Letter from the President - Bill Vasconi

Water Development Projects:

The spring of the year in Southern Nevada generally consists of cool mornings and moderate desert temperatures of the afternoon. With rain brought into the area from weather patterns generated off the Pacific West coast - one looks forward to the April and May desert "green-up". The rejuvenation of dormant shrubs, grasses and the blooms of desert wildflowers. It is when the ewes of the desert sheep have taken to existing along the higher ridge lines, sensing the need for a greater degree of security from predators, as it is time for the birthing of lambs.

Spring is also the Fraternity's time frame for construction of new water projects and the maintenance / renovation of existing projects - to repair, improve or expand their water storage capabilities.

New sites selected for construction projects are after studies and surveys completed by Nevada's Division of Wildlife and with field reports from Fraternity members as to sheep country habitat. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife , Bureau of Land Management and the U.S. Forest Service lands are very important sheep reserves and the Fraternity has had a long standing and successful relationship with these administrators as well. All entities are to be commended for their commitment to Nevada's wildlife and it's habitat.

Water development projects - commonly referred to as "guzzlers" consists of three factors. First - the means of water collection. Then the capability to store quantities of water sufficient to sustain wildlife through critical summer months. Resulting in an open water source available to the variety of wildlife which will utilize the resource.

Water collection is normally provided in one of two ways ( 1) construction of small dams in a slick rock ravine which accumulates water when rains provide runoff from hillsides. (2) installation of a corrugated metal or hypalon "apron" positioned on a hillside with rainwater drainage towards the project. The apron coverage, varying in surface area due to terrain, ranges in size from several hundred to over 3,000 square feet.

Storage tanks with capacity from 1800 to 2300 gallons are positioned on a pad which is excavated downhill from the water collection site. Four of these fiberglass water holding tanks are used on the majority of newly constructed projects. Water is channeled from the collection site, by means of 2" plastic Drisco-Pipe into the tanks. The tanks are connected one to another by pipe and as they are fully enclosed there is not an evaporation factor.

The metal drinker which is the water source for wildlife is located within 100 feet of the storage tanks and is connected to them by Drisco-Pipe. The drinker is positioned at the same elevation settings as the storage tanks. The drinker is full when the tanks are also at maximum capacity. As the water level falls in the tanks the same is true of the drinker. So designed - the "walk-in" drinker serves as a water source unless adverse weather conditions render the storage tanks totally dry.

These individual projects represent 600 hours of donated labor and $32000 worth of direct costs. Of this The Fraternity of the Desert Bighorn donates approximately $85,000 of these costs annually with assistance from other conservation groups throughout the state.

The Fraternity of the Desert Bighorn "an organization unselfishly dedicated to the utilization, conservation and welfare of the Desert Bighorn Sheep".

That says it all and completion of the spring water development projects emphasizes that our commitment of "let's put more sheep on the mountain" is a true reality.