters away!

Once the squirrels had resumed their normal activities, we spent countless hours tracking their movements using telemetry equipment (basically a receiver and a big antenna that could pick up the signal of each squirrel from over half a mile away). We tracked them to the exact tree where they were sleeping, and sometimes we even found more than one flying squirrel in the same tree. During 3 months of telemetry, we collected a wealth of information about flying squirrels in the east basin of Tahoe, including the type and size of nest trees they used, how close they nest to water, how many nest trees they used in one season, and many habitat characteristics. This information will be useful to land managers who are continually making decisions about our public forests.

In a way, it seemed like we had a personal relationship with each squirrel that we studied, and I’m sad to say that two of them were eaten by predators towards the end of the season. But we were still able to locate their collars, and one of them was found in a bobcat den over a mile away from its location the previous night! As sad as it was to lose two individuals, it was good to know that they are filling one of their many roles in nature. They are food for several species around Lake Tahoe, including owls and pine marten, and flying squirrels are considered indicators of a healthy forest. It’s nice to know that we have flying squirrels in our Nevada forests, and even better to know that GBI is involved in research that could make a big difference for flying squirrels and many other sensitive species in the Lake Tahoe area. And next time you’re out hiking, don’t be surprised if you see a squirrel jump out of a tree and never hit the ground.

- Mark Enders, Wildlife Monitoring Specialist, GBI Research Associate Program

Over 75 people traveled back in time this Saturday at the Longstreet Boardwalk – the site of Jack Longstreet’s restored cabin – to experience life at Ash Meadows in the early 1900s.

The event demonstrated various ways that the Ash Meadows environment directly sustained people throughout history by providing food, medicine, material for shelters and tools, fire, water – all the necessities of life. The goal was for visitors to come away with a deeper appreciation for these natural resources today, by remembering the critical role they played in human lives historically.

Volunteer Frank King, a member of the Shadow Mountain Community Players, portrayed Jack Longstreet in living flesh, comfortably seated in an old rocking chair. From within his cabin, Frank entertained visitors with colorful stories of the old days – being careful never to reveal how he lost his ear!

Four volunteers, Judy Palmer, Susan Sorrells, Mary Burke King, and Sue Palmer, from the Amargosa Conservancy portrayed friends of Kitty Tubb – a resident of Ash Meadows beginning in 1907. The women displayed historic domestic items borrowed from the Shoshone Museum, including a burlap cooler, iron, and a coffee grinder that actually belonged to Kitty Tubb. The women cut old shirts and dresses into cloth squares, which Sue then sewed into potholders on an old treadle sewing machine. Sue operated the machine all day long – with her bare feet! For the final touches, Mary taught children the skill of hand-stitching their own designs and patterns onto the potholders. Children of all ages enjoyed this craft time and many were planning to give their hand-made creations to grandma and grandpa for Christmas.

Ida Castillo of Desert NWR, along with her two children, taught visitors about the wild, desert foods that have sustained people for thousands of years. One staple food for the Southern Paiute and Timbisha Shoshone was the nutritious seed pods of the honey mesquite tree. Ida and her kids taught visitors about the process of creating mesquite flour, and visitors were invited to try grinding some of the seeds on a stone metate (borrowed from the China Ranch Date Farm) for themselves. It was hard work! For their labors, Ida had some pre-ground mesquite flour on hand – made from the trees at Ash Meadows – and fried up some mesquite pancakes for them to taste. The cakes were very sweet, from natural sucrose, and had a grainy texture. The general consensus: delicious!

Virginia Ramos-Barajas, a SNAP environmental educator, led visitors in a traditional Paiute game called “Too’dookweep”, played with small sticks and stones. Children and adults enjoyed playing this game of chance while listening to traditional Paiute stick game songs.

Ashley Dunbar, intern at Desert NWR, led a game about the medicinal plants at Ash Meadows. Each participant was given an “ailment” that they had to relieve by searching for natural cures in the plants. Visitors discovered that yerba mansa roots can be boiled into a tea to relieve colds and coughing, while plants like the desert mistletoe have poisonous berries and should be avoided. In order to survive, native peoples around the world have possessed a deep-rooted knowledge of the plants in their lives, both the useful and the dangerous.

The event lasted from 10am to 3pm and visitors came from all over: Amargosa Valley, Pahrump, Shoshone, Tecopa, China Ranch, Las Vegas, and even faraway places like Alaska, Washington, and Holland! We also had some non-human visitors stop by, including several dogs and a goat. Time Travelers was a fun and energy-filled day for all involved, and in the end everybody made it back to the year 2010 with smiles on their faces.

Thanks to all the volunteers who have helped make this season a success! John Marsh and Kelly Curtis of Liberty Films donated their time and talent to photograph and film the event. To see a demo of the event footage, go online to: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F5ynwfKhBOA. This was the last Let’s Explore event of 2010, but there are more events being planned for next year – stay tuned!

By: Alyson Mack, Great Basin Institute Environmental Education & Outreach Specialist

Volunteers eagerly took to the warm water in Crystal Spring outflow on Saturday morning to strategically remove cattails (bulrush was left uncut along the outflow). The group was composed of 14 volunteers from Las Vegas and Pahrump, including members of the Amargosa Conservancy, young men from the Continuum of Care Program of Clark County, and the Boy Scouts in Pahrump. During the 4-hour event, two dump-truck loads of cattail were removed from approximately 200 yards of Crystal Spring outflow. Success!

So why do we cut cattails? When the Death Valley Expedition came through the Ash Meadows area in the 1880s, they observed that the dominant emergent aquatic vegetation was chairmaker’s bulrush (Schoenoplectus americanus). Southern cattail (Typha domingensis) also was present, but did not dominate spring outflow habitats in Ash Meadows. During the 1950s-1970s, large-scale farming and ranching resulted in the diversion of most spring outflows into channelized ditches. Among other things, channelization of the spring outflows changed the hydrology of the ecosystem, benefiting cattail more than bulrush. What we are left with today is an overabundance of cattail growth in many of the streams at Ash Meadows.

Uncontrolled, cattails have invaded the spring system causing changes in water velocity, water temperature, canopy cover (e.g. shading), and ultimately the community structure of the spring system. These changes can negatively impact numerous aquatic species, often favoring non-native aquatic species, such as red swamp crayfish (Procambarus clarkii), over native species, such as the endemic Crystal Spring springsnail (Pyrgulopsis crystalis) and the endangered Ash Meadows Amargosa pupfish (Cyprinodon nevadensis mionectes), both shown here. The springsnail is only 1 mm long and requires water warmer than 25oC to survive. The pupfish is the only native fish still occupying Crystal Spring, is generally smaller than one inch long, and requires warm water (>25oC) to reproduce. Both of these species benefit from cattail removal.

For more than a decade, Ash Meadows NWR staff, along with volunteers, has been controlling invasive cattail growth in springs throughout the Refuge. Crystal Spring outflow is one location where cattail removal is a priority. We wish to thank all the volunteers who helped improve our wetlands on December 4th!

By: Alyson Mack, Great Basin Institute Environmental Education & Outreach Specialist

The sand dunes at Peterson Reservoir were literally crawling with snakes, lizards and kids on Saturday, September 11th, for Ash Meadows’ fall kickoff event: Let’s Explore Snakes & Lizards! Approximately 43 children and 15 adults attended the event, from Amargosa Valley Elementary School, Death Valley Academy, Shoshone Middle School, Tecopa-Francis Elementary, and the Pahrump 4-H Rockhounds. Extra special thanks goes to Craig Hill, superintendent of Death Valley schools, Karen Liberty, principal of Amargosa Valley school, and Jeannie Geiser, leader of the Pahrump 4-H Rockhounds, for organizing buses and transportation for their students. The goal of the event was to engage children with their local environment by giving them a chance to freely explore and exposing them to the incredible diversity of native reptiles that exist in their local area. Clearly there was a community interest in this experience – an additional 15 participants called to sign up, but there was absolutely no more space available!

Kicking off Ash Meadows’ Let’s Explore series for kids!

The hard work and dedication of Ash Meadows and GBI staff, as well as 10 outside volunteers made this event possible – it truly was a team effort! Building and Grounds Coordinator, Perry Souza, and Ecological Technicians, Sam Skalak and Jeff Goldstein, spent several early morning hours setting up three large tents, picnic tables, chairs, trash cans, and other items needed for the event – no small task! Visitor Services Specialist, Cyndi Souza, provided invaluable assistance in the event planning, development, and promotion. Her artistic talents, as well as those of volunteer Paul van Els, are displayed here in the beautiful photographs they captured throughout the day. Many other people were involved in the facilitation of the event itself, which took place from 10am to 3pm.

Children and adults alike crowd around the pitfall traps as Dr. Lee Simons carefully removes a young whiptail lizard for closer inspection.

The weather cooperated with us that day – it was warm (89°F), sunny, and virtually windless. Cyndi Souza and Death Valley Park Ranger, Stephanie Kyriazis, greeted the participants as they started arriving, signed them into the registration book, and gave them a nametag and a free Ash Meadows water bottle to refill throughout the day. After participants signed in, they were free to touch, explore, and ask questions about a variety of captive, live reptiles on display. Terry Christopher, Associate Director of Southern Programs with the Great Basin Institute, and Paula and Bill Garrett, education volunteers with the Nevada Department of Wildlife, along with their two children, Gwen and Evan Garrett, showcased a Gila monster, chuckwalla, desert tortoises, California king snake, gopher snake, rosy boa, yellow-backed spiny lizard, woodhouse toad, and tarantula, among other species.

During the following 2 hours, the participants divided into smaller groups and rotated between three different hands-on, outdoor activities. Dr. Lee Simons from Ecological Services, our event “herpetologist”, led the children to a pitfall array with 10 traps. The traps had been set the day before and monitored frequently, allowing 24 hours for wildlife to potentially be caught in the pitfalls. The kids watched with bated breath as Lee, with the assistance of Jeff Goldstein and volunteer Kelly Dougles, checked the buckets for signs of life. One trap caught a young whiptail lizard with a bright blue tail. Another trap had 2 different species of velvet ants – flightless stinging wasps. Other traps held a grasshopper mouse, wolf spiders, and a young zebra-tailed lizard. One bucket was presumed to be empty until a young girl said to Lee, “I think there’s a scorpion in the bucket”. Sure enough, upon closer inspection, Lee pulled out a well-camouflaged desert hairy scorpion!

GBI employee and Southern Nevada Agency Partnership (SNAP) Environmental Education & outreach Specialist, Megan Urban, led participants on an exploration of the sand dunes to better understand its role as wildlife habitat. Children were equipped with rulers and field guides to identify the many tracks and burrows found in the sand. Alyson Mack led the participants to the far side of the dunes to play a game of survival called “Predator-Prey”. The children ran through the dunes, playing the role of predators and prey, in an effort to survive by finding sufficient food and water, and hiding from predators. By the end of the game, all the kids understood just how difficult survival could be in the desert, and how adaptations like camouflage, hopping, or small-size are very useful! After these two hours of exploration in the sand dunes, everybody was eager to return to the tent for some shade, water, and lunch!

During lunch, some teenagers from Death Valley Academy found their own way to connect with nature: an impromptu game of hilltop hacky sack.

After lunch, Terry Christopher and Paula Garrett gave a joint presentation about the many native reptiles in Nevada, using their live, educational animals. The participants were eager to ask questions and touch these fascinating creatures!

The day ended with a fun team-building game about desert adaptations, led by Jeff Goldstein, and an Ash Meadows reptile scavenger hunt led by Alyson Mack. After 5 hours of fun in the sun, sand, and heat, everybody was exhausted and ready to head home. There was, however, one last challenge: the kids were invited to write down as many reptiles native to Nevada as they could remember. The winner was a student from Death Valley Academy, Thomas Raddick, who correctly named 7 native reptiles – but many other contestants came very close. For his prize, Thomas will receive the book “Desert Snakes” by James W. Cornett. All the children took home a prize that day: the Nevada Department of Wildlife donated a case of videos about the venomous reptiles in Nevada, that the children and school teachers were pleased to bring back to their classrooms and libraries.

All told, the first Let’s Explore event at Ash Meadows was a huge success for everyone involved: kids, parents, teachers, volunteers, and GBI and Ash Meadows staff. The event provided opportunities for parents and their children to learn together, new friendships to be formed within the local communities, and discoveries to be made in the outdoors. Good word-of-mouth is spreading – and spaces are quickly filling up for the next three Let’s Explore events coming up this fall! More news to come!

By: Alyson Mack, Great Basin Institute Environmental Education & Outreach Specialist