Our mission specifically points to creating opportunities for people to discover, understand, and enjoy their public lands. If you’ve ever sat in line along the shoulder of SR-159 waiting to enter Red Rock Canyon’s Scenic Loop Drive, you may be wondering why we would focus on discovery. After all, the thousands of people in front of you didn’t seem to have an issue discovering Red Rock Canyon. The unprecedented events of this year provide a good springboard for explaining what discovery means to us.
As the Coronavirus pandemic took hold in the US earlier this year, the public was asked to stay away from large indoor gatherings, and terms such as social distancing entered our collective consciousness. Nevada is blessed with thousands of acres of public lands in nearly every direction that would provide a refuge for many that could not go to work or visit their favorite hangouts but did not want to just stay home. Be it scrambling on red sandstone in Red Rock Canyon, smelling ponderosa pines in the Spring Mountains, or touching the water of a natural spring in the Desert Refuge, the pandemic spurred greater visitation of local public lands.
This large influx came with some negatives, however. Although many trails and natural spaces were open and available, the behind-the-scenes machinery that stewards these spaces was paused due to business closure mandates. The undeveloped, often primitive-by-design nature of many local public land spaces offer few of the conveniences of urban parks such as flushing toilets, trash collection and removal, picnic areas, fuel sources, and other amenities. Sadly, this combination of greater visitation and less stewardship led to various destructive impacts including the burning of native Joshua Trees, piles of road-side human waste, and much more garbage on the landscape than usual.
These are challenges, to be sure. And although our own operations have been impacted just as thousands of other businesses, we got to work building awareness online with alerts and tips posted on social media channels, through our email newsletter, and on redrockcanyonlv.org and gomtchareston.com. Our efforts garnered some local media attention, and we started fielding reports of graffiti, illegal campfires, and other land impacts from concerned members of the community, channeling them to the appropriate authorities. Awareness of these adverse impacts grew over the summer, but there is much more work to be done.
To us, discovery is about more than just finding new places to recreate, it’s also being inspired during your time outdoors and seeing these areas with a fresh perspective. It’s not just children that can have great first experiences in the outdoors. Scrambling into one of Red Rock’s lush canyons or encountering the ancient and majestic Raintree in the Spring Mountains creates lifelong memories for adults as well. By putting the natural and cultural aspects of those experiences into context we work to hit home with visitors that they, too, are a part of the landscape. Discovery is more than physical for us. It’s about people making new connections with their public lands. it’s about cultivating love and respect from which good public lands stewardship grows. The sustainability of places like Red Rock Canyon and Mt. Charleston does not depend on the actions of authority figures or public lands managers. It depends on the community itself having fun while making as low an impact as possible and encouraging its neighbors to do the same.
More than ever, the public sees the benefits recreating outdoors brings to body, mind, and spirit. Southern Nevada Conservancy will be there to inspire visitors, so they can truly discover their public lands.