(It’s now attached more closely to our website… something about better search engine optimization,  cross-pollination,  visibility, cuter pikas, and so forth.)

Former Army Rangers Will Teach You The Skills To Survive in the Nevada Desert

For $495, Brian Geiger and Jim Matthews will take you into the Nevada desert for their 3 day survival course, “Bavarian Creme or Jelly?  Surviving Nevada’s Harsh Deserts.”  Training includes Tecate can management, lime slicing, how to keep volcanic dust off your donuts, and many other useful tricks.  Brian and Jim have trained hundreds of Nevada neophytes in survival tactics.

This Saturday, September 26, volunteers are invited to Gold Butte to help with two projects:

• Build a split rail fence to define a parking area for the “Falling Man” area
• Establish creosote, Morman tea and cacti plants along a trail

Friends of Gold Butte, staff from the BLM, and the Nevada Wilderness Project have put this volunteer project together, in part, to honor National Public Lands Day. This celebration began in 1994 with three federal agencies and 700 volunteers. Last year 120,000 volunteers worked in over 1,800 locations and in every state. Now, 8 federal agencies and many state and local lands participate in this annual day of caring for shared lands, including Nevada – which has more public land than any other state except for Alaska. National Public Lands Day keeps the promise of the Civilian Conservation Corps, the “tree army” that worked from 1933-42, to preserve and protect America’s natural heritage.

The Gold Butte event is limited to 50 volunteers, so please sign up soon. Just send an e-mail to Friends of Gold Butte volunteer Roy Miller (mesquiter@gmail.com). Include how many people you’ll be bringing and which project you would like to work on (fence or plants).  There are opportunities for people of all ages and abilities.  You can also call Nancy Hall, NWP’s Gold Butte Organizer, with questions: 702-346-3723.

Car-pooling: To reduce our impact on the area, we have arranged meet-up places and contacts for car-pooling.
Mesquite -  phone Betsy 702-345-3006
Moapa Valley -  phone Par 702-215-9119
Las Vegas – phone Terri 702-459-7613
St. George – phone Milton 435-632-8082

Can’t Make It? – You can still help by buying plants or part of the fence for this project. Friends of Gold Butte is buying creosote and Mormon tea seedlings from the Division of Forestry for $3/plant. Your donation to help buy a few seedlings or a fence post will give this project a great boost! please send a check to:
Friends of Gold Butte
P.O. Box 3664
Mesquite, NV 89024

Here’s some info about a movie showing in Reno, NV we think you’ll like (and part of the ticket price benefits NWP):  The Absinthe Film crew is coming to Reno-Sparks to John Ascuaga’s Nugget – Celebrity Showroom – to premiere their new 16mm HD snowboard film, “Neverland.” Featured riders Dan Brisse and DCP will be there in person.

Friday, September 18th, 2009
doors at 7:30 pm
movie at 8 pm
John Ascuaga’s Nugget, Celebrity Showroom
1100 Nugget Avenue
Sparks, NV 89431
ph: 800-648-1177

Neverland is part of their “Sphere of Influence” tour, which was established to help promote environmental responsibility, sustainability and global warming awareness. Absinthe Films also takes pride in donating to a local non-profit in each tour city that they visit… and that’s us. Tickets are $12, and they’ll donate $1 from every ticket sold to the Nevada Wilderness Project (plus $1 to national organization Protect Our Winters.)

Tickets are available here online, or in Reno and Sparks at these shops:
Out of Bounds Board Shop
235 E. Plumb Lane
Reno, NV 89502
ph: 775-323-7669

Eternal Boardshop
300 Los Altos Parkway, unit 105
Sparks, NV 89502
ph: 775-626-9991

Tickets will also sold at the door (if not sold out). Thanks, and hope to see you there.

Am I hosed or are you gonna get your s$%t together?

Ug.  That’s a mouthful.  One of the great challenges in working on conservation is the blizzard of acronyms we deal with.  However, the SPEIS–the acronym for the headline above–is probably as simple as its going to get when it comes to siting utility-scale solar projects on public lands.

Our nation’s addiction to fossil fuels has long delayed a transition in the US to a sane energy policy that develops a vibrant, sustainable, and non-polluting renewable energy industry domestically.  We understand that the solution is a multifaceted as the sources of climate change.  We know that changes across the board—in energy development, planning, distribution, generation, deforestation, and our consumption habits—are necessary to win this fight against climate change.  But we also know that a nation that prides itself on innovation and solutions cannot continue to rely on this as the foundation of our energy policy.

At the Nevada Wilderness Project, we understand that action is required on a utility scale to prevent the worst of climate change effects from locking in in the next 10 years or so. While solutions like energy efficiency and rooftop solar are keys to the puzzle, public lands in the US are going to play a central role in the next few years in rolling back the ugly trends of global warming.  We believe that its our responsibility to make sure that utility scale power plants on public lands don’t solve one problem—climate change—while creating another:  a loss of biodiversity from the footprint of siting and transmission development.

Senator Harry Reid (D-NV) has long been the key advocate for Nevada to be one of America’s renewables leaders.  This is no small task, for there are massive challenges associated with the transition, challenges that our society has for too long deferred tackling: an antiquated transmission grid, life cycle subsidies and warped tax incentives for fossil fuels that have made renewables cost prohibitive, American’s consumption patterns, and the simple lack of political will.  Nevadans are lucky to have someone with his vision, legislative acumen, and commitment developing a thriving renewables industry.

Recently, Senator Reid joined with Interior Secretary Ken Salazar to announce a “fast tracking” initiative for solar development on Western public lands.  This plan directs federal agencies to accelerate environmental review of  24 areas chosen from six states in the southwest.  Seven areas in Nevada are included for expedited review.

We generally felt like the areas chosen in Nevada were appropriate for solar development, and we’ve included some specific recommendations that you can read about here. In particular, we look to work with the administration, Congress, and industry to come up with renewable energy projects that are smart from the start.  We think that any new project on public lands will afford opportunities for mitigation, and that in many cases, wildlife habitat can be left in better shape in the wake of development than before development.

In 1964, the act was written in a way that shifted responsibility from the public land management agencies to the people; rather than wait for an agency such as the BLM or Forest Service to recommend wilderness designation–with their cumbersome administrative processes–citizens could develop their own wilderness proposals and submit them directly to a member of Congress.

It gave people who chose to organize and work hard at these proposals the chance to leave a real lasting legacy–part of their corner of the world, as the Act states, “… hereby recognized as an area where the earth and its community of life are untrammeled by man, where man himself is a visitor who does not remain.”  What greater gift could we possibly leave to our own descendants and to the wildlife, too?

Ginnie in the Jarbidge Wilderness, Nevada’s oldest wilderness area.

What the article doesn’t do is give you much of a picture of Gregg himself: 30+ year veteran of the Nevada Department of Wildlife, UNR graduate, bird dog trainer, chukar hunter, expert wall tent set-er-upper… and all-around smart guy about wildlife, habitat and changes happening on Nevada’s landscapes.  He’s also the newest member of the Nevada Wilderness Project’s team.

Here’s one nugget we haven’t seen in many news reports:

Van Jones, Special Advisor for Green Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation at the White House Council on Environmental Quality,  said that the pursuit of clean energy development — necessary for national security, to revitalize our tanked economy, and to salvage our planet’s future — is our generation’s “common ground” agenda.  He called it the issue that will bring us finally together, after eight years of profound social, political and cultural division in the U.S.  He said it should be our healing politics, to get us away from the deep rifts that have divided people in the U.S. between right and left. “We’re asking the questions that progressives like, and finding answers and solutions that conservative can like,” he said.

While there was no mention during the Summit of land conservation going hand-in-hand with renewable energy development — what we call a “smart from the start” approach — we’re optimistic and working hard to make sure that this discussion rises to prominence in Nevada in the coming months.  Van Jones’ point helps make it clear for us.  All Nevadans, regardless of political perspective, can get behind renewable energy development and conservation happening in tandem. The opportunities are too good to pass up.

John Podesta, Al Gore, Harry Reid, T. Boone Pickens and Cathy Zoi at the National Clean Energy Summit in Las Vegas.

Black bear in the Sheldon National Wildlife Refuge. Photo by Gregg Tanner

Some of us from the Nevada Wilderness Project are heading to the National Clean Energy Summit on Monday — along with some renewable energy leaders, policy experts, politicians, scientists, regular people and the media.  A lot of heavy-hitters like President Bill Clinton, Vice President Al Gore, T. Boone Pickens, Harry Reid, Arnold Schwarzenegger and a bunch of others will be speaking and sitting on panels during the day-long summit,  charting a course for our nation’s clean energy future.

We’re bringing our own heavy-hitter and newest staff member: Gregg Tanner. Gregg’s our not-so-secret weapon of an expert on Nevada wildlife issues. If anyone can speak to how climate change is affecting Nevada’s wildlife and habitat, Gregg’s the guy; He’s a life-long Nevadan and spent more than 30 years working as a wildlife biologist for the Nevada Department of Wildlife.  He’s now with NWP and at the conference will be talking up our “smart from the start” approach to renewable energy development.  “Smart from the start” means taking this great opportunity we have to develop clean energy in Nevada and doing it in areas that are least important to wildlife, and mitigating with funding for restoration and new landscape designations.  What’s the point of addressing the climate change crisis if, in doing so, we diminish habitat and biological diversity with poor planning?

We sent out a news release today about our involvement in the National Clean Energy Summit, and our work to advance the “smart from the start” approach.  You can read the press release here.

Have a great weekend.

The Department of Energy and the Bureau of Land Management announced a “public scoping period” regarding these solar energy study areas… meaning the people have time to consider the proposal and weigh in. The public’s comments are due September 14, 2009.

NWP is working full speed to participate in this public scoping period (this can sound a little icky, if you say it wrong).  It’s important because broadly speaking, studying these areas for possible solar development is a good thing, provided we proceed in a way that is “smart from the start.” This means harnessing Nevada’s renewable and clean energy resources while protecting wildlife corridors and habitats, and protecting the iconic beauty and open spaces of the state. (click here to read more about “smart from the start.”) Addressing the climate and energy crisis through renewable energy development must not exacerbate loss of habitat and biological diversity.

To learn more about these areas, where they are and why they’re important, visit this page. It will also tell you how to submit your comments.  Please ask them to fully incorporate issues of wildlife, habitat, biological diversity, and mitigation in their study process.