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Community and Citizen Stewardship
Throughout Nevada, citizens, conservation and industry organizations, government agencies, and public officials are working together to sustain and reclaim healthy environments. While a regulatory approach is appropriate to accomplish some environmental goals, more often we are relying on community cooperation and individual stewardship. Conservation districts and watershed planning groups are two examples of Nevadans taking strides toward sustainable development of renewable resources.
Natural resource planning activity has increased in recent years at each level of government. Most notable are the many collaborative planning processes established to seek solutions to contentious issues.  Collaboration starts with willing participation by a full complement of government and citizen stakeholders that commit to cooperative work on finding equitable solutions for controversial resource issues. Collaboration produces solutions more likely to be implemented, rather than protested or litigated.
Over 60 natural resource planning and management projects are ongoing or will begin soon. In the past two years, the Governor's office initiated statewide collaborative planning projects for sage grouse conservation, noxious weed control, and wildfire management. One objective is to empower and support the role of county government or local organizations to take charge of site specific plan preparation and implementation. Examples of collaborative resource planning processes include the Nevada Sage Grouse Conservation Plan; Nevada's Coordinated Invasive Weed Strategy; Northeastern Nevada Stewardship Group; Great Basin Restoration Initiative; integrated natural resource planning at both the Nellis Air Force Range and Fallon Naval Air Station; Elk Management Plans; and, open space planning between the BLM, USFS, and western Nevada counties (Carson City, Douglas, and Washoe).
Conservation Districts
Statewide, there are 28 Conservation Districts (CDs) - locally led groups in rural and urban areas committed to proper management of renewable natural resources. Each CD prepares an annual and long-range work plan that identifies local resource management goals for the district. The CDs work closely with local offices of the federal Natural Resource Conservation Service (NRCS), which provide technical advice and professional services. Local watershed plans to improve water quality, enhance riparian areas, and control noxious weeds are developed and projects to improve wildlife, riparian, and rangeland habitat implemented.
Most CDs have implemented a noxious weed program. Cooperating with federal agencies, district members locate, map and control noxious weeds on private and public land. After the devastating wildfires of 1999 and 2000, the Paradise-Sonoma CD and the Nevada Division of Forestry (NDF) seeded several thousand acres of burned private rangeland. Each contributed equipment, labor and/or funds to successfully complete the seeding. Education, public outreach, and coordination among landowners and agencies are keys to the success of CD work plans.
A few CD's have taken on voluntary watershed planning initiatives. With grant funding through the State's Nonpoint Source Management Program and assistance by the federal Environmental Protection Agency, several CDs have developed Coordinated Resource Management Plans (CRMPs) that focus on improving water quality, stream bank rehabilitation, weed control, and channel clearance. The Carson Valley, Dayton Valley and Lahontan CDs are currently implementing CRMPs to address water quality and bank stability concerns in the upper, middle and lower sections of the Carson River. The Mason and Smith Valley CDs are doing similar work within the Walker River Basin.
 Additional Resources -- Division of Conservation Districts
Watershed Planning
Development of watershed management plans is another community-based activity that is increasing. Voluntary watershed planning is occurring at the municipal, watershed, and river basin levels. Though results are difficult to measure because each approach is different, watershed groups throughout the state make important contributions to stewardship of water and related resources. Well organized, collaborative watershed planning efforts are occurring throughout Nevada, with the most comprehensive efforts taking place in the Truckee, Carson, and Walker river basins, Las Vegas Valley, and Elko County.
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Riparian area improvement project planning and implementation, an important element of watershed management, is more likely to be successful with collaboration.
Crowley Creek is a perennial stream, tributary to the Quinn River, which flows in the Montana Mountain Range of Northwest Nevada. The area was in poor condition. The Lahontan cutthroat trout inhabits the stream. In 1992 (left photo) the Winnemucca BLM Field Office began an interdisciplinary resource and habitat evaluation process for the grazing allotment. The allotment permittee, Nevada Division of Wildlife, users groups, and resource specialists were involved in the evaluation and decision-making. The evaluation lead to a modified grazing cycle, reducing late summer use until conditions improved sufficiently to support additional use.
Treatment began in 1993. Stream banks were next to non-existent, the water column was wide and shallow, and stream temperatures were lethal to fish in most locations. An unusually intense warm rain on snow flood event in February 1986 contributed to the degraded conditions. Between 1987 and 1991, little riparian habitat recovery occurred and the channel widened. By 1997 (right photo) significant improvements in habitat area were occurring. The water column narrowed and an active floodplain formed, retaining more of the limited spring runoff and resisting erosion. Water quality conditions have improved and streamflow is sustained throughout the year. Fisheries conditions have also improved in several reaches. 1992 and 1997 photos courtesy of Nevada BLM. |
In 1998, a unique river basin planning coalition was formed for the Carson River. Following a conference and subsequent workshops, government officials and citizens recommended creation of a broad coalition to develop an integrated watershed planning process for the basin. The Carson River Coalition was formed and four years later continues to work on improving coordination. The Carson Water Subconservancy District and the University of Nevada Cooperative Extension facilitate the process. Guiding principles, statements of common interests and understanding, were developed and adopted by each county in the watershed, including Alpine County in California). Subgroups meet periodically to devise and take action on specific planning issues, i.e., water quality protection and improvement, education and public information, regional water supply arrangements, land use planning, natural resource management, and government interaction. An intangible benefit is the cooperative support for individual programs, such as channel repair projects, community river clean-up events, water resource studies, conservation easement and land acquisition projects, and outdoor learning experiences for school children.
Urban area watershed plans are under development also. The Clark County Wetlands Park (CCWP) Master Plan will control erosion of and water quality impacts to the Las Vegas Wash related to greater discharges from wastewater treatment facilities and urban runoff. Cooperators include the Southern Nevada Water Authority, Clark County, the Conservation District of Southern Nevada and other members of the Las Vegas Wash Coordination Committee (Las Vegas Wash Project Coordination Team, 2001).
In the Truckee Meadows urban area, the Washoe-Storey CD, Washoe County, the University of Nevada Cooperative Extension, and other cooperators are implementing a restoration plan for Steamboat Creek. The Washoe-Storey Conservation District initiated the Steamboat Creek Restoration Plan because Steamboat Creek is considered the largest tributary source of non-point source pollution to the Truckee River. High levels of sediment, nitrogen, phosphorus and trace metals resulted in the tributary being listed as an impaired water body. The Nevada Division of Environmental Protection (NDEP) awarded a Clean Water Act 319(h) grant and the Regional Water Planning Commission also awarded a grant to promote plan implementation. The plan, which relies on voluntary participation, contains reach-by-reach recommendations for on-stream and off-stream restoration actions designed to improve water quality (Washoe Storey Conservation District, 1998).
References
Las Vegas Wash Project Coordination Team. 2001. Watch Our Wetlands Grow Project Overview. Internet site
Nevada Bureau of Mines and Geology. 2001. The Nevada Mineral Industry, Special Publication MI-2000.
Nevada Department of Taxation. 2001. Statistical Analysis of the Roll, Fiscal Year 2000-01.
Nevada Division of Environmental Protection. 2002 . Table of Las Vegas Valley Total Natural Gas Gallons by User (by Clark County Regional Transportation Commission).
Nevada Indian Commission. 2001a. Nevada Directory of Native American Resources, 2001 - 2002.
Nevada Indian Commission. 2001b. Personal communication with Executive Director.
Nevada State Demographer's Office, Bureau of Business and Economic Research. 2000. Nevada County Population Projections 2000 to 2010. June 2000.
Nevada State Energy Office, Department of Business and Industry. 2000. Energy for Nevada, Report to the Legislature on the Status of Energy in Nevada for the Year 1999.
Public Utility Commission of Nevada. 2001. Report to the Governor of the State of Nevada from the Nevada Electric Energy Policy Committee. 91 pp.
The Nature Conservancy. 2001a. Great Basin, An Ecoregion-based Conservation Blueprint. v. 2001a. Reno, NV.
The Nature Conservancy. 2001b. Ecoregion-based Conservation in the Mojave Desert. Las Vegas, NV.
U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis. 2000. Regional Accounts, Gross State Products Data. Internet address
U.S. Bureau of Land Management. 2002. Black Rock Desert - High Rock Canyon Emigrant Trails National Conservation Area Fact Sheet
U.S. Census Bureau. 2000a. Census 2000. Internet address
U.S. Census Bureau. 2000b. Population Paper Listing #47. Population Projections for States, by Age, Sex, Race, and Hispanic Origin: 1995 to 2025. Internet address
U.S. Census Bureau. 2000c. Census 2000 Redistricting Data (P.L. 94-171) Summary File, Table PL1, and 1990 Census.
U.S. Energy Information Agency. 1999a. State Energy Data Report. Internet address
U.S. Energy Information Agency. 1999b. Alternatives to Traditional Transportation Fuels. Internet address
U.S. Energy Information Agency. 2000. State Electricity Profiles. Internet address: http://www.eia.doe.gov/cneaf/electricity/st_profiles/toc.html
U.S. Forest Service. 2001. Chapter 1920, Land and Resource Management Planning, Forest Service Manual, National Headquarters. Internet address
Washoe-Storey Conservation District. 1998. Steamboat Creek Restoration Plan (revised November 11, 1998). Prepared by Jeff Codega Planning/Design Inc. Reno, Nevada.
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