The dusty bicycles, mutant vehicles and art installations of Burning Man are gone from Nevada’s Black Rock Desert, as are the thousands of people that descended on the playa for the annual, week-long event in late August. But even after the partying has stopped and the Burners are scattered across the globe, there is one organization that continues to devote its attention year-round to the Black Rock Desert.
Friends of Black Rock/High Rock, a nonprofit organization founded in 1999, is dedicated to protecting the resources of the 1.2 million-acre Black Rock Desert/High Rock Canyon Emigrant Trail National Conservation Area. As part of its mission, the organization brings together the area’s diverse user groups, from Burning Man to rocket launchers to hunters, to preserve a region that is a land of extremes and contrasts.
‘What makes us unique is that we have ranchers sitting next to tree-huggers next to Burners,’ said Margie Reynolds, Friends of Black Rock vice president, ‘all coming together for the common good.’
This National Conservation Area (NCA) was established by Congress in 2000 specifically to protect the largest intact stretch of historic emigrant trails. There are 180 miles of trails used by pioneers who made their way west to Oregon and California in the mid-1800s, including Captain John Frémont and Kit Carson, two of the first white men to explore Nevada. Of the 1.2 million acres set aside by Congress, around 800,000 acres was designated as a NCA and 752,000 acres as 10 wilderness areas, about half of which overlap the NCA. Five of Nevada’s 314 mountain ranges are located in Black Rock-High Rock wilderness.
Friends of Black Rock’s motto is, ‘When the pavement ends, the experience begins.’ And that experience is very different for the 20-some groups that use the area for a wide array of purposes. There are trail groups like the Oregon/California Trails Association and Trails West Inc. that work to preserve emigrant trails. The NCA’s plentiful wildlife, like California Bighorn Sheep, deer, Pronghorn and Chukar, attract hunters, while its rugged terrain is a playground for 4-wheelers like the High Rock Trekkers. The vast, untouched wilderness appeals to organizations like Backcountry Horsemen, Desert Survivors and the Nevada Outdoor School, while the enormous amounts of open space and natural hot springs have made it a home for cattle ranchers for over a century.
And then, of course, there is the playa. The 400-square mile playa is a remnant of Ancient Lake Lahontan, which covered over 8,500 square miles of the western Great Basin during the Ice Age. Today, the hot, white playa is one of the largest, flattest places in North America, according to Reynolds. This immense flatland is used by groups like the Association of Experimental Rocketry of the Pacific (AERO-PAC), which holds three high power rocket launches a year in the Black Rock Desert.
Of all the region’s users, however, Burning Man is by far the largest. The event brings in around 50,000 people, making it the third largest city in Nevada for one week a year. That has created some tensions among the different groups.
‘There has always been a lot of interest in opportunities for solitude in Black Rock,’ said Friends of Black Rock Executive Director Matthew Ebert. ‘Burning Man seemed incongruous with these values.’
But, Ebert said these attitudes have softened over time as people realized they could still find places to be alone in the NCA’s 1.2 million acres even while the festival was in full swing. However, Burning Man detractors still exist. Some point to the huge impact on the Black Rock Desert that thousands of vehicles can cause. Ebert said that studies done by the Bureau of Land Management, which manages the NCA, and the Desert Research Institute have shown the impacts to be minimal.
‘Yes, Burning Man is an intense use, and it wouldn’t be appropriate to have 50,000 people around sensitive hot springs or in riparian areas,’ said Ebert, who was Burning Man’s Ranch Manager for three years. ‘But at some point, we all get along and figure out how to do the activities that give us meaning.’
Friends of Black Rock, which has a Burning Man owner on its board, view the festival as an opportunity to educate visitors about the region. This year the organization put on an interpretive camp at the event called ‘When Dreams Collide: Conflicts on Public Land.’ The display examined clashes between different stakeholders, such as the Pauite Tribe and emigrants, the ranchers and environmentalists and Burning Man and Washoe County. Friends also has a Visitor Contact Trailer at Gerlach, the primary entrance to the Black Rock Desert, that offers free maps and brochures and is staffed by members of different partner groups.
There are other conflicts among Black Rock Desert user groups. Reynolds said that off-road vehicles drive over sand dunes, threatening Kit Fox habitat and destroying the dunes. To combat the problem, Friends created a dune protection program, where they put up warning signs about the sensitive habitat, and, in cases where that doesn’t work, fences.
The organization also holds events (which are open to the public) to bring together all the different groups. They had a campout on the playa for the Perseid Meteor Shower in August, and for National Public Lands Day they are holding a campout on Sept. 21 near Mud Meadows Reservoir to do restoration projects.
Friends relies heavily on volunteers and donations to keep the organization and its projects running. Over 15 percent of their $64,000 budget came from individual donors last year. The rest comes from the BLM and the Nevada Commission on Tourism. Currently, Friends has around 300 members.
‘The organization has taken off in the last two years, but it’s still fledgling,’ Reynolds said. ‘We really need support from people who love the area.’
And what makes Black Rock so special, say people who love it, is that it’s a place of incredible beauty that brings people with such diverse interests together.
‘It’s fantastic that the Black Rock Desert is a place where it has all this stuff co-existing pretty much peacefully,’ Ebert said.
For more information about the Friends of Black Rock, visit blackrockdesert.org or call 775-557-2900.
In a Nutshell:
• Friends of Black Rock/High Rock was formed in 1999 to protect the resources of the 1.2 million-acre Black Rock Desert/High Rock Canyon Emigrant Trail National Conservation Area.
• Friends works to bring together all the diverse user groups to find common ground to preserve the desert, wilderness and history.
Lend a Hand
On Sept. 21, the Friends of Black Rock/High Rock is celebrating National Public Lands Day (officially Sept. 27), the nation’s largest hands-on volunteer effort to improve and enhance public lands. The event, which is sponsored by Friends along with the BLM, the Nevada Outdoor School and Friends of Nevada Wilderness, will be held near Mud Meadows Reservoir in the Black Rock Desert. Projects include clean up of recreation sites around the playa, removal of expired claim stakes in the Calico Mountains and clean-up of two abandoned mine sites in the Pahute Peak Wilderness. There will be a potluck dinner on Saturday and an educational day hike on Sunday. For information, contact Friends of the Black Rock Executive Director Matthew Ebert at 775-557-2900, info@blackrockdesert.org.
