1.
Spring Mountain District AVA
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The Spring Mountain District AVA is an American Viticultural Area located in the Napa Valley AVA in California. Spring Mountain District AVA was officially established as an American Viticulture Area in 1993, encompassed within its bounds are about 8,600 acres, of which about 1,000 acres are planted to vineyards. Given the small crop yields on hillsides, the region less than 2% of Napa Valley wine. Currently the region has just over 30 winegrowers, the appellation sits on steep terraces of the Mayacamas Mountains that separate Napa Valley from Sonoma Valley and the Santa Rosa Plain. It lies in a portion of the Napa Valley above. The boundaries of the appellation extend from the top of the ridgeline on the western edge, from the ridgeline the boundaries extend down to the 400 feet contour line at the eastern base of the hillside. The southern boundary is Sulphur Creek and one of its tributaries, elevations range from 400 feet to 2,600 feet. The region has an eastern exposure. Local topography and regional weather patterns make the Spring Mountain District the coolest and wettest appellation within the Napa Valley and these same factors create a diurnal fluctuation in temperature in the summertime that differs from other regions of the Napa Valley. Spring Mountain is only 30 miles to the east of the Pacific Ocean, the coastal waters of northern California are strongly influenced by the California Current, an icy flow of water that originates near the Aleutian Islands. This cold current moderates the weather in the coastal valleys of Northern California. Lying between the Spring Mountain appellation and the ocean current is a gap in the coastal mountains between Bodega and Tomales Bay and extending through the Santa Rosa Plain. Summer heat in the interior of California creates a low area that draws cold air from the coast through this coastal gap. This on-shore air movement is bumped north by Sonoma Mountain pushing the air flow towards Santa Rosa Creek, the Northern Mayacamas Mountains. The ridge of the Spring Mountain District is lower than Bald Mountain to its south, a typical summer afternoon on Spring Mountain is cool, sometimes with “waterfalls” of fog tumbling over the western ridge and down through the canyons of the district. Into the evening, the cool air settles to the floor creating a cover of fog. Nighttime temperature rise from this effect, mornings warm more quickly on Spring Mountain than on the valley floor as most of the district lies above the morning fog line. The overall effect of this is moderately warm peak daily temperatures, the topography of the Spring Mountain District AVA also influences in the vineyards on the valley floor below it
2.
Mount Charleston
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Not to be confused with, Town of Mount Charleston, Nevada. Mount Charleston, officially named Charleston Peak, at 11,916 feet, is the highest mountain in both the Spring Mountains and Clark County, in Nevada, United States and it is the eighth-highest mountain in the state. Well separated from higher peaks by large, low basins, it is the most topographically prominent peak in Nevada, and the eighth-most-prominent peak in the contiguous United States. It is located about 35 miles northwest of Las Vegas within the Mount Charleston Wilderness, Mount Charleston is a year-round getaway for Las Vegass residents and visitors, with a number of hiking trails and a modest ski area. The mountain, which is snow-capped more than half the year, Mount Charleston has nearly 200 camp sites and over 150 picnic areas, some of which are RV-accessible. The village of Mount Charleston lies at its base to the east, the state of Nevada issues license plates with the caption Mt. Charleston and an image of the peak in the background. Sales of the plate supports the natural environment of the Mount Charleston area through grants administered by the Nevada Division of State Lands, list of Ultras of the United States Charleston Peak
3.
Pahrump Valley
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Pahrump Valley is a Mojave Desert valley west of Las Vegas and the Spring Mountains massif in southern Nye County, Nevada, and eastern San Bernardino County, California. Pahrump, Nevada, is in the center and the Tecopa. The valley has routes to Death Valley and a route to Las Vegas, Pahrump along with Valley Electric will soon be the first town in Nevada to offer fiber internet to each house within its geographical area. The Pahrump Valley was crossed by the Old Spanish Trail and later the Salt Lake Road, Route 160 turns northwest to Pahrump in the valleys center-north then meets U. S. Route 95 at the valleys north perimeter. Carpenter Canyon road starts near Pahrump and runs about 10 miles to Carpenter Canyon, Carpenter Canyon creek is one of the few year round fish creeks in the Spring Mountains. In California, the Nopah Range borders the valleys southwest, with the north of the adjacent Resting Spring Range merging north to form the northwest border of the Pahrump Valley, the mostly east-west Kingston Range is the southern border of the valley. The closest community to Pahrump is Shoshone, California,25 mi southwest, with Ash Meadows Ranch and Death Valley Junction, the Pahrump Valley Wilderness is in the southern Pahrump Valley, the northern Kingston Range, and the California and Mesquite Valleys. McCracken, Robert D. Pahrump, A Valley Waiting to Become a City
4.
Geographic coordinate system
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A geographic coordinate system is a coordinate system used in geography that enables every location on Earth to be specified by a set of numbers, letters or symbols. The coordinates are chosen such that one of the numbers represents a vertical position. A common choice of coordinates is latitude, longitude and elevation, to specify a location on a two-dimensional map requires a map projection. The invention of a coordinate system is generally credited to Eratosthenes of Cyrene. Ptolemy credited him with the adoption of longitude and latitude. Ptolemys 2nd-century Geography used the prime meridian but measured latitude from the equator instead. Mathematical cartography resumed in Europe following Maximus Planudes recovery of Ptolemys text a little before 1300, in 1884, the United States hosted the International Meridian Conference, attended by representatives from twenty-five nations. Twenty-two of them agreed to adopt the longitude of the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, the Dominican Republic voted against the motion, while France and Brazil abstained. France adopted Greenwich Mean Time in place of local determinations by the Paris Observatory in 1911, the latitude of a point on Earths surface is the angle between the equatorial plane and the straight line that passes through that point and through the center of the Earth. Lines joining points of the same latitude trace circles on the surface of Earth called parallels, as they are parallel to the equator, the north pole is 90° N, the south pole is 90° S. The 0° parallel of latitude is designated the equator, the plane of all geographic coordinate systems. The equator divides the globe into Northern and Southern Hemispheres, the longitude of a point on Earths surface is the angle east or west of a reference meridian to another meridian that passes through that point. All meridians are halves of great ellipses, which converge at the north and south poles, the prime meridian determines the proper Eastern and Western Hemispheres, although maps often divide these hemispheres further west in order to keep the Old World on a single side. The antipodal meridian of Greenwich is both 180°W and 180°E, the combination of these two components specifies the position of any location on the surface of Earth, without consideration of altitude or depth. The grid formed by lines of latitude and longitude is known as a graticule, the origin/zero point of this system is located in the Gulf of Guinea about 625 km south of Tema, Ghana. To completely specify a location of a feature on, in, or above Earth. Earth is not a sphere, but a shape approximating a biaxial ellipsoid. It is nearly spherical, but has an equatorial bulge making the radius at the equator about 0. 3% larger than the radius measured through the poles, the shorter axis approximately coincides with the axis of rotation
5.
Las Vegas
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The city anchors the Las Vegas Valley metropolitan area and is the largest city within the greater Mojave Desert. Las Vegas is an internationally renowned major resort city known primarily for its gambling, shopping, fine dining, entertainment and it is the leading financial, commercial, and cultural center for Nevada. The city bills itself as The Entertainment Capital of the World and it is a top three destination in the United States for business conventions and a global leader in the hospitality industry, claiming more AAA Five Diamond hotels than any city in the world. Today, Las Vegas annually ranks as one of the worlds most visited tourist destinations. The citys tolerance for numerous forms of adult entertainment earned it the title of Sin City, and has made Las Vegas a popular setting for literature, films, television programs, Las Vegas was settled in 1905 and officially incorporated in 1911. At the close of the 20th century, it was the most populated American city founded within that century, population growth has accelerated since the 1960s, and between 1990 and 2000 the population nearly doubled, increasing by 85. 2%. Rapid growth has continued into the 21st century, and according to a 2013 estimate, perhaps the earliest visitors to the Las Vegas area were nomadic Paleo-Indians, who traveled there 10,000 years ago, leaving behind petroglyphs. Anasazi and Paiute tribes followed at least 2,000 years ago, a young Mexican scout named Rafael Rivera is credited as the first non-Native American to encounter the valley, in 1829. Trader Antonio Armijo led a 60-man party along the Spanish Trail to Los Angeles, the area was named Las Vegas, which is Spanish for the meadows, as it featured abundant wild grasses, as well as desert spring waters for westward travelers. The year 1844 marked the arrival of John C, frémont, whose writings helped lure pioneers to the area. Downtown Las Vegas Fremont Street is named after him, eleven years later members of the LDS Church chose Las Vegas as the site to build a fort halfway between Salt Lake City and Los Angeles, where they would travel to gather supplies. The fort was abandoned several years afterward, the remainder of this Old Mormon Fort can still be seen at the intersection of Las Vegas Boulevard and Washington Avenue. Las Vegas was founded as a city in 1905, when 110 acres of adjacent to the Union Pacific Railroad tracks were auctioned in what would become the downtown area. In 1911, Las Vegas was incorporated as a city,1931 was a pivotal year for Las Vegas. At that time, Nevada legalized casino gambling and reduced residency requirements for divorce to six weeks and this year also witnessed the beginning of construction on nearby Hoover Dam. The influx of workers and their families helped Las Vegas avoid economic calamity during the Great Depression. The construction work was completed in 1935, in 1941, the Las Vegas Army Air Corps Gunnery School was established. Currently known as Nellis Air Force Base, it is home to the team called the Thunderbirds
6.
Nevada
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Nevada is a state in the Western, Mountain West, and Southwestern regions of the United States of America. Nevada is the 7th most extensive, the 34th most populous, nearly three-quarters of Nevadas people live in Clark County, which contains the Las Vegas–Paradise metropolitan area where three of the states four largest incorporated cities are located. Nevada is officially known as the Silver State because of the importance of silver to its history and economy. It is also known as the Battle Born State, because it achieved statehood during the Civil War, as the Sage-brush State, for the plant of the same name. Nevada borders Oregon to the northwest, Idaho to the northeast, California to the west, Arizona to the southeast, Nevada is largely desert and semi-arid, much of it located within the Great Basin. Areas south of the Great Basin are located within the Mojave Desert, while Lake Tahoe, about 86% of the states land is managed by various jurisdictions of the U. S. federal government, both civilian and military. Before European contact, Native Americans of the Paiute, Shoshone, the first Europeans to explore the region were Spanish. They called the region Nevada because of the snow covered the mountains in winter. The area formed part of the Viceroyalty of New Spain, the United States annexed the area in 1848 after its victory in the Mexican–American War, and it was incorporated as part of Utah Territory in 1850. The discovery of silver at the Comstock Lode in 1859 led to a boom that became an impetus to the creation of Nevada Territory out of western Utah Territory in 1861. Nevada became the 36th state on October 31,1864, as the second of two added to the Union during the Civil War. Nevada has a reputation for its libertarian laws, in 1940, with a population of just over 110,000 people, Nevada was by far the least-populated state, with less than half the population of the next least-populated state. However, legalized gambling and lenient marriage and divorce laws transformed Nevada into a major tourist destination in the 20th century, Nevada is the only U. S. state where prostitution is legal, though it is illegal in Clark County, Washoe County and Carson City. The tourism industry remains Nevadas largest employer, with mining continuing as a sector of the economy. The name Nevada comes from the Spanish nevada, meaning snow-covered, most Nevadans pronounce the second syllable of their state name using the vowel of trap. Many from outside the Western United States pronounce it with the vowel of father, although the latter pronunciation is closer to the Spanish pronunciation, it is not the pronunciation preferred by most Nevadans. State Assemblyman Harry Mortenson proposed a bill to recognize the alternate pronunciation of Nevada, though the bill was not supported by most legislators, the Nevadan pronunciation is the de facto official one, since it is the one used by the state legislature. Nevada is almost entirely within the Basin and Range Province, and is broken up by many mountain ranges
7.
United States
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Forty-eight of the fifty states and the federal district are contiguous and located in North America between Canada and Mexico. The state of Alaska is in the northwest corner of North America, bordered by Canada to the east, the state of Hawaii is an archipelago in the mid-Pacific Ocean. The U. S. territories are scattered about the Pacific Ocean, the geography, climate and wildlife of the country are extremely diverse. At 3.8 million square miles and with over 324 million people, the United States is the worlds third- or fourth-largest country by area, third-largest by land area. It is one of the worlds most ethnically diverse and multicultural nations, paleo-Indians migrated from Asia to the North American mainland at least 15,000 years ago. European colonization began in the 16th century, the United States emerged from 13 British colonies along the East Coast. Numerous disputes between Great Britain and the following the Seven Years War led to the American Revolution. On July 4,1776, during the course of the American Revolutionary War, the war ended in 1783 with recognition of the independence of the United States by Great Britain, representing the first successful war of independence against a European power. The current constitution was adopted in 1788, after the Articles of Confederation, the first ten amendments, collectively named the Bill of Rights, were ratified in 1791 and designed to guarantee many fundamental civil liberties. During the second half of the 19th century, the American Civil War led to the end of slavery in the country. By the end of century, the United States extended into the Pacific Ocean. The Spanish–American War and World War I confirmed the status as a global military power. The end of the Cold War and the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991 left the United States as the sole superpower. The U. S. is a member of the United Nations, World Bank, International Monetary Fund, Organization of American States. The United States is a developed country, with the worlds largest economy by nominal GDP. It ranks highly in several measures of performance, including average wage, human development, per capita GDP. While the U. S. economy is considered post-industrial, characterized by the dominance of services and knowledge economy, the United States is a prominent political and cultural force internationally, and a leader in scientific research and technological innovations. In 1507, the German cartographer Martin Waldseemüller produced a map on which he named the lands of the Western Hemisphere America after the Italian explorer and cartographer Amerigo Vespucci
8.
Mountain range
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A mountain range is a geographic area containing numerous geologically related mountains. A mountain system or system of ranges, sometimes is used to combine several geological features that are geographically related. Mountain ranges are usually segmented by highlands or mountain passes and valleys, individual mountains within the same mountain range do not necessarily have the same geologic structure or petrology. They may be a mix of different orogenic expressions and terranes, for example thrust sheets, uplifted blocks, fold mountains, most geologically young mountain ranges on the Earths land surface are associated with either the Pacific Ring of Fire or the Alpide Belt. The Andes is 7,000 kilometres long and is considered the worlds longest mountain system. The Alpide belt includes Indonesia and southeast Asia, through the Himalaya, the belt also includes other European and Asian mountain ranges. The Himalayas contain the highest mountains in the world, including Mount Everest, mountain ranges outside of these two systems include the Arctic Cordillera, the Urals, the Appalachians, the Scandinavian Mountains, the Altai Mountains and the Hijaz Mountains. If the definition of a range is stretched to include underwater mountains. The mountain systems of the earth are characterized by a tree structure, the sub-range relationship is often expressed as a parent-child relationship. For example, the White Mountains of New Hampshire and the Blue Ridge Mountains are sub-ranges of the Appalachian Mountains, equivalently, the Appalachians are the parent of the White Mountains and Blue Ridge Mountains, and the White Mountains and the Blue Ridge Mountains are children of the Appalachians. The position of mountains influences climate, such as rain or snow, when air masses move up and over mountains, the air cools producing orographic precipitation. As the air descends on the side, it warms again and is drier. Often, a shadow will affect the leeward side of a range. Mountain ranges are constantly subjected to forces which work to tear them down. Erosion is at work while the mountains are being uplifted and long after until the mountains are reduced to low hills, rivers are traditionally believed to be the principle erosive factor on mountain ranges, with their ability of bedrock incision and sediment transport. The rugged topography of a range is the product of erosion. The basins adjacent to a mountain range are filled with sediments which are buried and turned into sedimentary rock. The early Cenozoic uplift of the Rocky Mountains of Colorado provides an example and this mass of rock was removed as the range was actively undergoing uplift
9.
United States Forest Service
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The United States Forest Service is an agency of the U. S. Department of Agriculture that administers the nations 154 national forests and 20 national grasslands, which encompass 193 million acres. Major divisions of the include the National Forest System, State and Private Forestry, Business Operations. Managing approximately 25% of federal lands, it is the major national land agency that is outside the U. S. Department of the Interior. The concept of the National Forests was born from Theodore Roosevelt’s conservation group, Boone and Crockett Club, in 1876, Congress created the office of Special Agent in the Department of Agriculture to assess the quality and conditions of forests in the United States. Hough was appointed the head of the office, in 1881, the office was expanded into the newly formed Division of Forestry. The Forest Reserve Act of 1891 authorized withdrawing land from the domain as forest reserves. In 1901, the Division of Forestry was renamed the Bureau of Forestry, gifford Pinchot was the first United States Chief Forester in the Presidency of Theodore Roosevelt. As of 2009, the Forest Service has a budget authority of $5.5 billion. The Forest Service employs 34,250 employees in 750 locations, including 10,050 firefighters,737 law enforcement personnel, and 500 scientists. The mission of the Forest Service is To sustain the health, diversity and its motto is Caring for the land and serving people. As the lead agency in natural resource conservation, the US Forest Service provides leadership in the protection, management, and use of the nations forest, rangeland. The agencys ecosystem approach to management integrates ecological, economic, and social factors to maintain and enhance the quality of the environment to meet current, the everyday work of the Forest Service balances resource extraction, resource protection, and providing recreation.5 billion trees per year. Further, the Forest Service fought fires on 2,996,000 acres of land in 2007, the Forest Service organization includes ranger districts, national forests, regions, research stations and research work units and the Northeastern Area Office for State and Private Forestry. Each level has responsibility for a variety of functions, the Chief of the Forest Service is a career federal employee who oversees the entire agency. The Chief reports to the Under Secretary for Natural Resources and Environment in the U. S. Department of Agriculture, there are five deputy chiefs for the following areas, National Forest System, State and Private Forestry, Research and Development, Business Operations, and Finance. The Forest Service Research and Development deputy area includes five stations, the Forest Products Laboratory. Station directors, like regional foresters, report to the Chief, Research stations include Northern, Pacific Northwest, Pacific Southwest, Rocky Mountain, and Southern. There are 92 research work units located at 67 sites throughout the United States, there are 80 Experimental Forests and Ranges that have been established progressively since 1908, many sites are more than 50 years old
10.
Bureau of Land Management
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President Harry S. Truman created the BLM in 1946 by combining two existing agencies, the General Land Office and the Grazing Service. Most BLM public lands are located in these 12 western states, Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Utah, Washington and Wyoming. The mission of the BLM is to sustain the health, diversity, originally BLM holdings were described as land nobody wanted because homesteaders had passed them by. All the same, ranchers hold nearly 18,000 permits, the agency manages 221 wilderness areas,23 national monuments and some 636 other protected areas as part of the National Landscape Conservation System totaling about 30 million acres. There are more than 63,000 oil and gas wells on BLM public lands, total energy leases generated approximately $5.4 billion in 2013, an amount divided among the Treasury, the states, and Native American groups. The BLMs roots go back to the Land Ordinance of 1785 and these laws provided for the survey and settlement of the lands that the original 13 colonies ceded to the federal government after the American Revolution. As additional lands were acquired by the United States from Spain, France and other countries, the United States Congress directed that they be explored, surveyed, during the Revolutionary War, military bounty land was promised to soldiers who fought for the colonies. After the war, the Treaty of Paris of 1783, signed by the United States, England, France, in the 1780s, other states relinquished their own claims to land in modern-day Ohio. By this time, the United States needed revenue to function, Land was sold so that the government would have money to survive. In order to sell the land, surveys needed to be conducted, the Land Ordinance of 1785 instructed a geographer to oversee this work as undertaken by a group of surveyors. The first years of surveying were completed by trial and error, once the territory of Ohio had been surveyed, in 1812, Congress established the General Land Office as part of the Department of the Treasury to oversee the disposition of these federal lands. By the early 1800s, promised bounty land claims were finally fulfilled, over the years, other bounty land and homestead laws were enacted to dispose of federal land. Several different types of patents existed and these include cash entry, credit, homestead, Indian, military warrants, mineral certificates, private land claims, railroads, state selections, swamps, town sites, and town lots. A system of land offices spread throughout the territories, patenting land that was surveyed via the corresponding Office of the Surveyor General of a particular territory. This pattern gradually spread across the entire United States, the laws that spurred this system with the exception of the General Mining Law of 1872 and the Desert Land Act of 1877 have since been repealed or superseded. The Mineral Leasing Act of 1920 allowed leasing, exploration, and production of selected commodities, such as coal, oil, gas, the Taylor Grazing Act of 1934 established the United States Grazing Service to manage the public rangelands by establishment of advisory boards that set grazing fees. The Oregon and California Revested Lands Sustained Yield Management Act of 1937, commonly referred as the O&C Act, in 1946, the Grazing Service was merged with the General Land Office to form the Bureau of Land Management within the Department of the Interior. It took several years for new agency to integrate and reorganize
11.
Spring Mountains National Recreation Area
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The Spring Mountains National Recreation Area is a U. S. National Recreation Area, administered by the U. S. Forest Service, and lies west of Las Vegas, Nevada. It covers over 316,000 acres of land, the area runs from low meadows at around 3,000 feet of elevation to Mount Charleston at 11,918 feet in elevation. The SMNRA is a part of the Humboldt-Toiyabe National Forest and it adjoins the Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area, which is administered by the Bureau of Land Management. Spring Mountains National Recreation Area is home to plant and animal species that are threatened. This was the force to create the Mount Charleston Wilderness area. The SMNRA offers many activities from hiking to picnicking to skiing, the area was first named the Charleston Forest Reserve in 1906. Additional land was added in 1989 to bring the area up to the current 316, the area was designated as Spring Mountains National Recreation Area by the U. S. Congress in 1993. U. S. Forest Service SMNRA Page link to SummitPost description of Cathedral Rock hiking trail
12.
Humboldt-Toiyabe National Forest
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The Humboldt-Toiyabe National Forest is the principal U. S. National Forest in the U. S. state of Nevada, and has a smaller portion in Eastern California. With an area of 6,289,821 acres, it is the largest National Forest of the United States outside of Alaska. HTNF does not resemble most other National Forests in that it has fairly large but non-contiguous sections scattered about most of the state of Nevada. Its 10 ranger districts are scattered across the mountain ranges in Nevada. A part of the forest is in eastern California, in the areas around Bridgeport and Markleeville, the forest lies in 13 counties in Nevada and 6 in California. The counties with the largest amount of forest land are Nye, Elko, and White Pine in Nevada, and Mono County in California, Forest headquarters are located in Sparks, Nevada. It has about 43. 5% of the total area, there are local ranger district offices located in Ely, Elko, Wells, and Winnemucca. It has about 56. 5% of the total area, there are local ranger district offices located in Austin, Bridgeport, Carson City, Las Vegas, and Tonopah
13.
Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area
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It is located about 15 miles west of Las Vegas, and is easily seen from the Las Vegas Strip. The area is visited by more than two people each year. The conservation area showcases a set of red rock formations. The walls are up to 3,000 feet high, making them a popular hiking, the highest point is La Madre Mountain, at 8,154 feet. A one-way loop road,13 miles long, provides access to many of the features in the area. Several side roads and parking areas allow access to many of the area trails, a visitor center is located at the start of the loop road. The loop road is very popular for bicycle touring, it begins with a moderate climb. Red Rock Canyon is a side-canyon accessible only by a road from the scenic loop. State Route 159 cuts through an unnamed but often-visited valley, it is commonly, the Wilson Cliffs, or Keystone Thrust, a massive wall of rock, can be seen to the west from SR159. Towards the southern end of the National Conservation Area are Spring Mountain Ranch State Park, Bonnie Springs, a replica of a western ghost town, and the village of Blue Diamond. The first humans were attracted to the Red Rock area due to its resources of water, plant, hunters and gatherers such as the historical Southern Paiute and the much older Archaic, or Desert Culture Native Americans, have successively occupied this area. As many as six different Native American cultures may have been present at Red Rock over the millennia, pinto/Gypsum-3500 BC to 1 AD. San Dieguito -7000 to 5500 BC, paleo-Indians -11,000 to 8000 BC. Numerous petroglyphs, as well as fragments, remain today throughout the area. In addition, several roasting pits used by the early Native Americans at Red Rock provide further evidence of activity in the past. In the early 1900s, around the time the first European Americans settled in nearby Las Vegas and it proved to be uneconomical and was shut down. Evidence of the quarrys existence includes some of the sandstone blocks that have been left behind. The Red Rocks have been used as a location for such movies as Roy Rogers
14.
Spring (hydrology)
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A spring is any natural situation where water flows from an aquifer to the Earths surface. It is a component of the hydrosphere, a spring may be the result of karst topography where surface water has infiltrated the Earths surface, becoming part of the area groundwater. The groundwater then travels through a network of cracks and fissure—openings ranging from intergranular spaces to large caves, the water eventually emerges from below the surface, in the form of a karst spring. The forcing of the spring to the surface can be the result of an aquifer in which the recharge area of the spring water table rests at a higher elevation than that of the outlet. Spring water forced to the surface by elevated sources are artesian wells and this is possible even if the outlet is in the form of a 300-foot-deep cave. In this case the cave is used like a hose by the higher elevated area of groundwater to exit through the lower elevation opening. Non-artesian springs may simply flow from a higher elevation through the earth to a lower elevation, still other springs are the result of pressure from an underground source in the earth, in the form of volcanic activity. The result can be water at elevated temperature such as a hot spring, the action of the groundwater continually dissolves permeable bedrock such as limestone and dolomite, creating vast cave systems. The term seep refers to springs with small flow rates in which the water has filtered through permeable earth. Fracture springs, discharge from faults, joints, or fissures in the earth, tubular springs, in which the water flows from underground caverns. Spring discharge, or resurgence, is determined by the springs recharge basin, factors that affect the recharge include the size of the area in which groundwater is captured, the amount of precipitation, the size of capture points, and the size of the spring outlet. Water may leak into the system from many sources including permeable earth, sinkholes. In some cases entire creeks seemingly disappear as the water sinks into the ground via the stream bed, grand Gulf State Park in Missouri is an example of an entire creek vanishing into the groundwater system. The water emerges 9 miles away, forming some of the discharge of Mammoth Spring in Arkansas, human activity may also affect a springs discharge--withdrawal of groundwater reduces the water pressure in an aquifer, decreasing the volume of flow. Springs are often classified by the volume of the water they discharge, the largest springs are called first-magnitude, defined as springs that discharge water at a rate of at least 2800 liters or 100 cubic feet of water per second. The scale for spring flow is as follows, Minerals become dissolved in the water as it moves through the underground rocks and this may give the water flavor and even carbon dioxide bubbles, depending on the nature of the geology through which it passes. This is why spring water is bottled and sold as mineral water. Springs that contain significant amounts of minerals are sometimes called mineral springs, Springs that contain large amounts of dissolved sodium salts, mostly sodium carbonate, are called soda springs
15.
Amargosa River
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The Amargosa River is an intermittent waterway,185 miles long, in southern Nevada and eastern California in the United States. It drains a high desert region, the Amargosa Valley in the Amargosa Desert northwest of Las Vegas, into the Mojave Desert, and finally into Death Valley where it disappears into the ground aquifer. Except for a portion of its route in the Amargosa Canyon in California and a small portion at Beatty, Nevada. A 26-mile stretch of the river between Shoshone and Dumont Dunes is protected as a National Wild and Scenic River, at the south end of Tecopa Valley the Amargosa River Natural Area protects the habitat. Except during flash floods that occur after cloudbursts, most of the course of the Amargosa River is dry on the surface, the flow is generally underground except for stretches near Beatty and near Tecopa, California, in the Amargosa Canyon. In the canyon, the passes through the Amargosa River Natural Area. The river arises at about 1,200 feet above sea level in Nye County, Nevada, thirsty Canyon Wash enters at the rivers source, and when carrying water, the river flows from there southwest into Oasis Valley. Running parallel to U. S. Route 95 near the Bullfrog Hills to the west, another 3 miles or so downstream, the river flows through Beatty and turns south-southeast through the Amargosa Narrows into the Amargosa Desert. At this point, Bare Mountain lies to the left and the Grapevine, downstream of the Narrows, still flowing roughly parallel to Route 95, the river passes Big Dune, which is on the rivers left. Shortly thereafter it passes the town of Amargosa Valley on the left, leaves Nevada, in this stretch, it receives Forty Mile Wash from the left. Running roughly parallel to California Route 127, the passes through Death Valley Junction. Shortly thereafter it receives Carson Slough, which drains Ash Meadows National Wildlife Refuge, soon the river passes between the Resting Spring Range to the left and the Greenwater Range to the right before reaching Shoshone. Below Shoshone, the continues roughly parallel to Route 127 to Tecopa. Turning west, the river crosses under Route 127 and enters Death Valley National Park between the end of the Amargosa Range on the right and the Avawatz Mountains on the left. In this stretch, the river runs parallel to Harry Wade Road and, further north, to California Route 178. The river receives Willow Creek from the right and ends in Badwater Basin, about 279 feet below sea level, disappearing into the ground, it feeds the aquifer that is the remnant of prehistoric Lake Manly. The United States Geological Survey monitors the flow of the Amargosa River at a station near the Old Spanish Trail Road,0.2 miles west of Tecopa. The average flow of the river at this station is 3.80 cubic feet per second and this is from a drainage area of 3,090 square miles, much of which is noncontributing and all of which represents about 60 percent of the total Amargosa River drainage basin
16.
Las Vegas Valley
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The Las Vegas Valley is a major metropolitan area located in the southern part of the U. S. state of Nevada. The largest urban agglomeration in the state, it is the heart of the Las Vegas–Paradise-Henderson, the Valley is largely defined by the Las Vegas Valley landform, a 600 sq mi basin area surrounded by mountains to the north, south, east and west of the metropolitan area. The Valley is home to the three largest incorporated cities in Nevada, Las Vegas, Henderson and North Las Vegas, six unincorporated towns governed by the Clark County government are part of the Las Vegas Township and constitute the largest community in the state of Nevada. Since the 1990s the Las Vegas Valley has seen exponential growth, in 2014, a record breaking 41 million visited the Las Vegas area, producing a gross metropolitan product of more than $100 billion. The first reported non-Native American visitor to the Las Vegas Valley was the Mexican scout Rafael Rivera in 1829. Las Vegas was named by Mexicans in the Antonio Armijo party, including Rivera, in the 19th century, areas of the valley contained artesian wells that supported extensive green areas, or meadows, hence the name Las Vegas. The area was settled by Mormon farmers in 1854 and later became the site of a United States Army fort in 1864. Since the 1930s, Las Vegas has generally been identified as a center as well as a resort destination. Nellis Air Force Base is located in the northeast corner of the valley, the ranges that the Nellis pilots use and various other land areas used by various federal agencies, limit growth of the valley in terms of geographic area. Businessman Howard Hughes arrived in the late 1960s and purchased many casino hotels, as well as television, legitimate corporations began to purchase casino hotels as well, and the mob was run out by the federal government over the next several years. The constant stream of tourist dollars from the hotels and casinos was augmented by a new source of money from the establishment of what is now Nellis Air Force Base. The influx of personnel and casino job-hunters helped start a land building boom which is now leveling off. The Las Vegas area remains one of the top entertainment destinations. The valley is contained in the Las Vegas Valley landform and this includes the cities of Las Vegas, North Las Vegas, and Henderson, and the unincorporated towns of Paradise, Spring Valley, Sunrise Manor, Enterprise, Winchester, and Whitney. The valley is located within the larger metropolitan area, as the metropolitan area covers all of Clark County -including parts that do not fall within the valley. The government of Clark County has an Urban Planning Area of Las Vegas and this definition is a roughly rectangular area, about 20 mi from east to west and 30 miles from north to south. Notable exclusions from the Urban Planning Area include Red Rock, Blue Diamond, the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department is the largest police department in the valley and the state and exercises jurisdiction in the entire county. The department does not exercise jurisdiction in areas with separate police forces such as North Las Vegas, Henderson, Boulder City, Nellis Air Force Base
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Colorado River
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The Colorado River is one of the principal rivers of the Southwestern United States and northern Mexico. The 1, 450-mile-long Colorado River drains an expansive, arid watershed that encompasses parts of seven U. S. starting in the central Rocky Mountains in the U. S. After entering Mexico, the Colorado approaches the mostly dry Colorado River Delta at the tip of the Gulf of California between Baja California and Sonora. Known for its dramatic canyons, whitewater rapids, and eleven U. S. National Parks, the Colorados large flow and steep gradient are used for generating hydroelectric power, and its major dams regulate peaking power demands in much of the Intermountain West. Intensive water consumption has dried up the lower 100 miles of the river, beginning with small bands of nomadic hunter-gatherers, Native Americans have inhabited the Colorado River basin for at least 8,000 years. Most native peoples that inhabit the basin today are descended from groups that settled in the region beginning about 1,000 years ago. Europeans first entered the Colorado Basin in the 16th century, when explorers from Spain began mapping and claiming the area, early contact between Europeans and Native Americans was generally limited to the fur trade in the headwaters and sporadic trade interactions along the lower river. After most of the Colorado River basin became part of the U. S. in 1846, several expeditions charted the Colorado in the mid-19th century – one of which, led by John Wesley Powell, was the first to run the rapids of the Grand Canyon. American explorers collected valuable information that would later be used to develop the river for navigation, lesser numbers settled in the upper basin, which was the scene of major gold strikes in the 1860s and 1870s. Large engineering works began around the start of the 20th century, with guidelines established in a series of international. The U. S. federal government was the driving force behind the construction of dams and aqueducts in the river system, although many state. Most of the dams in the river basin were built between 1910 and 1970, the system keystone, Hoover Dam, was completed in 1935. The Colorado is now considered among the most controlled and litigated rivers in the world, as demands for Colorado River water continue to rise, the level of human development and control of the river continues to generate controversy. The Colorado begins at La Poudre Pass in the Southern Rocky Mountains of Colorado, after a short run south, the river turns west below Grand Lake, the largest natural lake in the state. As it flows southwest, it gains strength from many tributaries, as well as larger ones including the Blue, Eagle. In a few areas, such as the marshy Kawuneeche Valley near the headwaters, arcing northwest, the Colorado begins to cut across the eponymous Colorado Plateau, a vast area of high desert centered at the Four Corners of the southwestern United States. In Utah, the Colorado flows primarily through the slickrock country and this is one of the most inaccessible regions of the continental United States. Here, the San Juan River, carrying runoff from the slope of Colorados San Juan Mountains, joins the Colorado from the east. S
18.
Las Vegas Wash
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Las Vegas Wash is a 12-mile-long channel which feeds most of the Las Vegas Valleys excess water into Lake Mead. The wash is sometimes called a river, and it exists in its present capacity because of an urban population. The wash also works in a conjunction with the pre-existing wetlands that formed the oasis of the Las Vegas Valley. The wash is fed by runoff, shallow ground water, reclaimed water. The wetlands of the Las Vegas Valley act as the kidneys of the environment, the wetlands filter out harmful residues from fertilizers, oils, and other contaminants that can be found on the roadways and in the surrounding desert. Near its terminus at Las Vegas Bay, the wash passes under the man made Lake Las Vegas through two 7 foot pipes, before development in the valley above the wash, it was able to contain the flows from rain water that fell in the valley and hills above. When the first sewage treatment plant went on line, the flows began increasing to the point that the expanded in size as the increased flows eroded the washs stream-banks. This erosion also deepened the channel draining one of the largest desert wetlands in the U. S. southwest as the water flowed down the channel rather than flooding the wetlands area
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Lake Mead
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Lake Mead is the largest reservoir in the United States, measured by water capacity. It is on the Colorado River about 24 mi from the Las Vegas Strip southeast of the city of Las Vegas, Nevada, in the states of Nevada and Arizona. The lake has not reached full capacity, however, since 1983 due to a combination of drought, owing to current low water level, Lake Sakakawea holds claim over Lake Mead in terms of the United States largest reservoir by total area and water in reserve. The reservoir serves water to the states of Arizona, Nevada and California, providing sustenance to nearly 20 million people, Lake Mead was established as the Boulder Dam Recreation Area in 1936, administrated by the National Park Service. The name was changed to the Lake Mead National Recreation Area in 1964, and Lake Mohave, both lakes and the surrounding area offer year-round recreation options. The accumulated water from Hoover Dam forced the evacuation of communities, most notably St. Thomas, Nevada. The ruins of St. Thomas are sometimes visible when the level in Lake Mead drops below normal. Lake Mead also covered the sites of the Colorado River landings of Callville and Rioville, at lower water levels, a high-water mark or bathtub ring is visible in photos that show the shoreline of Lake Mead. The bathtub ring is white because of the deposition of minerals on previously submerged surfaces, nine main access points to the lake are available. On the west are three roads from the Las Vegas metropolitan area, access from the northwest from Interstate 15 is through the Valley of Fire State Park and the Moapa River Indian Reservation to the Overton Arm of the lake. The lake is divided into several bodies, the large body closest to the Hoover Dam is Boulder Basin. The narrow channel, which was known as Boulder Canyon and is now known as The Narrows. The Virgin River and Muddy River empty into the Overton Arm, the next basin to the east is Temple Basin, and following that is Gregg Basin, which is connected to the Temple Basin by the Virgin Canyon. In addition, two basins, the Muddy River Inlet and the Virgin River Basin, are flooded when the lake is high enough where these two rivers flow into the lake. As of February 2015, these basins remain dry, jagged mountain ranges surround the lake, offering a scenic backdrop, especially at sunset. Two mountain ranges are within view of the Boulder Basin, the River Mountains, oriented northwest to southeast, bonelli Peak lies to the east of the Virgin Basin. Las Vegas Bay is the terminus for the Las Vegas Wash which is the outflow from the Las Vegas Valley. Lake Mead receives the majority of its water from snow melt in the Colorado, Wyoming, inflows to the lake are largely moderated by the upstream Glen Canyon Dam, which is required to release 8.23 million acre feet of water each year to Lake Mead
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Great Basin
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The Great Basin is the largest area of contiguous endorheic watersheds in North America. The region spans several physiographic divisions, biomes/ecoregions, and deserts, the term Great Basin is applied to hydrographic, biological, floristic, physiographic, topographic, and ethnographic geographic areas. The name was coined by John C. Frémont, who, based on information gleaned from Joseph R. Walker as well as his own travels, the hydrographic definition is the most commonly used, and is the only one with a definitive border. The other definitions yield not only different geographical boundaries of Great Basin regions, the Great Basin physiographic section is a geographic division of the Basin and Range Province defined by Nevin Fenneman in 1931. The United States Geological Survey adapted Fennemans scheme in their Physiographic division of the United States, the section is somewhat larger than the hydrographic definition. The culture area covers approximately 400,000 sq mi, or just less than twice the area of the hydrographic Great Basin, the hydrographic Great Basin is a 209,162 square miles area that drains internally. All precipitation in the region evaporates, sinks underground or flows into lakes, as observed by Frémont, creeks, streams, or rivers find no outlet to either the Gulf of Mexico or the Pacific Ocean. The region is bounded by the Wasatch Mountains to the east, the Sierra Nevada and Cascade Ranges to the west, the south rim is less distinct. The Great Basin includes most of Nevada, half of Utah, substantial portions of Oregon and California and small areas of Idaho, Wyoming, the term Great Basin is slightly misleading, the region is actually made up of many small basins. The Great Salt Lake, Pyramid Lake, and the Humboldt Sink are a few of the drains in the Great Basin, the Salton Sink is another closed basin within the Great Basin. The Great Basin Divide separates the Great Basin from the watersheds draining to the Pacific Ocean, the southernmost portion of the Great Basin is the watershed area of the Laguna Salada. The Great Basins longest and largest river is the Bear River of 350 mi, Lake Tahoe, North Americas largest alpine lake, is part of the Great Basins central Lahontan subregion. The hydrographic Great Basin contains multiple deserts and ecoregions, each with its own set of flora. The ecological boundaries and divisions in the Great Basin are unclear, the Great Basin overlaps four different deserts, portions of the hot Mojave and Colorado Deserts to the south, and the cold Great Basin and Oregon High Deserts in the north. The deserts can be distinguished by their plants, the Joshua tree and creosote bush occur in the hot deserts, the cold deserts are generally higher than the hot, and have their precipitation spread throughout the year. The climate and flora of the Great Basin is strongly dependent on elevation, as the elevation increases, because of this, forests occur at higher elevations. Utah juniper/single-leaf pinyon and mountain mahogany form open pinyon-juniper woodland on the slopes of most ranges, stands of limber pine and Great Basin bristlecone pine can be found in some of the higher ranges
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Lee Canyon (Ski and Snowboard Resort)
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The Lee Canyon ski and snowboard resort is located in Lee Canyon,35 miles northwest of Las Vegas, Nevada in the Humboldt-Toiyabe National Forest and Spring Mountains National Recreation Area. The base lodge is situated at the base of Lee Peak with an elevation of 11,289 feet/3,441 meters to the north of Mount Charleston, the resort can be reached via US95 to Nevada State Route 156. The resort is owned and operated by Powdr Corporation in partnership with the United States Forest Service under a use permit. The resort is open from November through April, with the best snow in February. The area also includes the Las Vegas Ski & Snowboard School and off-slope amenities including The Sports Shop, The Big Horn Cafe, since the early 1930s, Las Vegas locals and visitors alike have enjoyed the snow on wind protected, north-facing slopes. In the 1940s the Las Vegas Ski Club operated a rope tow. Lee Canyon Ski Area was created in 1964, when the Forest Service issued a Special Use Permit in order to winter recreation options in Southern Nevada. A T-Bar was installed, the A-Frame Chalet was completed, and in 1968 the first chairlift, the main lodge building was completed in February,1970. In 1980, Chair Two replaced the T-Bar and the runs were improved for better skiing conditions, in 1982, the beginner slope received Chair Three, replacing the rope tow. In 1987 snowmaking came to Lee Canyon, providing 60% coverage on the main trails, snowboarding was not allowed until the late 80s. 1988 saw outdoor lighting to brighten the slopes for the first time, Lee Canyon Ski Area officially became Las Vegas Ski and Snowboard Resort in 1995. During the 1990s snowboarding forever changed the LVSSR with a terrain park, half pipe. Big changes occurred in November 2003 when Powdr Corporation, based in Park City, LVSSR joined Park City Mountain Resort, Oregons Mt. Bachelor, as well as Californias Alpine Meadows, Soda Springs and Boreal Mountain Resort as a Powdr Corporation owned-and-operated ski resort. Among the improvements Powdr implemented at LVSSR were improved snowmaking, rental equipment, a Magic Carpet surface lift, expanded terrain park, in 2005 a triple chairlift was installed to replace the yellow double chairlift, Chair One. Further improvements were made to the snowmaking system, the future of LVSSR was submitted to the Forest Service in a new Master Plan proposal. Powdr purchased Killington Ski Resort in Vermont, in 2009, Powdr acquired Copper Mountain Resort in Colorado. Also in 2009, Las Vegas Ski and Snowboard Resort had its earliest opening ever on October 7 and this was the second resort in the United States to open for the 2009-2010 season, the longest season on record at LVSSR with over 180 days of skiing and snowboarding. Las Vegas Ski and Snowboard Resort web site
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McFarland Peak
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McFarland Peak is a limestone peak in the northern portion of the Spring Mountains in Clark County of southern Nevada. It is in the Toiyabe National Forest and the Mount Charleston Wilderness, mcFarland Peak is located north of Mount Charleston
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Mummy Mountain (Nevada)
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Mummy Mountain is the second highest peak of the Spring Mountains in Clark County, Nevada, United States. It is the twentieth highest mountain in the state, the mountain is located within the Mount Charleston Wilderness and the Humboldt-Toiyabe National Forest. This appearance is especially prominent from U. S. Route 95, the most common route to the summit is from the North Loop Trail to Mount Charleston, starting from where it reaches close to the top of the ridge between Mummy Mountain and Mount Charleston. After the first two switchbacks, a scramble up a scree slope reaches the top of the ridge. The route then jogs north to a class 4 chute leading to the broad and flat summit plateau
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Griffith Peak
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Griffith Peak is located in the Spring Mountains in Clark County of southern Nevada. It is approximately 28 miles northwest of the Las Vegas Strip and 3.9 miles southeast of Mount Charleston, Griffith Peak is Nevadas 43rd highest peak, and the third highest peak in southern Nevada. It is within Humboldt-Toiyabe National Forest, Mount Charleston Wilderness and Spring Mountains National Recreation Area, Griffith Peak is accessible by two primary trails, the South Loop Trail and the Harris Springs Trail. The South Loop Trail leads directly to the Griffith Saddle from which both Griffith Peak and Mount Charleston are accessible
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Bridge Mountain
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Bridge Mountain is a mountain located in the Spring Mountain range of southern Nevada. It is located on land managed by the United States Bureau of Land Management as the Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area, Bridge Mountain is named for the natural feature of a bridge-like natural arch of sandstone near the summit. The Bridge Mountain hike begins at the Rocky Gap Summit Trailhead, hikers can park at the north Willow Springs campground and walk 5 miles to the summit. Alternatively, hikers can turn North from Highway 160 and drive 7.5 miles North on the Lovell Canyon Road, the hike from here to the summit is about 3.3 miles and has less elevation gain. The hike climbs over the crest of the formed, north-south oriented Spring Mountain Ranges. A marked trail along the crest descends to the sandstone escarpment, the hike is marked by cairns that show the route to proceed up toward the base of a cliff, angling left just above the northern drop-off. The hike ascends the slickrock here, in a crack in the rock. After about 150 feet, the comes to a point where there is a broad, flat ledge on the left. This leads up to the bridge for which the mountain is named. The bridge itself is the remains of a tinaja, or water tank, in order to get to the top, one must climb over a fallen tree, bringing the person within reach of several pools, access to the bridge, and near the Hidden Forest. Heading south for several hundred feet, one then must climb along a steep, at the top, a small ammunition box contains the peaks sign-in book. In a cleft in the sandstone of Bridge Mountains summit, there is a small hidden forest of Ponderosa pine, expansive views of the Las Vegas Valley can be seen from the Eastern end of the hidden forest
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Ecosystem
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An ecosystem is a community of living organisms in conjunction with the nonliving components of their environment, interacting as a system. These biotic and abiotic components are regarded as linked together through nutrient cycles, as ecosystems are defined by the network of interactions among organisms, and between organisms and their environment, they can be of any size but usually encompass specific, limited spaces. Energy, water, nitrogen and soil minerals are other essential components of an ecosystem. The energy that flows through ecosystems is obtained primarily from the sun and it generally enters the system through photosynthesis, a process that also captures carbon from the atmosphere. By feeding on plants and on one another, animals play an important role in the movement of matter and they also influence the quantity of plant and microbial biomass present. Ecosystems are controlled both by external and internal factors, other external factors include time and potential biota. Ecosystems are dynamic entities—invariably, they are subject to disturbances and are in the process of recovering from some past disturbance. Ecosystems in similar environments that are located in different parts of the world can have different characteristics simply because they contain different species. The introduction of species can cause substantial shifts in ecosystem function. Internal factors not only control ecosystem processes but are controlled by them and are often subject to feedback loops. Other internal factors include disturbance, succession and the types of species present, although humans exist and operate within ecosystems, their cumulative effects are large enough to influence external factors like climate. Biodiversity affects ecosystem function, as do the processes of disturbance, classifying ecosystems into ecologically homogeneous units is an important step towards effective ecosystem management, but there is no single, agreed-upon way to do this. The term ecosystem was first used in 1935 in a publication by British ecologist Arthur Tansley, Tansley devised the concept to draw attention to the importance of transfers of materials between organisms and their environment. He later refined the term, describing it as The whole system, including not only the organism-complex, but also the whole complex of physical factors forming what we call the environment. Tansley regarded ecosystems not simply as natural units, but as mental isolates, Tansley later defined the spatial extent of ecosystems using the term ecotope. G. Raymond Lindeman took these ideas one step further to suggest that the flow of energy through a lake was the driver of the ecosystem. Most mineral nutrients, on the hand, are recycled within ecosystems. Ecosystems are controlled both by external and internal factors, external factors, also called state factors, control the overall structure of an ecosystem and the way things work within it, but are not themselves influenced by the ecosystem
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Habitat
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A habitat is an ecological or environmental area that is inhabited by a particular species of animal, plant, or other type of organism. The term typically refers to the zone in which the organism lives and it is the natural environment in which an organism lives, or the physical environment that surrounds a species population. Every organism has certain habitat needs for the conditions in which it will thrive, habitat types include polar, temperate, subtropical and tropical. The terrestrial vegetation type may be forest, steppe, grassland, the word habitat has been in use since about 1755 and derives from the Latin third-person singular present indicative of habitāre, to inhabit, from habēre, to have or to hold. Habitat can be defined as the environment of an organism. It is similar in meaning to a biotope, an area of environmental conditions associated with a particular community of plants. Generally speaking, animal communities are reliant on specific types of plant communities, some plants and animals are generalists, and their habitat requirements are met in a wide range of locations. The small white butterfly for example is found on all the continents of the world apart from Antarctica and its larvae feed on a wide range of Brassicas and various other plant species, and it thrives in any open location with diverse plant associations. Disturbance is important in the creation of biodiverse habitats, in the absence of disturbance, a climax vegetation cover develops that prevents the establishment of other species. Lightning strikes and toppled trees in tropical forests allow species richness to be maintained as pioneering species move in to fill the gaps created. Similarly coastal habitats can become dominated by kelp until the seabed is disturbed by a storm, another cause of disturbance is when an area may be overwhelmed by an invasive introduced species which is not kept under control by natural enemies in its new habitat. Terrestrial habitat types include forests, grasslands, wetlands and deserts, within these broad biomes are more specific habitats with varying climate types, temperature regimes, soils, altitudes and vegetation types. Many of these habitats grade into each other and each one has its own communities of plants. A habitat may suit a particular species well, but its presence or absence at any particular location depends to some extent on chance, on its dispersal abilities, freshwater habitats include rivers, streams, lakes, ponds, marshes and bogs. Although some organisms are found across most of these habitats, the majority have more specific requirements, similarly, aquatic plants can be floating, semi-submerged, submerged or grow in permanently or temporarily saturated soils besides bodies of water. Marine habitats include brackish water, estuaries, bays, the sea, the intertidal zone. Further variations include rock pools, sand banks, mudflats, brackish lagoons, sandy and pebbly beaches, the benthic zone or seabed provides a home for both static organisms, anchored to the substrate, and for a large range of organisms crawling on or burrowing into the surface. A desert is not the kind of habitat that favours the presence of amphibians, with their requirement for water to keep their skins moist, nevertheless, some frogs live in deserts, creating moist habitats underground and hibernating while conditions are adverse
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Biodiversity
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Biodiversity, a contraction of biological diversity, generally refers to the variety and variability of life on Earth. One of the most widely used definitions defines it in terms of the variability within species and it is a measure of the variety of organisms present in different ecosystems. This can refer to genetic variation, ecosystem variation, or species variation within an area, biome, terrestrial biodiversity tends to be greater near the equator, which seems to be the result of the warm climate and high primary productivity. Biodiversity is not distributed evenly on Earth, and is richest in the tropics and these tropical forest ecosystems cover less than 10 per cent of earths surface, and contain about 90 percent of the worlds species. Marine biodiversity tends to be highest along coasts in the Western Pacific, there are latitudinal gradients in species diversity. Biodiversity generally tends to cluster in hotspots, and has been increasing through time, the number and variety of plants, animals and other organisms that exist is known as biodiversity. It is a component of nature and it ensures the survival of human species by providing food, fuel, shelter, medicines. The richness of biodiversity depends on the conditions and area of the region. All species of plants taken together are known as flora and about 300,000 species of plants are known to date, all species of animals taken together are known as fauna which includes birds, mammals, fish, reptiles, insects, crustaceans, molluscs, etc. Rapid environmental changes typically cause mass extinctions, more than 99 percent of all species, amounting to over five billion species, that ever lived on Earth are estimated to be extinct. Estimates on the number of Earths current species range from 10 million to 14 million, of which about 1.2 million have been documented and over 86 percent have not yet been described. More recently, in May 2016, scientists reported that 1 trillion species are estimated to be on Earth currently with only one-thousandth of one percent described, the total amount of related DNA base pairs on Earth is estimated at 5.0 x 1037 and weighs 50 billion tonnes. In comparison, the mass of the biosphere has been estimated to be as much as 4 TtC. In July 2016, scientists reported identifying a set of 355 genes from the Last Universal Common Ancestor of all living on Earth. The age of the Earth is about 4.54 billion years old, there are microbial mat fossils found in 3.48 billion-year-old sandstone discovered in Western Australia. Other early physical evidence of a substance is graphite in 3.7 billion-year-old meta-sedimentary rocks discovered in Western Greenland. More recently, in 2015, remains of life were found in 4.1 billion-year-old rocks in Western Australia. According to one of the researchers, If life arose relatively quickly on Earth, then it could be common in the universe
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Tree
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In botany, a tree is a perennial plant with an elongated stem, or trunk, supporting branches and leaves in most species. In some usages, the definition of a tree may be narrower, including only woody plants with secondary growth, plants that are usable as lumber or plants above a specified height. Trees are not a group but include a variety of plant species that have independently evolved a woody trunk. In looser senses, the palms, the tree ferns, bananas. Trees tend to be long-lived, some reaching several thousand years old, the tallest known tree, a coast redwood named Hyperion, stands 115.6 m high. Trees have been in existence for 370 million years and it is estimated that there are just over 3 trillion mature trees in the world. A tree typically has many secondary branches supported clear of the ground by the trunk and this trunk typically contains woody tissue for strength, and vascular tissue to carry materials from one part of the tree to another. For most trees it is surrounded by a layer of bark which serves as a protective barrier, below the ground, the roots branch and spread out widely, they serve to anchor the tree and extract moisture and nutrients from the soil. Above ground, the divide into smaller branches and shoots. The shoots typically bear leaves, which light energy and convert it into sugars by photosynthesis, providing the food for the trees growth. Flowers and fruit may also be present, but some trees, such as conifers, instead have pollen cones and seed cones, others, such as tree ferns, trees play a significant role in reducing erosion and moderating the climate. They remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and store large quantities of carbon in their tissues, trees and forests provide a habitat for many species of animals and plants. Tropical rainforests are one of the most biodiverse habitats in the world, trees provide shade and shelter, timber for construction, fuel for cooking and heating, and fruit for food as well as having many other uses. In parts of the world, forests are shrinking as trees are cleared to increase the amount of available for agriculture. Because of their longevity and usefulness, trees have always revered, with sacred groves in various cultures. Although tree is a term of common parlance, there is no universally recognised precise definition of what a tree is, either botanically or in common language. In its broadest sense, a tree is any plant with the form of an elongated stem, or trunk. Trees are also defined by height, with smaller plants from 0.5 to 10 m being called shrubs
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Vascular plant
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They also have a specialized non-lignified tissue to conduct products of photosynthesis. Vascular plants include the clubmosses, horsetails, ferns, gymnosperms and angiosperms, scientific names for the group include Tracheophyta and Tracheobionta. Vascular plants are distinguished by two characteristics, Vascular plants have vascular tissues which distribute resources through the plant. This feature allows vascular plants to evolve to a larger size than non-vascular plants, in vascular plants, the principal generation phase is the sporophyte, which is usually diploid with two sets of chromosomes per cell. Only the germ cells and gametophytes are haploid, by contrast, the principal generation phase in non-vascular plants is the gametophyte, which is haploid with one set of chromosomes per cell. In these plants, only the spore stalk and capsule are diploid, in other words, elaboration of the spore stalk enabled the production of more spores, and enabled the development of the ability to release them higher and to broadcast them farther. Such developments may include more photosynthetic area for the structure, the ability to grow independent roots, woody structure for support. A proposed phylogeny of the plants after Kenrick and Crane is as follows. Pteridophyta from Smith et al. and lycophytes and ferns by Christenhusz et al and this phylogeny is supported by several molecular studies. Other researchers state that taking fossils into account leads to different conclusions, water and nutrients in the form of inorganic solutes are drawn up from the soil by the roots and transported throughout the plant by the xylem. Organic compounds such as produced by photosynthesis in leaves are distributed by the phloem sieve tube elements. The xylem consists of vessels in flowering plants and tracheids in other vascular plants, a tracheid cell wall usually contains the polymer lignin. The phloem however consists of living cells called sieve-tube members, between the sieve-tube members are sieve plates, which have pores to allow molecules to pass through. Sieve-tube members lack such organs as nuclei or ribosomes, but cells next to them, the most abundant compound in all plants, as in all cellular organisms, is water which serves an important structural role and a vital role in plant metabolism. Transpiration is the process of water movement within plant tissues. Water is constantly transpired from the plant through its stomata to the atmosphere, the movement of water out of the leaf stomata creates a transpiration pull or tension in the water column in the xylem vessels or tracheids. The pull is the result of surface tension within the cell walls of the mesophyll cells. The draw of water upwards may be passive and can be assisted by the movement of water into the roots via osmosis
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Larrea tridentata
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In Sonora, it is more commonly called hediondilla. It is a plant in the family Zygophyllaceae. The specific name refers to its three-toothed leaves. The species grows as far east as Zapata County, Texas, L. tridentata is an evergreen shrub growing to 1 to 3 m tall, rarely 4 m. The stems of the plant bear resinous, dark green leaves with two opposite lanceolate leaflets joined at the base, with a deciduous awn between them, each leaflet 7 to 18 mm long and 4 to 8.5 mm broad. The flowers are up to 25 mm in diameter, with five yellow petals, galls may form by the activity of the creosote gall midge. The whole plant exhibits a characteristic odor of creosote, from which the name derives. In the regions where it grows, its smell is associated with the smell of rain. As the creosote bush grows older, its oldest branches eventually die and this normally happens when the plant is 30 to 90 years old. Eventually, the old crown dies and the new one becomes a clonal colony from the previous plant, the King Clone creosote ring is one of the oldest living organisms on Earth. It has been alive an estimated 11,700 years, in the central Mojave Desert near present-day Lucerne Valley, California. Measurements of the plant, as well as radiocarbon dating of fragments, were used to determine the plants mean annual growth rate outward from the center of the ring. By measuring the diameter of the ring, its age could be estimated. It is within the Creosote Rings Preserve of the Lucerne Valley, Creosote bush is most common on the well-drained soils of alluvial fans and flats. In parts of its range, it may cover areas in practically pure stands. Chemicals found in creosote bush roots have shown to inhibit the growth of burro bush roots. Creosote bush stands tend to display an evenly spaced distribution of plants, originally, it was assumed that the plant produced a water-soluble inhibitor that prevented the growth of other bushes near mature, healthy bushes. Owing to the harshness of the germination environment above mature root systems, germination is actually quite active during wet periods, but most of the young plants die very quickly unless water conditions are optimal
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Ambrosia dumosa
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Ambrosia dumosa, the burro-weed or white bursage, a North American species of plants in the sunflower family. It is a constituent of the creosote-bush scrub community throughout the Mojave desert of California, Nevada, and Utah. Ambrosia dumosa has been studied to determine allelopathic interactions with creosote bush, Larrea tridentata, other studies have suggested that A. dumosa roots produce a chemical that causes them to grow away from conspecific roots, preventing competition for water resources. In addition to burrow-weed, A. dumosa is also called bur sage, burro weed. Ambrosia dumosa is a highly branched shrub 20 to 90 cm in height, the younger stems are covered with soft gray-white hairs. Approximately obovate leaves are 1 to 3 times pinnately compound or deeply lobed, the leaves are 0.5 to 4 cm long and also covered in soft gray-white hairs. Its inflorescence is yellow with staminate and pistillate headson a single plant, staminate heads have many flowers and are 3 to 5 mm in diameter with a 5 to 8 lobed involucre. Pistillate heads are 2 flowered and lack corollas, Ambrosia dumosa has spherical bur-like fruits ranging in color from golden to purple to brown. Along with microscopic hairs, the fruit has 12 to 35 flat and straight spines which are 5 to 9 mm in length, Ambrosia dumosa becomes dormant during drought, losing all of its leaves to prevent water loss by transpiration, drought deciduous. During this time it can still be recognized by the presence of longitudinal stripes on smaller stems, like other ragweeds, wind blown pollen from burro-weed may be highly allergenic. Jepson Manual Treatment, Ambrosia dumosa C. Michael Hogan, species editor
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Juniper
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Junipers are coniferous plants in the genus Juniperus /dʒuːˈnɪpərəs/ of the cypress family Cupressaceae. The highest-known Juniper forest occurs at an altitude of 16,000 feet in south-eastern Tibet, Junipers vary in size and shape from tall trees, 20–40 m tall, to columnar or low spreading shrubs with long trailing branches. They are evergreen with needle-like and/or scale-like leaves and they can be either monoecious or dioecious. The female seed cones are very distinctive, with fleshy, fruit-like coalescing scales which fuse together to form a structure, 4–27 mm long. In some species these berries are red-brown or orange but in most they are blue, they are often aromatic, the seed maturation time varies between species from 6–18 months after pollination. The male cones are similar to those of other Cupressaceae, with 6–20 scales, in zones 7 through 10, junipers can bloom and release pollen several times each year. A few species of juniper bloom in autumn, while most species pollinate from early winter until late spring. Many junipers have two types of leaves, seedlings and some twigs of trees have needle-like leaves 5–25 mm long. When juvenile foliage occurs on mature plants, it is most often found on shaded shoots, leaves on fast-growing whip shoots are often intermediate between juvenile and adult. In some species, all the foliage is of the juvenile needle-like type, in some of these, the needles are jointed at the base, in others, the needles merge smoothly with the stem, not jointed. The needle-leaves of junipers are hard and sharp, making the juvenile foliage very prickly to handle and this can be a valuable identification feature in seedlings, as the otherwise very similar juvenile foliage of cypresses and other related genera is soft and not prickly. Duplicana feed on the bark around injuries or canker, the number of juniper species is in dispute, with two recent studies giving very different totals, Farjon accepting 52 species, and Adams accepting 67 species. The junipers are divided into sections, though which species belong to which sections is still far from clear. The section Juniperus is a monophyletic group though. The adult leaves are needle-like, in whorls of three, and jointed at the base, Juniperus, Cones with 3 separate seeds, needles with one stomatal band. Juniperus communis - Common Juniper Juniperus communis subsp, alpina - Alpine Juniper Juniperus conferta - Shore Juniper Juniperus rigida - Temple Juniper or Needle Juniper Juniperus sect. Oxycedrus, Cones with 3 separate seeds, needles with two stomatal bands, caryocedrus, Cones with 3 seeds fused together, needles with two stomatal bands. Juniperus drupacea - Syrian Juniper Juniperus sect, the adult leaves are mostly scale-like, similar to those of Cupressus species, in opposite pairs or whorls of three, and the juvenile needle-like leaves are not jointed at the base
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Pinyon pine
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The pinyon or piñon pine group grows in the southwestern United States and in Mexico. The trees yield edible pinyon nuts, which were a staple of the Native Americans, the name comes from the Spanish Pino piñonero, a name used for both the American varieties and the Stone Pine common in Spain, which also produces edible piñon nuts typical of Mediterranean cuisine. Harvesting techniques of the prehistoric Indians are still being used to today to collect the seeds for personal use or for commercialization. The pinyon nut or seed is high in fats and calories, pinyon wood, especially when burned, has a distinctive fragrance, making it a common wood to burn in chimineas. The pinyon pine trees are known to influence the soil in which they grow by increasing concentrations of both macronutrients and micronutrients. Some of the species are known to hybridize, the most notable ones being P. quadrifolia with P. monophylla, the two-needle piñon is the official state tree of New Mexico. Genetic differentiation in the pine has been observed associated to insect herbivory. The nuts continue to be gathered, eaten, and marketed, all species of pine produce edible seeds, but in North America only pinyon produces seeds large enough to be a major source of food. The pinyon has probably been a source of food since shortly after the earliest arrival of Homo sapiens in the American southwest,12,000 or more years ago. Hunter/gatherer Indians undoubtedly collected the edible seeds, but, at least in some areas, the suitability of pinyon seeds as a staple food is reduced because of the unreliability of the harvest. Abundant crops of cones and seeds occur only every two to seven years, averaging a good crop every four years, years of high production of seed tend to be the same over wide areas of the pinyon range. In 1878, naturalist John Muir described the Indian method of harvesting pinyon seeds in Nevada, the scorching burned off the sticky resin coating the cones and loosened the seeds. The cones were then dried in the sun until the seeds could be easily extracted, Muir said the Indians closely watched the pinyon trees year-round and could predict the scarcity or abundance of the crop months before harvest time. In 1891, B. H. Dutcher observed the harvesting of pinyon seeds by the Panamint Indians in the Panamint Range overlooking Death Valley, California. The harvesting method was similar to the foregoing except that the seeds were extracted immediately after the cones had been scorched in the brushwood fire. Both the above accounts described a method of extracting the seeds from the green cones, each pinyon cone produces 10 to 30 seeds and a productive stand of pinyon trees in a good year can produce 250 pounds on 1 acre of land. An average worker can collect about 22 pounds of unshelled pinyon seed in a days work, production per worker of 22 pounds of unshelled pinyon seeds—more than one-half that in shelled seeds—amounts to nearly 30,000 calories of nutrition. That is a high yield for the effort expanded by hunter-gatherers, moreover, the pinyon seeds are high in fat, often in short supply for hunter-gatherers
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Cercocarpus
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Cercocarpus, commonly known as mountain mahogany, is a small genus of five or six species of nitrogen-fixing flowering plants in the rose family, Rosaceae. They are native to the western United States and northern Mexico, several are found in the California chaparral and woodlands ecoregion. The classification of Cercocarpus within the Rosaceae has been unclear, the genus has been placed in the subfamily Rosoideae, but is now placed in subfamily Dryadoideae. Members of the genus are shrubs or small trees, typically reaching heights of 3-6 m tall. C. montanus usually remains under 1 m high because of incessant browsing by elk, the name is derived from the Greek words κέρκος, meaning tail and καρπός, meaning fruit. It refers to the plume on the fruits. Species Cercocarpus betuloides – birch-leaf mountain mahogany C. b. var. betuloides C. b. var. blancheae Little – island mountain mahogany C. b. var. macrourus Jeps, martin – silver mountain mahogany C. m. var. montanus Cercocarpus traskiae Eastw
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Montane ecosystems
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Montane ecosystems refers to any ecosystem found in mountains. These ecosystems are affected by climate, which gets colder as elevation increases. They are stratified according to elevation, dense forests are common at moderate elevations. However, as the elevation increases, the climate becomes harsher, as elevation increases, the climate becomes cooler, due to a decrease in the greenhouse effect. The characteristic flora and fauna in the mountains tend to depend on elevation. This dependency causes life zones to form, bands of similar ecosystems at similar altitude, one of the typical life zones on mountains is the montane forest, at moderate elevations, the rainfall and temperate climate encourages dense forests to grow. Holdridge defines the climate of montane forest as having a biotemperature of between 6 and 12 °C, where biotemperature is the mean temperature considering temperatures below 0 °C to be 0 °C. Above the elevation of the montane forest, the trees thin out in the zone, become twisted krummholz. Therefore, Montane forests often contain trees with twisted trunks and this phenomenon is observed due to the increase in the wind strength with the elevation. The elevation where trees fail to grow is called the tree line. The biotemperature of the zone is between 3 and 6 °C. Above the tree line the ecosystem is called the zone or alpine tundra, dominated by grasses. The biotemperature of the zone is between 1.5 and 3 °C. Many different plant species live in the environment, including perennial grasses, sedges, forbs, cushion plants, mosses. Alpine plants must adapt to the conditions of the alpine environment, which include low temperatures, dryness, ultraviolet radiation. Alpine plants display adaptations such as structures, waxy surfaces. Because of the characteristics of these zones, the World Wildlife Fund groups a set of related ecoregions into the montane grassland and shrubland biome. Climates with biotemperatures below 1.5 °C tend to consist purely of rock, Montane forests occur between the submontane zone and the subalpine zone. The elevation at which one habitat changes to another varies across the globe, the upper limit of montane forests, the forest line or timberline, is often marked by a change to hardier species that occur in less dense stands
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Populus fremontii
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Populus fremontii, commonly known as Fremonts cottonwood or the Alamo cottonwood, is a cottonwood native to riparian zones of the Southwestern United States and northern through central Mexico. It is one of three species in Populus sect, the tree is native to the Southwestern United States and Mexico. In the United States, the species can be found in California, Nevada, Utah, Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, and Colorado. In Mexico, it can be found in Baja California, Baja California Sur, Sonora, Chihuahua, Coahuila, Nuevo León, Mexico State, and Puebla. The riparian tree grows near streams, rivers, springs, seeps, wetlands, P. fremontii is a large tree growing from 12–35 m in height with a wide crown, with a trunk up to 1.5 m in diameter. The bark is smooth when young, becoming deeply fissured with whitish cracked bark on old trees. The 3–7 cm long leaves, are cordate with a tip, with white veins and coarse crenate teeth along the sides, glabrous to hairy. Autumn colors occur from October–November, mainly a bright yellow, also orange, the inflorescence consists of a long drooping catkin, which blooms from March to April. The fruit is a wind dispersed achene, that appears to look like patches of hanging from limbs. The largest known P. fremontii tree in the United States grows in Skull Valley, in 2012, it had a measured circumference of 557 in, height of 102 ft, and a spread of 149.5 ft. Some confusion due to hybridization with a Rio Grande subspecies of Populus deltoides subsp, wislizeni had originally placed this eastern cottonwood subspecies as a P. fremontii subspecies, but it was removed in 1977. Fremontii, with synonyms P. f. var. arizonica - Sarg. and P. f. var. macdougalii - Jeps. from California and west of the Continental Divide P. f. subsp. Metesae - Eckenwal. of arid areas of Mexico, and widely planted elsewhere, generally east of the Continental Divide P. fremontii is cultivated as an ornamental tree, Fremont cottonwood was used in the past by settlers and ranchers for fuel and fence posts. The inner bark of Fremont cottonwood contains vitamin C and was chewed as an antiscorbutic, the bark and leaves could be used to make poultices to reduce inflammation or to treat wounds. Art The Pima people of southern Arizona and northern Mexico lived along Sonoran Desert watercourses and used twigs from the tree in the fine and intricate baskets they wove. The Cahuilla people of southern California used the wood for tool making, the Pueblo peoples for drums. The Hopi of Northeastern Arizona carve the root of the cottonwood to create kachina dolls, California native plants Riparian buffer Riparian forest Calflora Database, Populus fremontii Calflora Database, Populus fremontii ssp. fremontii Populus fremontii — U. C. Photo gallery Populus fremontii ssp. fremontii — U. C
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Carpenter Canyon
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Carpenter Canyon is a canyon on the western side of the Spring Mountains, partially within the Humboldt-Toiyabe National Forest, in Clark County, southern Nevada west of the Las Vegas Valley. Carpenter Canyon is accessible via State Route 160 and Carpenter Canyon Road near Pahrump, Carpenter Canyon Road is a minimally maintained dirt road reaching roughly 10 miles into the mountains and Humboldt-Toiyabe National Forest. A clearwater stream, the Carpenter Canyon Creek, runs through Carpenter Canyon the entire year, supporting a population of trout. A number of springs can be found in the recesses of the Red Rock Canyon area which lies on the side of the range. One of the more notable springs feeds Carpenter Canyon Creek, in Lower Carpenter Canyon, Creosote bush - Larrea tridentata and golden native bunchgrasses dominate the landscape. Moving further up in elevation, Banana yucca - Yucca baccata, Mojave yucca - Yucca schidigera, small flowering plants also become common. At around 5,000 feet, Utah Juniper -Juniperus osteosperma trees and Single-leaf Pinyon - Pinus monophylla are introduced, towards the source of the creek, and the head of the canyon Ponderosa Pine - Pinus ponderosa and a wide variety of flowering plants are prevalent. This includes the indigenous Desert Columbine - Aquilegia shockleyi, riparian plants, such as Fremont Cottonwood - Populus fremontii, flank the creek banks. Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area Pinyon-juniper woodland Friends of Nevada Wilderness website
