David Spicer, a rancher in Beatty, Nevada and founder of the non-profit organization Saving Toads Though Off-Road Racing, Ranching and Mining in the Oasis Valley (STORM-OV), has successfully rallied his community to protect the Amargosa toad (Bufo nelsoni) and keep it off of the list of endangered species.

Partnering with the Natural Resources Conservation Service, other federal and state agencies, non-profit organizations, local government, fellow landowners, and by acquiring grants, Spicer and his STORM-OV partners have restored 11 springs, enhanced one mile of river, and created or enhanced 57 acres of toad breeding and foraging habitat mostly on private land.

Willow Creek Ranch owners Russell and David Fitzwater installed five energy efficient watering facilities on their private land and public allotments, thanks to a collaborative effort with the Bureau of Land Management and NRCS. The solar panel pumping plants, new pipeline, and water storage tanks and troughs, have provided the Fitzwaters with an efficient and effective livestock watering system. "Solar energy has eliminated our gas bill, while giving us the ability to have fresh, dependable water every day," said Russell Fitzwater.

When Bonneville Cutthroat Trout were reintroduced into Big Wash Creek in eastern Nevada, the owners of Hidden Canyon Ranch joined forces with Trout Unlimited, the Fish and Wildlife Service, and NRCS to restore the creek and ensure that the habitat was beneficial for the BCT, a species of concern for the FWS.

The landowners installed six grade stabilization structures in Big Wash Creek, with financial assistance from the Wildlife Habitat Incentive Program. The structures provide numerous environmental benefits by slowing the rate of water discharge during large water events, and reducing the velocity and energy responsible for creating down cuts and gullies. Sediment is caught and retained upstream to help restore stream grade, raise the water table, and stabilize eroded banks. The owners are now working to restore the stream habitat using WHIP funding.

James and Barbra Hertz of Fallon were excited about the prospect of helping their local community by providing fresh produce to families in need. They applied for and received financial assistance under the NRCS Environmental Quality Incentive Program for a high tunnel in the spring of 2012. The Hertz’s non-profit business, Lone Pine Farms, partnered with Icon International to grow vegetables and also help troubled youth.

This year, Lone Pine Farms grew a variety of crops to donate, including squash, pumpkins, tomatoes, green beans, potatoes and peppers. They are hopeful that this is only the beginning, and plan on continuing to grow produce to help feed families in Northern Nevada for years to come.

In an effort to get a handle on pumping plant efficiency and associated operating costs, an increasing number of agricultural producers are taking advantage of the Conservation Stewardship Program. Irrigation Pumping Plant Evaluation is one of many enhancement activities available through CSP. Under this activity, an irrigation pumping plant performance test is conducted to measure power consumption and the volume of water produced in order to determine overall pumping plant efficiency. The Irrigation Pumping Plant Evaluation must be performed by a trained service provider using appropriate testing equipment. The service provider provides the producer with a report that includes information on present pumping plant efficiency, potential efficiency, present energy use, and an estimate of energy and cost savings if improvements are implemented. Recent evaluations show that improvements can increase efficiency up to 30 percent, saving up to $6,000 each year on a single pumping plant.

A & B Paradise Enterprises owners Bob and Astrid Schweigert have been working to increase available forage for livestock while improving wildlife habitat on their rangeland in Pershing County. They signed up for a Wildlife Habitat Incentives Program contract in 2009 to fence off a spring and pipe the water to outlying areas to provide water for livestock and wildlife, drawing the livestock away from the riparian area.

With this project completed and operating perfectly, they decided to increase the available forage. The area around the spring and associated overflow had been invaded with rabbitbrush that started to choke out the native grasses in the area, and a large portion of the section burned in 2000 and came back with cheatgrass and some bluegrass. With help from the Environmental Quality Incentives Program, Bob and Astrid were able to reseed the burned area, and remove and chemically treat the rabbitbrush. Two years after the seeding, crested wheatgrass is spreading across the area and native grasses are growing along the riparian area. The fenced area is kept free of livestock throughout the growing season so the wildlife can utilize the area and is grazed in the fall after plant dormancy.

The NRCS snow data network consists of manual snow course measurements, automated SNOw TELemetry (SNOTEL) sites and aerial markers (AM) for winter time data collection. The AM’s are measured 3 times a year by flying over them, usually with a helicopter, and getting a visual snow depth measurement from the air. The density of the snowpack is estimated and the snow water equivalent or water content of the snow is calculated. It was the best way to get snow water equivalent in remote parts of Nevada until Bob Nault from our Salt Lake City office came up with a design to put a snow depth sensor on existing AM’s and use a satellite phone modem to transmit the data, snow depth and temperature 4 times per day. Not only will this provide additional data from these sites, it also eliminates the cost of helicopter time to collect the data and is a much safer option.

Taylor McKenzie, a 3rd grade student at Explore Knowledge Academy in Las Vegas, needed help with her school science experiment. Her question was, "What ground material filters dirty water better?"

McKenzie loves science projects and was very excited about doing one using soil. She read books and researched the topic, and contacted NRCS soil scientist Doug Merkler. Doug explained to her how water travels through soil and provided her with most of the soils she needed for her experiment, such as fine sand loam and silty clay loam.

To test her hypothesis that silty clay loam would do the best job of cleaning dirty water, she used empty water bottles and cheesecloth to make the filter containers, and made dirty water using food coloring, oil, basil leaves, pepper and small pieces of paper. She filled each bottle with a different ground material (gravel, sand, fine sand loam, and silty clay loam). She then poured the dirty water into each one and watched to see which one came out the cleanest. Some of them filtered in minutes, one in hours and another in two days. After reviewing the results, she realized her hypothesis was correct; the silty clay loam filtered the cleanest water.

Taylor put together a project board with pictures for her class presentation and gave a demonstration to her fellow students. Her weeks of hard work paid off — Taylor got 100% on her science project!

Richardville Irrigation Company Starts Construction on Pipeline

As irrigation season comes to an end in October, Richardville Irrigation Company begins construction on its delivery pipeline. Richardville Irrigation Company manages approximately four miles of delivery system, part of which is shared with two irrigation districts in central Pahranagat Valley. The combined delivery system carries water from Ash Springs to three miles south of Alamo. Pahranagat Valley is a narrow 50 mile long valley in the center of Lincoln County. The valley is a welcoming strip of green wetlands, meadows, and hayfields surrounded by the rocky and relatively barren Mojave Desert. Soon after entering the valley you see Alamo’s namesake, the cottonwood, lining current and historic watercourses and surrounding springs. The abundance of green vegetation is largely fed by springs with a total flow of about 35 cfs.

For over 20 years, irrigators in central Pahranagat Valley have worked on plans with the Natural Resources/Soil Conservation Service (NRCS) to replace the ditch delivery system with a pipeline. Since the 1960’s, a concrete lined ditch has supplied Richardville and the neighboring irrigation districts. The concrete lined ditch has outlived its expected life and is falling apart or missing in numerous sections. Lack of funding, lack of agreement or cooperation among landowners, and government agency regulations are the reasons that plans have gathered dust in files for decades.

Installing the delivery system presents numerous challenges, but the biggest challenge is working with the dozens of landowners impacted by the project. There are tales from the 1960’s when the conservation district spearheaded installation of the ditch and resorted to intoxication in some cases to gain cooperation of a certain landowner. In 2006, Alamo Irrigation Company was the first irrigation district in central Pahranagat Valley to get past the challenges and reasons that prevented work on the delivery system. Nine landowners signed up for a group project under NRCS’s Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP) to install about three miles of pipe in the town of Alamo. Although the landowners recognized the conservation benefits of the pipeline, safety concerns (children have drowned in the ditch) and elimination of litter (some residents used the ditch for trash disposal) were higher priority benefits of the pipeline. It took many hours of talking to landowners, some thick skin and patience, and searching for solutions that worked for the irrigation district and the landowners. Ed Stewart and Cleo Connell of Alamo Irrigation Company led the effort with assistance from NRCS staff in the Caliente Field Office.

In 2011, Alamo Irrigation Company completed the installation of pipeline in its nine mile delivery system. Small acreage irrigators now get to irrigate for their allotted time instead of waiting most of the allotted time for the water just to arrive at their property. All irrigators can water all of their fields in their allotted time because of higher, more consistent flows. The problems associated with the ditch are eliminated – no more rocks under every head gate, no more tumbleweeds clogging the water delivery, and no more trash in the irrigation water. In addition, landowners who were adversarial towards NRCS in the beginning are advocates for irrigation projects with NRCS.

Building on the success in Alamo, ten irrigators with Richardville Irrigation Company applied for and received EQIP assistance to install a pipeline delivery system. Like Alamo, the ten landowners represent the majority of water usage, but less than half of the landowners along the delivery system. Richardville Irrigation Company leaders including Ed Higbee, county commissioner, have gone door-to-door informing landowners about the project and held several pre-construction meetings. Work has begun on the drain crossing near the beginning of the east pipeline. Pipe fittings and pipe started arriving on October 13. Soon Pahranagat Valley residents will see the familiar winter sight of blue pipe snaking along the edge of the valley.

Great Basin Plant Materials Center and Agricultural Research Service test Searles Prairie Clover

Legumes are valuable in rangeland revegetation in the western USA because they provide food for insects, birds and other wildlife, and forage for livestock,as well as benefitting the soil by fixing nitrogen.  Many native legumes are toxic loco-weeds, but Searls prairie clover (Dalea searlsiae) is a non-toxic legume native legume.  It was first collected in 1871 near the Pahranagat Mountains in southeastern Nevada.  Plants produced at the ARS Forage and Range Lab at Logan, Utah were brought to Fallon by Dr. Doug Johnson, accompanied by student Zhao Fan.  NRCS State Office employees Albert Mulder, State Agronomist, and Bill Elder, Assistant State Conservationist for Operations, assisted with the planting.

The top five conservation practices planned in Fiscal Year (FY) 2012, by amount of dollars obligated:

• Irrigation Pipeline, Low Pressure

• Irrigation System, Sprinkler

• Water Control Structures

• Pumping Plant

• Brush Management

Top Resource Concerns:

• Water Quality-Inefficient Use

• Plant Condition

• Soil Condition/Quality

• Water Quality-Nutrients/Sediment

• Water Quantity