Green

Safe haven

University of Nevada, Reno student-led group Envirohaven announced a prototype of an alternative energy powered house, funded by the $37,000 awarded to them at the Donald W. Reynolds Governor’s Cup (“Competitive edge,” April 19). The project is called the Haven, and according to Envirohaven’s website, a patent is pending.

“The Haven home design is the first complete home designed specifically for living in areas without access to public utilities, ‘off-grid,’” the project website says. “You’ll find affordable options whether you are looking for a place to call home or you have commercial, humanitarian or military interests.”

The standard model of the house is 1,400 square feet, with three bedrooms and two bathrooms. Other models provide the option to set up dormitory-style quarters which can accommodate up to eight people. The home will be sold as a package, which includes items like solar photovoltaic and solar thermal panels, dual-paned windows, gray water recycling systems, and other building materials, such as walls and doors. Constructed of triangular panels, the house is intended to be easily transported. Purchasing all materials and building the house is estimated to cost less than $200,000.

Photographs of the prototype can be found on Envirohaven’s Facebook page, http://on.fb.me/Ra3GJ3.

Fly away home

A recent Nevada Land Trust deal ensured the preservation of Silver Lake, more than 200 acres, for migratory birds. The habitat is located just outside of Stead. Due to a “purchase agreement” with the Land Trust and the Peter Echeverria Family Limited Partnership, the land has been preserved as “open space,” according to a statement.

Several dozen species of birds flock to the lake bed every year as a migratory pit stop. The agreement will also allow for hiking trails and other recreation to be developed in the area.

The Nevada Land Trust is the new name for the Nevada Land Conservancy. The non-profit was founded 14 years ago and works to keep wilderness open for local wildlife.

Have a gas

The week of Oct. 15-21 is Federal Radon Awareness Week, in which the American Lung Association, National Cancer Institute and the Center for Disease Control encourage communities to test for radon, especially homes that have not been tested in the past two years. Radon is a naturally occurring odorless, colorless and tasteless radioactive gas, produced by the “breakdown of uranium in soil, rock and water,” according to the Nevada Radon Education Program. It’s classified as a class A carcinogen. Test kits are available at the Nevada Radon Program Cooperative Extension Office at 4955 Energy Way, open Monday through Friday, 8 a.m.-5 p.m.

—Ashley Hennefer

ashleyh@newsreview.com

ECO-EVENT

The 13th annual Brews with a View Hike to benefit the Nevada Land Trust will be held on Oct. 13. The hike will be on the Spooner and Marlette Lake trail, around 9.5 miles round-trip. Participants will meet at the Marlette Lake Trailhead at 8:30 a.m. and should bring water. Hikers can park at the Spooner Lake Park parking facilities at the intersection of state route 28 and U.S. 50. The event is organized by Silver Peak Restaurant and Brewery. For more information, call the Nevada Land Conservancy at 851-5180 or Silver Peak Restaurant and Brewery at 324-1864.

Got an eco-event? Contact ashleyh@ newsreview.com. Visit www.facebook.com/ RNRGreen for more.

PHO TO /BURE A U OF LAND MANAGEMENT

The Reno-Tahoe tourism website highlghts wild horses as a sight to see in the area.

Running wild

Rumors abound about wild horse roundups

Last week, wild horses in Antelope Valley were rounded up as part of the Bureau of Land Management’s efforts to control and maintain wild horse population. by But Deniz Bolbol, spokesperson for the American Wild Horse Preservation Ashley Campaign, wonders why there are no GPS devices or video cameras in the

Hennefer helicopters to show if all of the horses are being rounded up safely. And why ashleyh@ roundups are the BLM’s go-to method of wild horse control when methods newsreview.com of birth control and predator maintenance would be more effective, she says. Bolbol’s questions are not new, given that the BLM’s ethics of horse roundups have been a source of controversy for several years (“They kill wild horses, don’t they?” Oct. 27, 2011). Areport run on NBC last week by ProPublica, an investigative journalism project, looked into the surplus of horses kept in long-term holding—where horses go after they are rounded up and haven’t been adopted. The report found that the BLM has been selling horses to kill buyers, who slaughter the horses and sell the meat. “We knew for a long time, but now we know,” Bolbol says of the report’s claims. “Basically, we’ve heard for years rumors about the BLM and Department of Interior selling wild horses to kill buyers. [They] ship horses to Canada, and this kill buyer sells them to Mexico.” To read the ProPublica The kill buyer Bolbol referred to in the ProPublica report is Tom Davis, report, visit and BLM records show the agency has sold Davis horses for several years.www.nbcnews.to/ PmqXM4. Davis must sign a no-slaughter contract when he buys the horses, but he has been on the record for years as a supporter of horse slaughter. The horses are protected under the 1971 Wild-Free Roaming Horses Act, which states, “It is the policy of Congress that wild free-roaming horses and burros shall be protected from capture, branding, harassment, or death.” According to the BLM, the drought is the primary reason for the roundups. Carson City Wild Horse and Burro Program Specialist John Axell says that the tentative schedule for roundups, expected to carry into early 2013, could change if drought conditions worsen for the horses. “We’ll have to see if the conditions there are worse for some horses that are a greater risk of dying,” Axell says. “Drought has affected some of these areas.” But Bolbol says that the drought is not considered an emergency, because a drought is not “unforeseeable,” given the frequency of droughts in the region. She says an emergency is the only reason for roundups. When asked what happens to the horses after roundups, “They go to some short term holding facility, the Palomino Valley Corral in Sparks,” Axell says. “The younger, more adoptable ones are put up for adoption. Older horses are sent to a long term sanctuary in the Midwest, where there are hundreds of acres of grass.” Bolbol says the Midwest facility is closed to the public, who cannot verify the horses’living conditions. She says it’s one of many questionable decisions made by the BLM. “The whole problem starts with the BLM’s mismanagement of this program,” she says. “If they were managed in humane ways and not by removing them, they would not have this stock pile of horses they have today and they would not have to sell them to kill buyers.” Ω