March 29th - April 2nd 2023
On March 28th through April 3rd, NOS members were able to attend the Reno Motorsports Expo in Reno, NV. The event was exciting and fun and NOS was able to reach out to community members of Reno and surrounding areas. At this event, we were able to explain Leave No Trace and the 5 Tread Lightly! Principles. We were able to do this with our large question wheel that participants got to spin, answer a question and get a prize! We also had the opportunity to explain our summer camps. At this event we were able to reach out to 401 people and explain what we do here at NOS and impact the participants of the Expo in a fun way!
NDOW & NOS Spring Break LNT Camp
April 5th 2023
During the week of Elko County Spring Break, NOS partnered with NDOW to help with Wild Week. During the week there are different activities each day such as Hunters Ed, Archery, Biologist Day and more! For our day, we hosted a Leave No Trace Awareness Workshop. Participants learned all 7 Leave No Trace Principles, which are ways to be safe and responsible while recreating outdoors. The principles are taught through a series of fun and interactive games. A favorite was, “Save the Forest” where students learned the importance of putting out campfires and how firefighters help to prevent the spread of wildfires!
Photo Caption: Participants learning the importance of putting out campfires through a fun game!
April Full Moon Hike
April 6th 2023
On the first full moon of April NOS hosted a nighttime hike to watch the full moon over Water Canyon and Southfork Meadows. In Winnemucca the snow was still present on the trail so the use of snowshoes became necessary to reach the end of the trail. During this event the participants got to experience snowshoeing as well as nighttime navigation. NOS puts on these hikes for the community so they can see what nature has to offer them as far as recreation and general well-being.
Photo: Winnemucca office on top of the lookout at Water Canyon
April 14th, 2023
With our lesson for the homeschool group, we had fun teaching them about compasses and counting paces. When the kids first got a hold of the compasses they learned how to sight their compasses to always keep the direction arrow ready and then they learned how to read coordinates. The kids at the homeschool group got to do a scavenger hunt and coordinates following to find pieces of a paper flower to build a picture for spring. Overall the students enjoyed learning about compasses, their uses, the history of them, and building the spring flower for their parents.
Tahoe Truckee Earth Day
April 15th 2023
In April two AmeriCorps members went to the Tahoe Truckee Earth Day Festival.
We had a booth that saw 434 people. At the event we educated people about the 7 Leave No Trace principles and how they can be applied to when they are outdoors exploring. We taught the principles through the Leave No Trace hang tags as well as educated people on how to choose actions that have a lesser impact when outdoors through our wheel of ethics. Overall this was a great event where we got to educate many people.
Photo Caption: AmeriCorps members at an outreach booth
Ducks Unlimited Dinner
April 15th, 2023
On April 15th one AmeriCorps member and one staff member went to the Ducks Unlimited dinner. We were able to reach out to parents and tell them about our upcoming summer camps and our other activities for the month. During the event the children were able to make and decorate reusable bags for Earth day and Leave No Trace hang tags. Overall the event was really fun and we were able to reach out to quite a few people who don't know what we do.
Photo Caption: Participants making Leave No Trace hangtags
Carlin Trout Release
April 18th, 2023
The Carlin trout release was on April 18th in Carlin, NV. At this event, NOS was able to teach students about erosion and prey vs. predator. We played games and talked about vegetation and how having a heavily vegetated area can help with areas that have erosion. We were also able to talk about the prey and predators of trout, such as bears for predators and bugs for prey. NOS was able to reach an awesome 4th grade class, and although we weren't able to release any trout, we were still able to learn and play.
Photo Caption: Students at the Carlin Pond for Trout Release
Health and Wellness Carnival
April 20th, 2023
On the evening of April 20th, NOS was able to participate in the Level Up 4 Health School Carnival. This event was hosted at Flagview Intermediate Level Up 4 Health is a community initiative promoting health and wellness in children and teens. The booth NOS set up showed students and their families the importance of ATV safety with our NOS Toss game. Every student won a prize and left with more knowledge of ATV safety!
Photo Caption: NOS booth at the Health and Wellness Carnival
Minden Ride Safe Ride Smart Presentation with Renown Medical Center
April 20th, 2023
Nevada Outdoor School traveled to Minden, Nevada with our Ride Safe Ride Smart OHV Safety program partnering with Jorge Montano, Renown Hospital’s Pediatric Injury Prevention Specialist, to do a presentation about OHV Safety Education to five Douglas High School Health classes and 130 students. Jorge shared stories and photos of several Nevada youths that have suffered traumatic brain injuries from preventable accidents while not wearing head protection or helmets while recreating off-road. Mel from NOS engaged the students in conversations about the positive and negative impacts of riding OHVs and the choices that can be made to positively impact themselves and the environment and limit negative impacts whenever possible.
NOS’s Ride Safe Ride Smart Nevada program is really expanding and evolving with our renewed partnership with Renown, Tread Lightly and the NV Offroad Association. Youth or adults can take an online OHV Safety Course by visiting https://www.offroad-ed.com/nevada and use the coupon code NOSRS2 to complete the course for free. Hands-on OHV Safety Courses and Ride Safe Ride Smart school-based curriculum can be brought to your community. Just reach out to information@nevadaoutdoorschool.org!
On the afternoon of April 21st, the day before Earth Day, members of the Elko community came together to create Earth Day bags and learn about trash decomposition. We started with our trash timeline game, where participants guessed how long some of our everyday trash takes to decompose. Some items were pretty surprising, for example, did you know fishing line can take up to 600 years to decompose! Next, every participant was able to decorate their very own Earth Day bag to be used for picking up or storing trash.
Photo Caption: Participants create their Earth Day bags.
Great Basin Greatness
April 27th, 2023
On April 27th all of the current AmeriCorps members went to Grass Valley Elementary to put on the “Great Basin Greatness” event hosted by the Grass Valley PTA. At the event we showcased several types of lessons/ programs that NOS provides such as our elk trunk, Leave No Trace, animal skins, skulls, and tracks, and Ride Safe, Ride Smart sample program. We were also able to educate the families about the actual content in our programs and inspire the kids to think about animals and some of the ways we can affect them. In addition we had a general information booth all about our upcoming summer programs we have to offer this year as well!
Photo caption: AmeriCorps member handing out sticker prizes to participants after they answered an RS2 question.
Zero Suicide Event
April 29th, 2023
On April 29th, we were able to attend the Zero Suicide Elko event at the Elko Convention Center. At this event, NOS as well as many others had booths for participants to look at and learn about. At this event, there were multiple guest speakers for the vendors and the public. They talked about mental health and suicide awareness. We feel so lucky to have been able to participate in this event and help support mental health awareness. At NOS, all members are trained in safeTALK and suicide awareness. NOS is a supporter of mental health awareness and helping people get outdoors to aid mental illness.
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