NAF News

NAF CONTRIBUTES TO WEATHER STATION

Responding to a grant request from the Esmeralda County Soil Conservation District, the Nevada Agricultural Foundation (NAF) at their May, 2002 Board meeting awarded $5,000 in matching funds to install a "state of the art" (for its size) weather station in Fish Lake Valley. That station, now, has been operative since March of this year and is providing useful data to farmers and ranchers.

Many Nevadans especially in the State's two large metropolitan areas, Reno and Las Vegas, may have never heard of the valley. It is located in the shadows of the White Mountains which, for some distance, rise high up along the Nevada, California border. The Mountain's Boundry Peak rests among the clouds at its 13,140 foot summit and is Nevada's highest point though it is barely within the State's borders. The Valley is some 70 miles west of Tonopah and 80 miles east of Bishop, California. It is situated on the eastern side of the Whites.

From a vegetational and geographical perspective, Fish Lake Valley is very near the southern limits of the State's high or cold desert regions. A little further south and one enters Nevada's hot desert, yucca and joshua country. It is a landscape with scanty plant growth and seemingly without water - that is with the exception of Fish Lake Valley, a green paradise among the runted sage and other ochre colored vegetation.

Draining off the White's are a number of creeks which flow into the valley providing it with considerable water for a Nevada location. Among these is Chiatovich Creek which originates in a drainage near Boundary Peak. Others include Indian, Marble, Leidy and Busher creeks. A major crop in the valley is alfalfa. There are also livestock operations. Among one time ranchers in the Valley was E. L. Cord, wealthy entreprenuer and builder of the Cord automobile. He later resided in Reno, building one the city's first television stations. Since he passed away, the Cord Foundation has been a leading supporter of worthwhile causes and projects. Serving the Valley is a small business center called Dyer.

The weather station is located on the Wallace ranch property. It records solar radiation, wind speeds, barometric pressure, humidity, outside temperatures, percipitation, soil temperatures and evaporation. It automatically assembles data from these readings and provides digital read outs of the information. Every three hours, the data is transmitted to a satelite where it then is transferred to computer systems and downloaded to an internet web site. It is available then to anyone in Fish Lake Valley who desires the information or to anyone in the world, for that matter, who accesses the web site.

Mrs. Marlene Wallace, upon whose family ranch the station is situated, said, "right now its major contribution to our agricultural operations is to provide humidity data useful in our alfalfa haying operations. We produce as fine a quality hay as we can since we sell it to dairies and they require a highly nutritious product. It is very important that we retain as much leaf as possible in our afalfa since they provide the bulk of the TDN (total digestible nutrient) component in the hay. This means we have to bale it when it is not too dry nor too wet. Humidity data allows us to determine the best baling time. Humidity patterns also aid us in determining the best time to cut or harvest."

"However," she continued, "we will benefit a great deal more once the station has operated a couple or more years. We then will be able to compile data on precipitation patterns and probabilities, wind histories, evaporation trends relative to these data and other such information. This will allow us to predict or anticipate what might happen, weather wise based on past history. The weather station provides a potential to significantly improve the way we farm or ranch in the valley."

NAF Executive Director/Secretary Gail Munk (left) of Lovelock discusses operation of the Fish Lake Valley Weather Station with Grant Wallace. The station. is on his ranch property.