1.
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
2.
Truckee River
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The Truckee River is a stream in the U. S. states of California and Nevada. The river flows northeasterly and is 121 miles long, the Truckee is the sole outlet of Lake Tahoe and drains part of the high Sierra Nevada, emptying into Pyramid Lake in the Great Basin. Its waters are an important source of irrigation along its valley, frémont and Kit Carson ascended the Truckee River on January 16,1844 they called it the Salmon Trout River, after the huge Lahontan cutthroat trout that ran up the river from Pyramid Lake to spawn. Appreciative of their Indian guides services the party named the river after him, the chiefs real name might not have been Truckee, but perhaps Tru-ki-zo, which could have become distorted as Truckee. There are numerous theories about Chief Truckee and his name. The Truckee Rivers source is the outlet of Lake Tahoe, at the dam on the northwest side of the lake near Tahoe City, at Fernley it turns north, flowing along the east side of the Pah Rah Range. It empties into the end of Pyramid Lake, a remnant of prehistoric Lake Lahontan. The Truckee Rivers endorheic drainage basin is about 3,060 square miles, in the Lower Watershed, Steamboat Creek, which drains Washoe Lake, is the major tributary to the Truckee River. Like many other rivers in the western United States, the Truckees flow is regulated with most river flow fully allocated through a system of water rights. This system over-allocates available water during low flow periods, disputes occur among those asserting rights to the water. In the early 20th century, the Newlands Reclamation Act instituted a diversion that removed river flows from the Truckee River watershed and transferred them to the Carson River watershed. Currently the Truckee-Carson Irrigation District supervises the diversion of approximately one-third of the flow at the Derby Dam to the Lahontan Valley to irrigate alfalfa. Truckee River water is supplied to the resort communities surrounding Lake Tahoe, the greater metropolitan area of Reno and Sparks. The U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service uses some of the water to induce spawning of the endangered fish cui-ui, in addition, fur trapper Stephen Hall Meek set his traps on the Truckee River in 1833, which strongly suggests that he saw beaver or beaver sign. Recent novel physical evidence of historic presence in the Sierra Nevada, was the discovery of beaver dams dating to the 1850s in Red Clover Creek in the Feather River watershed. Flooding from beaver dams is relatively inexpensively controlled with flow devices, the river is heavily used for recreation, including whitewater rafting and fly fishing. A common rafting run is the River Ranch Run, starting from the outlet gates at Lake Tahoe stretching about 3 miles, the run ends at the River Ranch Restaurant. These rapids are almost all class 1 and class 2, in downtown Reno the river has been sculpted into a half-mile Class 2/3 whitewater park, and is used mainly for kayaking
3.
United States Geological Survey
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The United States Geological Survey is a scientific agency of the United States government. The scientists of the USGS study the landscape of the United States, its resources. The organization has four science disciplines, concerning biology, geography, geology. The USGS is a research organization with no regulatory responsibility. The USGS is a bureau of the United States Department of the Interior, the USGS employs approximately 8,670 people and is headquartered in Reston, Virginia. The USGS also has major offices near Lakewood, Colorado, at the Denver Federal Center, the current motto of the USGS, in use since August 1997, is science for a changing world. The agencys previous slogan, adopted on the occasion of its anniversary, was Earth Science in the Public Service. Prompted by a report from the National Academy of Sciences, the USGS was created, by a last-minute amendment and it was charged with the classification of the public lands, and examination of the geological structure, mineral resources, and products of the national domain. This task was driven by the need to inventory the vast lands added to the United States by the Louisiana Purchase in 1803, the legislation also provided that the Hayden, Powell, and Wheeler surveys be discontinued as of June 30,1879. Clarence King, the first director of USGS, assembled the new organization from disparate regional survey agencies, after a short tenure, King was succeeded in the directors chair by John Wesley Powell. Administratively, it is divided into a Headquarters unit and six Regional Units, Other specific programs include, Earthquake Hazards Program monitors earthquake activity worldwide. The National Earthquake Information Center in Golden, Colorado on the campus of the Colorado School of Mines detects the location, the USGS also runs or supports several regional monitoring networks in the United States under the umbrella of the Advanced National Seismic System. The USGS informs authorities, emergency responders, the media, and it also maintains long-term archives of earthquake data for scientific and engineering research. It also conducts and supports research on long-term seismic hazards, USGS has released the UCERF California earthquake forecast. The USGS National Geomagnetism Program monitors the magnetic field at magnetic observatories and distributes magnetometer data in real time, the USGS operates the streamgaging network for the United States, with over 7400 streamgages. Real-time streamflow data are available online, since 1962, the Astrogeology Research Program has been involved in global, lunar, and planetary exploration and mapping. USGS operates a number of related programs, notably the National Streamflow Information Program. USGS Water data is available from their National Water Information System database
4.
Sierra Nevada (U.S.)
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The Sierra Nevada is a mountain range in the Western United States, between the Central Valley of California and the Basin and Range Province. The vast majority of the lies in the state of California. The Sierra runs 400 miles north-to-south, and is approximately 70 miles across east-to-west, the Sierra is home to three national parks, twenty wilderness areas, and two national monuments. These areas include Yosemite, Sequoia, and Kings Canyon National Parks, the character of the range is shaped by its geology and ecology. More than one hundred years ago during the Nevadan orogeny. The range started to uplift four M. A. ago, the uplift caused a wide range of elevations and climates in the Sierra Nevada, which are reflected by the presence of five life zones. Uplift continues due to faulting caused by forces, creating spectacular fault block escarpments along the eastern edge of the southern Sierra. The Sierra Nevada has a significant history, the California Gold Rush occurred in the western foothills from 1848 through 1855. Due to inaccessibility, the range was not fully explored until 1912, the Sierra Nevada lies in Central and Eastern California, with a very small but historically important spur extending into Nevada. West-to-east, the Sierra Nevadas elevation increases gradually from 1,000 feet in the Central Valley to an height of about 10,500 feet at its crest only 50–75 miles to the east. The east slope forms the steep Sierra Escarpment, unlike its surroundings, the range receives a substantial amount of snowfall and precipitation due to orographic lift. The Sierra Nevada stretches from the Susan River and Fredonyer Pass in the north to Tehachapi Pass in the south and it is bounded on the west by Californias Central Valley and on the east by the Basin and Range Province. The geographical boundary between the Sierra and the Cascades is virtually indistinguishable, with the Fredonyer Pass designation being traditional, physiographically, the Sierra is a section of the Cascade-Sierra Mountains province, which in turn is part of the larger Pacific Mountain System physiographic division. The range is drained on its western slope by the Central Valley watershed, the northern third of the western Sierra is part of the Sacramento River watershed, and the middle third is drained by the San Joaquin River. The eastern slope watershed of the Sierra is much narrower, its rivers flow out into the endorheic Great Basin of eastern California and western Nevada. Although none of the eastern rivers reach the sea, many of the streams from Mono Lake southwards are diverted into the Los Angeles Aqueduct which provides water to Southern California, the height of the mountains in the Sierra Nevada increases gradually from north to south. Between Fredonyer Pass and Lake Tahoe, the range from 5,000 feet to more than 9,000 feet. The crest near Lake Tahoe is roughly 9,000 feet high, farther south, the highest peak in Yosemite National Park is Mount Lyell
5.
Mustang
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The mustang is a free-roaming horse of the American west that first descended from horses brought to the Americas by the Spanish. Mustangs are often referred to as wild horses, but because they are descended from once-domesticated horses, the original mustangs were Colonial Spanish horses, but many other breeds and types of horses contributed to the modern mustang, resulting in varying phenotypes. In the 21st century, mustang herds vary in the degree to which they can be traced to original Iberian horses, the free-roaming mustang population is managed and protected by the Bureau of Land Management. Advocates for mustangs also express concerns that the animals may be sold for horse meat, additional debate centers on the question of whether mustangs—and horses in general—are a native species or an introduced invasive species. Many methods of management are used, including the adoption by private individuals of horses taken from the range. Mustangs are often referred to as wild horses, but since all free-roaming horses now in the Americas descended from horses that were once domesticated, unlike Przewalskis horse, the only extant wild horse, the mustang descended from domesticated horses. According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the English word mustang comes from two essentially synonymous Spanish words, mestengo and mostrenco, both words referred to horses and cattle defined as wild, having no master. Mesteño was derived from mesta, associations of graziers, and one of their jobs was to deal with strayed cattle and it has no connection with the Mustang region of Tibet. They caught the horses that roamed the Great Plains and the San Joaquin Valley of California, the original mustangs were Colonial Spanish horses, but many other breeds and types of horses contributed to the modern mustang, resulting in varying phenotypes. Mustangs of all types are described as surefooted and having good endurance. They may be of any coat color, some herds show the signs of the introduction of Thoroughbred or other light racehorse-types into herds, a process that also led in part to the creation of the American Quarter Horse. The now-defunct American Mustang Association developed a standard for those mustangs that carry morphological traits associated with the early Spanish horses. These include a body with a clean, refined head with wide forehead. The facial profile may be straight or slightly convex, withers are moderate in height and the shoulder is to be long and sloping. The standard considers a short back, deep girth and muscular coupling over the loins as desirable. The croup is rounded, neither too flat nor goose-rumped, the legs are to be straight and sound. Dun color and primitive markings are common amongst horses of Spanish type. Height varies across the west, but most are small, generally 14 to 15 hands, the mustang of the modern west has several different breeding populations today which are genetically isolated from one another and thus have distinct traits traceable to particular herds
6.
Populus trichocarpa
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Populus trichocarpa, the black cottonwood, western balsam-poplar or California poplar, is a deciduous broadleaf tree species native to western North America. It is used for timber, and is notable as an organism in plant biology. Its full genome sequence was published in 2006 and it is the first tree species to be sequenced. It is a tree, growing to a height of 30 metres to 50 metres and a trunk diameter of over 2 metres. It is normally fairly short-lived, but some trees may live for up to 400 years, a cottonwood in Willamette Mission State Park near Salem, Oregon holds the national and world records. Last measured in April,2008 this black cottonwood was found to be standing at 155 ft tall,29 ft around, the bark is grey and covered with lenticels, becoming thick and deeply fissured on old trees. The bark can become hard enough to cause sparks when cut with a chainsaw, the stem is grey in the older parts and light brown in younger parts. The crown is usually conical and quite dense. In large trees the lower branches droop downwards, the wood has a light coloring and a straight grain. The leaves are alternate, elliptic with a crenate margin and an acute tip, the buds are conical, long, narrow and sticky, with a strong balsam scent in spring when they open. Populus trichocarpa has an extensive and aggressive root system, which can invade, sometimes the roots can even damage the foundations of buildings by drying out the soil. Flowering and fruiting Populus trichocarpa is normally dioecious, male and female catkins are borne on separate trees, the species reaches flowering age at about 10 years. Flowers may appear in early March to late May in Washington and Oregon, and sometimes as late as mid-June in northern and interior British Columbia, Idaho, staminate catkins contain 30 to 60 stamens, elongate to 2 to 3 cm, and are deciduous. Pistillate catkins at maturity are 8 to 20 cm long with rotund-ovate, each capsule contains many minute seeds with long, white cottony hairs. Seed production and dissemination The seed ripens and is disseminated by late May to late June in Oregon and Washington, abundant seed crops are usually produced every year. Attached to its cotton, the seed is light and buoyant and can be transported long distances by wind, although highly viable, longevity of P. trichocarpa seed under natural conditions may be as short as two weeks to a month. This can be increased with cold storage, seedling development Moist seedbeds are essential for high germination, and seedling survival depends on continuously favorable conditions during the first month. Wet bottom lands of rivers and major streams frequently provide such conditions, P. trichocarpa seedlings do not usually become established in abundance after logging unless special measures are taken to prepare the bare, moist seedbeds required for initial establishment
7.
Artemisia tridentata
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The vernacular name sagebrush is also used for several related members of the genus Artemisia, such as California Sagebrush. Big Sagebrush and other Artemisia shrubs are the dominant plant species across large portions of the Great Basin. The range extends northward through British Columbias southern interior, south into Baja California, and east into the western Great Plains of New Mexico, Colorado, Nebraska, and the Dakotas. Several major threats exist to sage brush ecosystems, including settlements, conversion to agricultural land, livestock grazing, invasive plant species, wildfires. Sagebrush provides food and habitat for a variety of species, such as grouse, pronghorn antelope, gray vireo, pygmy rabbit. Artemisia tridentata is the flower of Nevada. Much discussion and disagreement revolves around the question of how to divide the species into varieties, the following subspecies are accepted by some authors, though others advocate different systems. Wyomingensis -- Found in the portions of the sagebrush steppe. Shrub density is less than 1 plant/m2, with little herbaceous cover surrounding the shrub. Parishii - Big Sagebrush is a coarse, many-branched, pale-grey shrub with yellow flowers and silvery-grey foliage, which is generally 0. 5–3 m tall. A deep taproot 1–4 m in length, coupled with laterally spreading roots near the surface, Big sagebrush that is over a meter tall is an indicator of arable land, because it prefers deep, basic soils. Sagebrush is generally long-lived once it makes it past the seedling stage, Big Sagebrush has a strong pungent fragrance due to the presence of camphor, terpenoids and other volatile oils. The taste is bitter and, together with the odor, serves to discourage browsing by many herbivores and it is an evergreen shrub, keeping some of its leaves year-round. The leaves—attached to the branches at the axillary nodes—are wedge-shaped, 1–3 cm long and 0. 3–1 cm broad, the leaves are covered with fine silvery hairs. Big Sagebrush flowers in the summer or early fall. The small yellow flowers are in long, loosely arranged tubular clusters, the fruits are seed-like, and have a small amount of hairs on the surface. The Cahuilla used to large quantities of sagebrush seed. Big Sagebrush can also reproduce through sprouts, which shoot up from the underground rhizome, the sprouts are an extension of the parental plant while seedlings are completely individualistic to any other plant
8.
National Register of Historic Places
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The National Register of Historic Places is the United States federal governments official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures, and objects deemed worthy of preservation. The passage of the National Historic Preservation Act in 1966 established the National Register, of the more than one million properties on the National Register,80,000 are listed individually. The remainder are contributing resources within historic districts, each year approximately 30,000 properties are added to the National Register as part of districts or by individual listings. For most of its history the National Register has been administered by the National Park Service and its goals are to help property owners and interest groups, such as the National Trust for Historic Preservation, coordinate, identify, and protect historic sites in the United States. While National Register listings are mostly symbolic, their recognition of significance provides some financial incentive to owners of listed properties, protection of the property is not guaranteed. During the nomination process, the property is evaluated in terms of the four criteria for inclusion on the National Register of Historic Places, the application of those criteria has been the subject of criticism by academics of history and preservation, as well as the public and politicians. Occasionally, historic sites outside the proper, but associated with the United States are also listed. Properties can be nominated in a variety of forms, including individual properties, historic districts, the Register categorizes general listings into one of five types of properties, district, site, structure, building, or object. National Register Historic Districts are defined geographical areas consisting of contributing and non-contributing properties, some properties are added automatically to the National Register when they become administered by the National Park Service. These include National Historic Landmarks, National Historic Sites, National Historical Parks, National Military Parks/Battlefields, National Memorials, on October 15,1966, the Historic Preservation Act created the National Register of Historic Places and the corresponding State Historic Preservation Offices. Initially, the National Register consisted of the National Historic Landmarks designated before the Registers creation, approval of the act, which was amended in 1980 and 1992, represented the first time the United States had a broad-based historic preservation policy. To administer the newly created National Register of Historic Places, the National Park Service of the U. S. Department of the Interior, hartzog, Jr. established an administrative division named the Office of Archeology and Historic Preservation. Hartzog charged OAHP with creating the National Register program mandated by the 1966 law, ernest Connally was the Offices first director. Within OAHP new divisions were created to deal with the National Register, the first official Keeper of the Register was William J. Murtagh, an architectural historian. During the Registers earliest years in the late 1960s and early 1970s, organization was lax and SHPOs were small, understaffed, and underfunded. A few years later in 1979, the NPS history programs affiliated with both the U. S. National Parks system and the National Register were categorized formally into two Assistant Directorates. Established were the Assistant Directorate for Archeology and Historic Preservation and the Assistant Directorate for Park Historic Preservation, from 1978 until 1981, the main agency for the National Register was the Heritage Conservation and Recreation Service of the United States Department of the Interior. In February 1983, the two assistant directorates were merged to promote efficiency and recognize the interdependency of their programs, jerry L. Rogers was selected to direct this newly merged associate directorate
9.
U.S. Route 395 in Nevada
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U. S. Route 395 clips a corner of the U. S. state of Nevada near Lake Tahoe and serves the cities of Gardnerville, Minden, Carson City and Reno. All of US395 north of Carson City is a freeway and is built up to Interstate standards, part of the freeway section is also designated as Interstate 580. US395 enters Nevada at Topaz Lake as a two-lane highway, upon entering the Carson Valley, US395 becomes a four-lane highway through Minden and Gardnerville. Upon leaving Minden, the highway becomes a divided highway. At the south end of Carson City, the route intersects US50, US50 departs from the freeway at East William Street, while Interstate 580 begins here and heads north through Carson City concurrent with US395. Upon exiting Carson City, the continues north through Washoe Valley and crosses through the mountains west of Washoe City. Upon entering Reno, the route is designated as the Martin Luther King, the highway heads north to the I-80 interchange near Downtown Reno and I-580 ends here. Shortly afterward, US395 turns northwest to serve the northern valleys of the greater Reno area before returning to California at Bordertown, the entire route of US395 through Nevada closely follows the eastern edge of the Sierra Nevada range. Several prominent peaks are visible from the highway, including Jobs Peak, note, Mileposts in Nevada reset at county lines. Freeway exits are numbered according to statewide mileage, roads portal Floodgap Roadgap. com, The Three Flags Highway—U. S
10.
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
