MARK SMITH / PVT Volunteer Tanya Horning finishes up her planting. Advertisement

AMARGOSA VALLEY -- The National Public Lands Day event at Ash Meadows National Wildlife Refuge this past Saturday was a great success, according to Visitor Services Manager Christina Nalen.

"Ecology Technician Carl Lundblad and I had planned on getting 600 grass plants in the ground that morning, and that was if we got 50 volunteers.

We ended up with 24 very enthusiastic volunteers from Shoshone, Tecopa, Henderson, Las Vegas and a couple from Pahrump who were able to get 500 plants in the ground over a five-acre area in a three-hour time span." Volunteers were planting a native grass called alkali sacaton.

The volunteers went through a Planting 101 orientation prior to getting to work. Pre-dug holes made the work go faster, as digging into the clays can be very tedious.

"Volunteers had to take one-gallon plants, remove them from their pots, place them at the right height in the holes in the ground and make sure the plants' root environment was good for success, and finish by putting the drip line in place so the plants could get a good watering afterwards," Nalen said.

Water and snacks were provided throughout the event by the Public Lands Institute as part of a southern Nevada partnership with U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the three other federal agencies represented in the area.

Shade tents and chairs were available in case folks needed a break, but the volunteers who participated in this event were mission-driven and worked tirelessly the whole time.

"The site where volunteers planted was selected for this event because it is part of an area that has been 'ground zero' in the fight against weed plant species," Nalen explained. "Weed plants are those that are not native to the area but that do very well in our environment, out-competing native plant species. Ash Meadows National Wildlife Refuge has been working on controlling the weed plant species throughout the refuge for several years now."

Part of that effort is planting native species and making sure they have a chance to get established in the environment so they have a fighting chance against the weeds. Refuge staff help with the establishment of those native plants by providing drip-system irrigation. Once the plants are established, the irrigation system is removed.

Not only are volunteers invaluable in the native plantings, they are also helpful in the control of invasive plant species like cattails, help remove exotic aquatic animals such as crayfish, and help keep our public lands clean of trash, Nalen said.