Southern Nevada Agency Partnership (SNAP), Fish & Wildlife Service, and Friends of Nevada Wilderness Alternative Spring Break Project
Spring Break in southern Nevada looked a bit different than what a typical Spring Break may look like, especially in Las Vegas. During the week of March 14 - March 18, 2011 the Southern Nevada Agency Partnership, Friends of Nevada Wilderness and Fish and Wildlife Service staff teamed-up to treat 26 University of Nevada, Reno students, local volunteers and Student Conservation Association interns to an adventure filled spring break with the reward of making a difference for the local wildlife.
Our goal was to remove a fence dubbed “The Enclosure Ridge Fence” out of the National Desert Wildlife Refuge north of Las Vegas in Clark County, Nevada. The fence was negatively impacting the sheep and preventing them from accessing a guzzler that was providing them much needed water in the arid landscape.
This was not your grand dads’ barbwire fence; this fence was military grade. The fence consisted of countless, 10 foot, 15 pound posts, miles of woven fence, barbed wire and multiple aluminum posts. To top it off, the fence followed a steep drainage on rugged terrain with a 2 mile hike to simply get to the job site. The fence was created in the 90’s to monitor Big Horn Sheep and most of it had been removed except for the last section up the steep canyon.
The spring breakers camped at the beautiful and lively Pahranagat Wildlife Refuge amidst birds stopping by on their travels to the north as well tourists driving by. There were many great home cooked meals including tasty Dutch oven desserts, burgers, stir-fry and BBQ beef sandwiches. As a treat, the wildlife refuge manager Chiva Horton stopped by each night to chat and tell a few stories about the Refuge and local lore of the area. Another evening the group was treated with a visit from noted plant ecologist, David Charlet who informed the crowd about his effort to map the area to monitor the effects of global warming.
In the end, people were sore, tired and couldn’t wait to take a shower but all went home knowing they did something great on their spring break…keeping it wild.
