Community service

In late spring, Friends of Nevada Wildnerness led several volunteer groups to clean up and maintain rural areas of the state, including the Desert National Wildlife Refuge and Tom Basin.

Volunteers pruned the Desert Refuge to ensure that native Nevada flowers would be able to bloom this season by removing sweet clover, an invasive species, from the Corn Creek area. Invasive species can take water and nutrients away from other plants. The refuge is located north of Las Vegas.

Restoration began in Tom Basin, part of the Santa Rosa Range and located north of Winnemucca, below the Oregon border. In 2011, a fire destroyed much of the ecosystem. Volunteers planted more than a thousand plants, including Great Basin Sage, Wyoming Big Sage and bitterbrush plants. Mule deer depend on bitterbrush for sustenance during the winter, and the area is also a habitat for sage grouse.