Good morning to everyone in the Department of Conservation and Natural Resources.

I hope you have been enjoying the summer. It certainly seems to go quickly. Before we know it school will be starting and the leaves will be turning.

To begin, on the financial front, state revenues are still not meeting expectations. We are all waiting with high anticipation to see what this means to program budgets and employees. My best advice is to continue to monitor the media and if there is any significant breaking news I will let you know.

Furlough update

I want to again thank DCNR employees for following the furlough guidelines and working with their supervisors to schedule furlough days toward the 96 hour individual requirement each year. We have had a few complications related primarily to emergency service personnel, but it has not been anything that could not be worked out. Thanks again for your understanding and cooperation.

State Parks visitation is up

I suppose one positive with the downturn in the economy is that people this summer are recreating closer to home. More people are taking advantage of our magnificent state natural resources. I am pleased to report that both visitation and revenues are up at most of Nevada’s state parks. Parks staff members are very busy this time of year, and I hope that as people take the time to experience nearby opportunities that there will be a newfound appreciation for the cultural and recreational opportunities at our state parks.

I was very pleased to recently receive an email from some visitors from Tennessee who marveled at the beauty of our state and the excellent condition and maintenance of our park facilities.

Fire season update

The Division of Forestry has seen no shortage of activity on fires this year. Fortunately, the majority of fires have been relatively small in size, but the frequency of fires, particularly by lightning strikes, has been high. The state’s NDF helicopter has been busy in initial attack operations on fires – flying 40 hours on 18 fires so far this season. Initial attack capability is one of the important tools NDF and its partners use to help keep the fires small and contained. So far NDF has been very successful in keeping small fires from growing into big ones. Thanks to everyone in NDF for the great work! The next couple of days are supposed to bring low humidity and increasing winds. Let’s keep our fingers crossed

Tahoe summit scheduled

The 2009 Lake Tahoe Forum is coming up on August 20 at Round Hill Pines Beach in Zephyr Cove. Since the original forum in 1997, each year a diverse group of stakeholders come together to review the progress made in the basin and discuss goals to keep the efforts moving forward. As a result of AB 18 from the 2009 legislative session, Nevada is in a leadership role with the authorization of $100 million in Environmental Improvement Program (EIP) bonding over the next 10 years.

DCNR and State Parks on Facebook

As a society the way we communicate is constantly evolving. As a department we need to stay on top of technology, identify the most effective ways to do business and how we interact with the public and our regulated communities. For those of you who have Facebook accounts, both DCNR and State Parks have recently created fan pages on Facebook, where new information and links to interesting blogs and stories related to the department are posted. We will gradually be adding more content, such as additional photos and video, to each page as time goes now. Please visit them here:

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Carson-City-NV/Nevada-Department-of-Conservation-and-Natural-Resources/134012759288

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Carson-City-NV/Nevada-State-Parks/47155825877?ref=mf

Administrator retreat to Animal Ark

Lastly, the DCNR administrators and their families had a potluck at and a tour of Animal Ark, a wildlife sanctuary in Reno, this past weekend. DCNR’s Nevada Natural Heritage Administrator Jennifer Newmark is the president of Animal Ark’s board of trustees and was gracious enough to host a tour for us. If you have never been to Animal Ark, I highly recommend a visit. Their diversity of animals is simply amazing and we even got to watch three cheetahs run on their weekly schedule. In just three strides, the cheetahs can reach speeds of up to 70 miles an hour, making them the fastest mammal on the planet. Check out Animal Ark photos of our visit here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/nevadadcnr/. You may visit Animal Ark’s Web site for more information: http://animalark.org/.

Have a safe August!

Allen Biaggi

Director