Nevada is being impacted by wind like never before, and does it have an impact on our agricultural products?
I am part of a climate team that has been working on the Native Waters on Arid Lands project for over seven years. This project works with American Indian tribes across the West and somewhat at a national level on climate issues. As I write this article, we just finished a workshop in Nevada at the Nevada Tribal Summit with tribal leaders and tribal agricultural producers. One of the big issues was the impact of wind on livestock and alfalfa operations.
There are those that don’t believe in climate change. I really don’t care to get into this argument, but what I do know, is that our temperatures are increasing, we face more extreme events each year, atmospheric river is becoming more normal, and now wind. Our water resources are also different.
I have noticed where I live that we just seem to get wind a lot earlier, and it seems to stay all winter. We have had to change some of our vaccinations for our cattle herd because of the constant wind and dust. The ranch’s alfalfa crops are producing differently. My father had to stop cutting because of the strong winds for fear the hay windrows would not make it through an upcoming storm. This is combined with not raking hay until it is ready to be baled. Graph 1 (below) is preliminary data that was completed in our workshop for the Walker River reservation in western Nevada that documents wind over time.
Our climate scientist this week explained that the warmer temperatures have a direct correlation to our increased wind and the atmospheric rivers that are showing up in our weather patterns. We are seeing the extremes. If fact, Nevada climate right now, is the break between wetter than normal in the very north of the state, and extreme dry in the central and south part of the state. Our team expects another La Nina year, which means our current circumstances will continue.
We are and will be under extreme fire danger in the Sierra Nevada. We were told to expect fire this year, especially in and around the Sierra’s. This will add additional smoke to the area that we have seen in the last couple of years. The smoke also has a direct impact on livestock health and alfalfa production. Producers many have to change some of their strategies and management practices.
After our workshop was completed, I sat down with our team leader as we are in discussions to begin to expand this climate program beyond our Nevada tribes to specific farming and ranching areas of Nevada. We also are looking at expanding the program to include regenerative or now called “Climate-Smart” agriculture. We are in the process of selecting two different water basins in Nevada. Half of our climate team works at Desert Research Institute (DRI), and the other half of our team is at the University of Nevada, Reno.
Overall, wind, and monitoring wind patterns, will become one of the updates to producers in addition to predicted fire, climate patterns (drought, atmospheric rivers), and pests. We have a few producers in Nevada already working with climate-smart agricultural practices. It will be interesting to me to begin the investigations into these practices and working with our economics and irrigations teams to discuss the pros and cons of climate-smart practices. Do climate-smart ag practices have an impact on soil moisture as we face more extreme wind? I believe we need to see if we can answer this question, and get more climate data out to our Nevada producers.
By Staci Emmn | Editorial