Nevada Wilderness Programme, USA

Locations - DL Bliss California State Park, Lake Tahoe Nevada State Park, Tahoe Rim Trail, and Mount Rose Wilderness Area.

 

Trail maintenance and construction -- Volunteers will construct and maintain trails within the Lake Tahoe Basin. Work hours are long and difficult, and may require hiking up to three miles per day in strenuous landscapes. Projects will include a variety of trail construction techniques used to design minimum impact trails and control erosion throughout the Lake Tahoe Basin. You will learn the art of dry stone masonry, using it to construct retaining walls, switchbacks, water bars, and riprap erosion control barriers.
Other responsibilities will include recreating tread surface to allow for proper trail run-off and removing encroaching vegetation from the trails.

 

Urban lot restoration — Volunteers will work on restoring National Forest land within urban areas. This is done by placing barriers to block vehicle access and restoring the lots to their natural state by revegetating the native species of plants and removing exotic plant species. These methods help decrease erosion and run off, protecting Lake Tahoe's famous clarity.

Fuels reduction — Wildfires are an enormous threat to western ecosystems. Volunteers will work with chainsaw crews to selectively remove dead trees as well as unhealthy live trees and excess ground fuel. This work ultimately improves forest health, reduces wildfire threat, and prevents sedimentation from clouding Lake Tahoe.
 

The Lake Tahoe area is committed to providing ecologically sensitive recreational activities to thousands of visitors drawn by the area’s natural beauty. Recreational activities impact the very environment visitors come to enjoy. Improperly maintained and/or constructed trail systems provide access to remote regions, but also contribute to erosion and pollution in Lake Tahoe’s watershed. Land management agencies in Lake Tahoe Basin have initiated a program to curb soil erosion and reduce algae-encouraging nutrients that reach the lake and muddy its world- famous clarity. Your volunteer work will help preserve Lake Tahoe’s clarity and natural splendor, reduce the threat from wildfires, and restore the ecosystem to its natural state.

Locations - Great Basin National Park, Spring Mountains National Recreation Area, and other areas throughout the Humboldt-Toiyabe National Forests.

 

Work hours are long and difficult, and may require hiking up to three miles per day in strenuous terrain. Work will include a variety of trail construction techniques used to design minimum impact trails and limit soil erosion. You will learn the art of dry stone masonry in order to construct retaining walls, switchbacks, water bars, and riprap erosion control barriers. You will also learn resurfacing trail tread techniques, which allow adequate trail run-off, and how to remove encroaching vegetation from trails. 

The landscape of Nevada is the most mountainous and geologically diverse in the United States. With a life zone ranging from an elevation of two hundred to over 13,000 feet, Nevada also harbors some of the most sensitive and fragile species of flora and fauna found in North America. These plant and animal species are suffering due to increased human use and recreation. NCC projects will build and maintain trails to protect these natural resources from erosion and destructive recreation, and help maintain the region’s natural beauty.

Locations - Lake Mead National Recreation Area

 

This project involves restoration practices, from removing illegal roads to restoring native vegetation. On road decommissioning tours, volunteers will decompact illegal OHV roads and transplant native vegetation to the area. Native plant restoration will involve removing non-native invasive plants and transplanting native plant seedlings.

Nevada’s fragile desert ecosystems have been severely impacted by off-road vehicles. Lake Mead provides critical habitat for the endangered Desert tortoise, the threatened Desert Bighorn sheep and many other species of plant and animal life native to the upper Sonoran Desert. Through the Lake Mead project, international volunteers will join NCC volunteers in closing and obliterating illegal roads, constructing barricade fencing to prevent encroachment, re-vegetating native plants, and converting closed roads into trails, thus conserving these unique desert ecosystems.

 

 

Locations - Ash Meadows National Wildlife Refuge

 

Type of work
Prior to its establishment as a National Wildlife Refuge, the area encompassing Ash Meadows was used as farmland. Therefore, volunteers will participate in a variety of projects to restore its springs, stream channels, and wetlands to their historic natural condition. The removal of cattails, salt cedar, and other non-native plants as well as revegetation of burned areas will help to restore populations of native fish, wildlife, and plants. Volunteers may also assist in removing fences and other structures that remain from the area's agricultural days.

 

Benefits of the work
Ash Meadows, located 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas, is comprised of over 23,000 acres of spring-fed wetlands and alkaline desert uplands. This refuge has the highest concentration of native life in the local area and ranks second in all of North America. It is the home of 24 species that can be found nowhere else in the world, thirteen of which are threatened or endangered. Among these is the Devil's Hole pupfish, an endangered fish species that lives naturally only in Devil's Hole. Due to these unique features, Ash Meadows was designated as a Wetland of International Importance in 1986. Your volunteer work will help to conserve the valuable resources within and restore Ash Meadows to its historic natural condition.

 

 

Southern Nevada’s winters are mild, with an average temperature of 45 Fahrenheit. Summer temperatures can exceed 100 Fahrenheit. Northern Nevada enjoys four distinct seasons. Winter temperatures can dip below freezing, while summer temperatures range from 75 – 100 Fahrenheit. The Lake Tahoe area boasts over 300 days of warm sunshine and 396 inches of annual snowfall.  When working in the mountains you need to be prepared for rapidly changing weather conditions.

 

If you're interested to read more about ex-volunteers feedback on the Nevada Wilderness Programme, click here.  We will be happy to provide you with further details if you want to get in touch with some of them.

 

If you are interested in joining this project, you will need to fill out the online application form (you can also print it out and send it to us by post) – to secure a placement on the project, please complete and submit the form including two references and your deposit payment of £110.  If for some reason, your application is declined, we would reimburse this deposit fully.  Before leaving for the USA, you will receive a pre-departure package with all detailed information on your project, suggested items to bring etc.