Neither sun nor dust nor heat nor long drives on gravel roads stay Sierra Club volunteers from giving back to the lands they love.

In June, a dozen volunteers from the Sierra Club and Lahontan Audubon Society traveled to far northwestern Nevada to lend a hand with management of the Sheldon National Wildlife Refuge. 

 The Sheldon, managed by the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, covers more than half a million acres of high steppes, rolling mountains and rugged canyons, all in the heart of the sagebrush sea. It’s some of the last remaining, undisturbed habitat for sage grouse, as well as pronghorn, bighorn, mule deer, numerous raptors and other species of the sagebrush ecosystem. 

It’s also one of the last, great, undeveloped stretches of wild country in the West. And that is reason enough to visit. It’s not often you can surround yourself completely by the sights and sounds of nature; tune in to the noises around you and hear nothing but the sounds of nature—the breeze rustling through the grass, or sage sparrows and horned larks celebrating the morning—no airplanes above, humming appliances, or distant traffic. 

“It’s amazing to hear the silence,” said volunteer Cathy Schmidt. “I don’t know how many people ever get the chance to hear this, to get away from the sounds of the city.”

“I just love it out here,” said Tina Nappe, one of the organizers of this annual trip. “It’s my chance to get out here every year. It’s so spectacular.” 

Our project: remove an old and now-defunct exclosure fence, originally designed to keep deer and cattle out, so researchers can understand what impacts they might have on the plants of the Sheldon. Decades after the researchers had long gone, the wire fences remained, a useless eyesore among the rocky outcrops of Badger Mountain. 

Sheldon Refuge Manager Brian Day encouraged us to work safely and remove whatever parts of the exclosure we could. In the morning, he was hopeful we could remove half of it. We could come back another time to do the rest.

Four hours later, we were done.

“I always underestimate what volunteers can accomplish,” Day said. “It’s great to see. I don’t know when we ever would have gotten to this project if it weren’t for you folks.” Day is just one of four employees on the refuge.

My favorite volunteer was Iris Marsh, 82, from Reno. Her smile and energy never faded while wrestling with barbed wire and carrying removed fence posts in the hot sun. “I like working,” Marsh said. “I like to feel like I’m doing something. I love service trips, because you get to meet people, see beautiful country and feel like you’ve accomplished something.”

Once the work was done, it was great to be able to relax and enjoy the beautiful surroundings and the company of fellow volunteers while we shared food and good conversation.

The return drive on Sunday allowed time for us to tour the refuge and see pronghorn, burrowing owls, ruddy ducks, sage grouse, and other wildlife. All in all, it was a very successful and enjoyable weekend. I can’t wait for next year and I hope YOU will consider joining us.

On the drive home, we enjoyed meeting this burrowing owl. I don't know if s/he enjoyed us as much.