Program areas at Friends of Nevada Wilderness
Wilderness stewardship program: in partnership with the agencies, our volunteer stewards clean up, monitor and heal wildlands and improve wildlife habitat and recreational trail access. In 2022 we completed 48 volunteer stewardship projects with 546 volunteers, giving back a total of 332,927 of in-kind volunteer service. Volunteers monitored 110 springs, pulled invasive weeds, seeded native plants, knocked down mining claim markers trapping wildlife, monitored dark skies, and installed signs. Our trail crew maintained about 70 miles of Wilderness trails and the sheldon resource crew removed 6.2 tons of waste metal from refuge wildlands.
Wilderness education and outreach program: we designed and printed two newsletters, produced the 2023 wild Nevada calendar, sent monthly e- newsletters and numerous alerts and event invitations to our supporters. We hosted the monthly wild speaker series, the wild and scenic film festival, the black rock rendezvous and national public lands day events and a dark sky festival. We participated in numerous tabling events and volunteer fairs with local colleges. We were approved by the Nevada dmv for a dark sky license plate. Additional stories, videos, and photos can be viewed on our website, instagram, facebook and youtube.
Wilderness legislation and planning program: in 2022 we were extremely successful seeing the creation of the avi kwa ame national monument, three new Wilderness areas designated in churchill/lander counties along with the numunaa nobe national conservation area. We continued work on the various components of the washoe and nye counties public lands bills. We have read, analyzed and provided comments on many public land proposals that could affect Nevada wildlands.