It Takes All of Us - Addressing a National Crisis at a Local Level

When Delmo Andreozzi agreed to help his son paint his shed at his Spring Creek home on Sept. 30, 2018, he did not expect to see black plumes whirling into the sky from the Ruby Mountains. Even as a county commissioner for Elko County in Nevada, where wildfires are frequent, Andreozzi knew something was seriously wrong when he spotted the hazy tower of smoke.

“The Rubies are on fire,” he cried while on a phone call with a county manager. “We need resources now!”

The fire continued to spread and eventually would sweep through Lamoille Canyon and scorch the Elko Lion’s Club Camp, a Forest Service-permitted youth organizational camp.

“I can tell you, as being a native of Elko County and of enjoying this place, we all felt grief,” Andreozzi said. “Like an old friend of ours had perished.”

This would become what would be known as the Range 2 Fire. Not only did it ravage the beloved Lion’s Club Camp and adjacent National Forest System lands, but it also burned 9,196 acres across state, Tribal, private, and other federal lands, forcing dozens to evacuate and trapping eight hikers and an Elko County Sheriff’s Office deputy at the top of the canyon. According to Andreozzi, two firefighters got burned trying to save the camp’s Warner Whipple Lodge.

A Partnership Forged

After this devastation, the state of Nevada, United States Department of Agriculture Forest Service, and other agencies recognized that this was only the beginning. As forest conditions worsen and create more intense wildfires, USDA Forest Service and Nevada Division of Forestry saw that this was the time to take the lead and began engaging other partners in addressing what would be labelled four years later as a “Wildfire Crisis.”

Signed in 2019, the Nevada Shared Stewardship Agreement committed the Forest Service, the Bureau of Land Management, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and Nevada state agencies to identify priorities for ecosystem restoration and wildfire risk reduction, with a goal of increasing the number of acres treated 50% by 2025.

The Natural Resources Conservation Service joined the effort in 2020 in recognition of the importance of working with private landowners. Under this agreement, these entities aim to work collaboratively to create healthy forests and rangelands that are more resistant and resilient to wildfire, drought, invasive species, and other ecological impacts.

Since 2021, the shared stewardship approach has enabled fuels reduction and forest health treatment of more than 70,000 acres of rangelands and forests in these threatened lands. State, federal, Tribal, and other local partners have worked together to educate and empower more than 50,000 Nevadans to understand their wildfire risks and take proactive measures to create and maintain fire-adapted communities.

“The fact that we can work together is an opportunity for us to really leverage our resources,” Andreozzi, an Elko County Commissioner, said. “By utilizing local expertise, we understand what we have here as well as anybody else, and we're working together for the better good of everything that we have up here [Lamoille Canyon].”

USDA Deputy Undersecretary and Nevada Governor Visit

On Aug. 15, 2023, a sunny Tuesday morning, the Humboldt-Toiyabe National Forest and Nevada Division of Forestry hosted a forum to discuss the efforts that are underway to protect rural Nevada from catastrophic wildfire at the now rebuilt Lion’s Club Camp at the site where historic Warner Whipple Lodge once stood. Miraculously, the chimney of the lodge survived the blaze and now stands tall inside the camp's new pavilion: a subtle reminder of what the camp was before the fire.

This event allowed USDA Deputy Undersecretary for Natural Resources and Environment Meryl Harrell, Deputy Director of State, Private and Tribal Forestry Jaelith Hall-Rivera, and Nevada Governor Joe Lombardo to meet with federal, state, Tribal, and county leadership, and other partner officials.

The group discussed the need to protect rural Nevada from wildfire and how annual invasive grasses and other changes to the state’s rangelands threaten not only rural communities, but the economic, cultural, and environmental values they support: livestock forage, wildlife habitat, outdoor recreation opportunities, transportation, utility and mining infrastructure, and Tribal lands.

“There's no better way to see the impact of the work together than really being in this place [at Elko Lion’s Club Camp],” Harrell said. “It is important that we all are in this space of shared stewardship together, being able to directly share the importance of this work and what we're doing together to make a difference in increasing resilience and protecting communities, natural resources, and forest, watershed and rangeland health.”

“It's not just about allocating the money,” said Intermountain Regional Forester Mary Farnsworth. “It's not just about acres treated or acres accomplished but about the outcomes of what those measures represent.”

A National Crisis at a Local Level

These efforts positioned the Humboldt-Toiyabe National Forest well because in early 2023, the USDA Forest Service selected the Sierra and Elko Front Landscape as one of 11 additional landscapes to receive a historic investment of $53 million to support the USDA Forest Service’s National Wildfire Crisis Strategy. Landscapes were chosen based on the potential for wildfire to affect nearby communities, critical infrastructure, public water sources, and Tribal lands.

“The Wildfire Crisis Strategy is an all hands, all lands strategy. It cannot be done with just one single agency alone,” Harrell said. “It takes our partnerships and relationships with multiple state agencies, other federal agencies, Tribes, private landowners, local communities and counties, and many other partners to have an impact on this multi-jurisdictional challenge.”

The Sierra and Elko Fronts Landscape encompasses approximately 3.4 million acres of Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management lands adjacent to the metropolitan areas of Reno, Sparks, Carson City, and Elko, Nevada, and approximately 33 other rural communities in northeastern and western Nevada and a small portion of eastern California. Around 1.3 million acres of the landscape are located on the Humboldt-Toiyabe National Forest. The Forest aims to work with partners to treat 200,000 to 300,000 acres of National Forest System lands within the landscape over the next 10 years.

“For the first time, we have the funding to do the work that we've been wanting to do for 20 years and folks are just excited about the work,” Farnsworth said.

Learn more at the Wildfire Crisis Strategy in the Intermountain Region webpage.