Category: Our Environment › Sierra Mountain Center

Dispatch from the Eastern Sierra

SMC is still here, surviving a tough year thanks to our wonderful guests, some hard pulls from our team, and our proximity to these amazing mountains. We are very much looking forward to the summer of 2021, and getting outside with you. Keep reading and find out what we've got going on! Snow is melting fast and we anticipate a long hot summer. (Photos above and below taken on one of the winter's rare dumps -- in May!) So if you can, get out early while things are still cool and the creeks are flowing with water. Long term predictions indicate a more extensive monsoon season but like any long [...]

By SP parker|2021-06-03T08:49:27-07:00June 3rd, 2021|Condition Reports, Our Environment, SMC Blog|

Whodunnit in the Nevada Desert

What do the the Polar Bear, the Pika, the Sierra Nevada Red Fox and Thiem’s buckwheat all have in common? At first glance they don’t have much at all in common, but all four could be listed as endangered species under the Endangered Species Act (or what tattered remains are left of it). Polar bears and pikas suffer from habitat loss due climate change. The Sierra Nevada Red Fox suffers from reduction in quiet habitat by relentless human intrusion. Thiem’s buckwheat? Might just be human ignorance. It’s easy to get excited about saving large charismatic animals such as the polar bear. While Thiem’s buckwheat could be considered furry, it’s not [...]

By SP parker|2020-10-05T13:49:01-07:00October 4th, 2020|Our Environment, SMC Blog|

BLM Plan to Burn and Chemically Treat 40 million Acres of Great Basin

Here at Sierra Mountain Center we care very much about our local outdoor environment. Despite everything we and our friends have been coping with lately, the government persists in adding yet more strain to our day: they want to torch the Great Basin because piñon and juniper trees are growing back where they were once cut down. This planned activity will affect portions of California, Idaho, Nevada, Oregon, Utah, and Washington. We see this as misguided, extremely dangerous, and devastating for our beautiful natural environment which has only been recovering since miners and settlers cut down most the forest in the 19th century. Please join us in resisting such destructive [...]

By SP parker|2020-06-02T13:00:48-07:00June 2nd, 2020|Our Environment|