Mt. Etna

Mt. Etna is a 20,527-acre Inventoried Roadless Area in the Humboldt-Toiyabe National Forest of western Nevada, occupying a montane block of mountainous country in the Pine Grove Hills above Wilson Canyon, where the West Walker River cuts between Smith Valley and Mason Valley. Major landforms include the summit of Mount Etna, the cleft drainage of Mickey Canyon, and Scotts Canyon. The area sits at the headwaters of Wilson Canyon-West Walker River, with major-significance hydrology gathered from cold groundwater discharges at Mickey Canyon Spring, Ruby Springs, Beechers Spring, Scotts Spring, Wedertz Spring, Wellington Spring, Pete Spring, and Taylor Spring. These spring-fed seeps are the only persistent surface water across the otherwise arid range.

Vegetation across Mt. Etna sorts itself by elevation, aspect, and moisture. Lower benches and pediments hold Great Basin Big Sagebrush Shrubland, Great Basin Dry Sagebrush Shrubland, and Intermountain Salt Desert Scrub, with sand ricegrass (Eriocoma hymenoides), purple threeawn (Aristida purpurea), Bailey's buckwheat (Eriogonum baileyi), and Nevada smokebush (Psorothamnus polydenius) on the open ground. Pinyon-Juniper Woodland of single-leaf pinyon and Utah juniper covers nearly half the area, and on north-facing rocky slopes Intermountain Mountain Mahogany Woodland holds curl-leaf mountain mahogany (Cercocarpus ledifolius). At higher elevations, scattered Rocky Mountain Aspen Forest and Intermountain Aspen and Conifer Forest gather in cool draws, and Rocky Mountain Subalpine Streamside Woodland traces the spring-fed channels. Wildflowers including Wyoming Indian-paintbrush (Castilleja linariifolia), silvery lupine (Lupinus argenteus), bitterroot (Lewisia rediviva), and sagebrush bluebells (Mertensia oblongifolia) appear in spring across the benches and meadows.

The wildlife community follows these vegetation gradients. In sagebrush flats and steppes, greater sage-grouse (Centrocercus urophasianus) holds breeding leks and seasonal range. Pinyon jay (Gymnorhinus cyanocephalus) caches single-leaf pinyon seeds across the woodland canopy, and Cassin's finch (Haemorhous cassinii) works the conifer canopy and aspen edges. Cooper's hawk (Astur cooperii), great horned owl (Bubo virginianus), and northern harrier (Circus hudsonius) hunt across the mosaic, while golden eagle (Aquila chrysaetos) traverses the open country. Reptiles are abundant on rocky exposures: long-nosed leopard lizard (Gambelia wislizenii), desert horned lizard (Phrynosoma platyrhinos), Great Basin collared lizard (Crotaphytus bicinctores), western fence lizard (Sceloporus occidentalis), and common side-blotched lizard (Uta stansburiana) work the warm slopes. Yellow-billed cuckoo (Coccyzus americanus) traces the streamside corridors fed by the named springs. Portions of this area fall within the potential range of several federally listed species; see the Conservation section for details.

A traveler entering Mickey Canyon hears wind in single-leaf pinyon and the rasping calls of a pinyon jay flock, then climbs through curl-leaf mountain mahogany onto sagebrush benches scattered with bitterroot in spring. Climbing toward the summit of Mount Etna, the air dries, and the open ridges open onto a long view down Wilson Canyon to the West Walker River and west toward Smith Valley. In Scotts Canyon, water moves quietly through the streamside woodland at Scotts Spring, and a watcher pausing on the rim above can catch the hovering shadow of a golden eagle traversing the basin below.

The Wilson Canyon corridor that frames the Mt. Etna roadless area carries one of the densest concentrations of nineteenth-century mining and Northern Paiute history in western Nevada. The Yerington Paiute (Numu) and the broader Walker River band of Northern Paiutes inhabited Mason Valley and the Walker River drainage well before Euro-American contact [7]. Among them was Wovoka, also known as Jack Wilson, who was raised in the household of David Wilson after his father's death; Wovoka would later become the Northern Paiute prophet who founded the Ghost Dance religion in 1890 [7].

Euro-American settlement followed in the late 1850s and 1860s. N.H.A. "Hock" Mason drove cattle through the valley in 1854 and returned five years later to settle along the Walker River north of the present town, giving the valley its name [9]. A post office named Mason Valley was established on August 6, 1871 [9]. Brothers David and William "Uncle Billy" Wilson settled in the Wilson Canyon and Mason Valley area in 1863; David became a prominent rancher and community leader, while William continued as a miner [7]. In 1866, William Wilson discovered the original Pine Grove Mine on outcroppings on the north side of the canyon at Pine Grove [8]. The Wheeler Mine was started soon after and by 1868 there were two large mills and an arrastra in operation [8]. By 1893 the Wilson Mine had produced $5,000,000 and the Wheeler Mine $3,000,000 [8]. In 1870, millwright William Lee homesteaded 160 acres at the present site of Yerington, and other Pine Grove businessmen followed him to a junction known successively as the Switch, Pizen Switch, Greenfield, and finally — beginning April 1, 1894 — Yerington, in honor of Henry M. Yerington, president of the Carson and Colorado Railroad [10][9]. Copper was discovered in the Yerington District in the 1860s, and large-scale mining in the area began with the Nevada Empire Mine around 1918 [6]. From 1910 to the late 1940s, the Nevada Copper Belt Railroad ran through Wilson Canyon [7].

Federal stewardship of the surrounding range began with the 1890s conservation reforms. The National Forest System was started when the Nation's public land policy moved from the disposition to the conservation era, driven by the need to protect mountainous watershed lands from indiscriminate over-grazing and cutting of timber [3]. The Toiyabe Forest Reserve was established by Presidential Proclamation on March 1, 1907 [4]. President Warren G. Harding diminished the Toiyabe in May 1921 to open excluded tracts to homestead and desert-land entry by ex-service men of the War with Germany [2]. The forest was absorbed by Nevada National Forest in 1932, reestablished in 1938 from parts of Humboldt and Nevada, and administratively joined with Humboldt as the Humboldt-Toiyabe National Forest in 1995 [5]. Mt. Etna today is managed within the Bridgeport Ranger District of the Humboldt-Toiyabe National Forest and is protected under the 2001 Roadless Area Conservation Rule.

Vital Resources Protected

• Cold Headwater Spring Integrity: Mt. Etna holds the major-significance headwaters of Wilson Canyon-West Walker River through eight named springs — Mickey Canyon Spring, Ruby Springs, Beechers Spring, Scotts Spring, Wedertz Spring, Wellington Spring, Pete Spring, and Taylor Spring. The roadless condition preserves the unaltered timing and volume of cold groundwater that emerges across the range, sustaining the Rocky Mountain Subalpine Streamside Woodland and Great Basin Foothill Streamside Woodland that depend on persistent flows in an arid landscape and that support yellow-billed cuckoo (Coccyzus americanus) along the riparian corridor.

• Sagebrush Steppe Continuity for Sage-Grouse: The unfragmented mosaic of Great Basin Big Sagebrush Shrubland, Great Basin Dry Sagebrush Shrubland, and Intermountain Mountain Sagebrush Steppe preserves the large, contiguous low-shrub canopies that greater sage-grouse (Centrocercus urophasianus) require for breeding leks, nesting, and seasonal movement. Roadless conditions hold this matrix together at landscape scale, maintaining the patch sizes and interior conditions that fragmented sagebrush systems quickly lose.

• Pinyon-Juniper Canopy Continuity: Great Basin Pinyon-Juniper Woodland covers 45.9% of the area in a continuous canopy of single-leaf pinyon and Utah juniper. The roadless condition maintains seed-producing mature stands and the connected aspen and mountain mahogany pockets in cool draws — the integrated mosaic that supports pinyon jay (Gymnorhinus cyanocephalus) caching across full life cycles.

Potential Effects of Road Construction

• Sedimentation and disruption of headwater springs: Road construction in mountainous montane terrain cuts across slopes that drain into the eight named springs of the Wilson Canyon-West Walker River headwaters, exposing erodible soils that deliver chronic fine sediment into spring channels. Culverted crossings and ditch-diverted runoff alter the timing and volume of spring discharge, and once spring outflows are altered, the streamside woodland and the yellow-billed cuckoo riparian corridor that depend on persistent groundwater can collapse and are difficult to reestablish.

• Sage-grouse habitat fragmentation and cheatgrass invasion: Road corridors carve continuous sagebrush steppe into isolated patches, eliminating the interior conditions that sage-grouse require for leks and nesting and introducing edges along which non-native annual grasses such as cheatgrass (Bromus tectorum) establish from disturbed corridors. Cheatgrass reseeds on disturbed road shoulders and spreads outward, converting fire-resistant sagebrush stands into flammable annual grasslands and triggering fire-cycle changes that sagebrush ecosystems do not recover from on management timescales.

• Loss of pinyon-juniper canopy and pinyon jay habitat: Road benches in pinyon-juniper woodland cut mature stands of single-leaf pinyon and Utah juniper that have grown in over many decades, opening the canopy and removing the seed-producing overstory that pinyon jay populations depend on. The disturbed cut-and-fill surfaces erode chronically, deliver sediment into downslope drainages, and provide colonization sites for invasive species, while the connected aspen and mahogany pockets adjacent to the woodland are isolated and reduced.

Mt. Etna covers 20,527 acres of mountainous montane country in the Pine Grove Hills of western Nevada's Humboldt-Toiyabe National Forest, with backcountry access spread across Mickey Canyon, Scotts Canyon, and the slopes around Mount Etna itself. The area is reached through the Bridgeport Ranger District. No designated trailheads or developed campgrounds lie within the area, and recreation is dispersed.

The trail network is the most extensive among the area's adjacent roadless units. The Scott Canyon Trail (#22814) runs 7.5 miles, the Mickey Canyon Trail (#22853) covers 6.5 miles, and the Long Connector Trail (#22549) extends 6.2 miles, providing the principal long-distance routes. The Lobdell Summit Trail (#22815) climbs 4.5 miles toward the surrounding high country, and the Alluvial Plain Trail (#22480) traverses 3.3 miles of native material across the lower benches. Shorter spurs and connectors include the Scotts Spring Bypass (#22813, 2.6 mi), Micky Canyon Trail (#22817, 2.0 mi), Lower Microwave (#22469, 1.7 mi), Taylor Connector (#22507, 1.7 mi), Old Boundary Trail (#22816, 1.6 mi), North Wellington Springs Trail (#22455, 1.4 mi), Wilson Canyon 4 ST (#22860, 1.3 mi, hiker), Prospects Connector (#22444, 1.2 mi), Cemetery Trail (#22810, 0.9 mi), Mickey Canyon Spring Trail (#22818, 0.8 mi), Lower Pine Grove (#22443, 0.5 mi), Microwave Connector (#22470, 0.5 mi), Micro Cutoff (#22472, 0.4 mi), Micro Shortcut (#22471, 0.3 mi), and Prospects Shortcut (#22445, 0.1 mi). All routes are native material; the Wilson Canyon 4 ST is designated for hikers, the others are unspecified for use.

Hunting is the principal large-mammal activity here. Greater sage-grouse (Centrocercus urophasianus) hold leks in the sagebrush flats; the area provides mule deer winter range; and gamebird and big-game hunting occur under Nevada Department of Wildlife regulations and tag requirements. Cooper's hawk (Astur cooperii), great horned owl (Bubo virginianus), and golden eagle (Aquila chrysaetos) hunt across the mosaic but are protected. The Bridgeport Ranger District office should be consulted for unit boundaries and current season information.

Birding focuses on the woodland, sagebrush, and rim species. Pinyon jay (Gymnorhinus cyanocephalus) caches single-leaf pinyon seeds across the canopy; Cassin's finch (Haemorhous cassinii) works the conifer edges; northern harrier (Circus hudsonius) hunts the open steppe; and yellow-billed cuckoo (Coccyzus americanus) traces the streamside corridors fed by the named springs in summer. Mourning dove (Zenaida macroura) and great horned owl are common across the lower benches. The area lies outside any documented eBird hotspot, so birders practice their own listing along the trails.

Wildflower observation and photography are most rewarding in spring across the lower benches and along the spring-fed channels. Bitterroot (Lewisia rediviva), sagebrush bluebells (Mertensia oblongifolia), Wyoming Indian-paintbrush (Castilleja linariifolia), and silvery lupine (Lupinus argenteus) bloom across the open ground; giant blazingstar (Mentzelia laevicaulis) and Mojave pincushion (Chaenactis macrantha) appear later. Photographers and reptile observers can find Great Basin collared lizard (Crotaphytus bicinctores), long-nosed leopard lizard (Gambelia wislizenii), and desert horned lizard (Phrynosoma platyrhinos) on rocky exposures throughout the warm months.

Backcountry camping is dispersed and primitive — no developed sites exist, and water is available only at the named springs. Pack-in/pack-out practices are essential. The trail system supports both foot and horseback travel; experienced parties can link the long Scott and Mickey Canyon trails into multi-day loops via the Long Connector and Taylor Connector.

The recreation here depends on the roadless condition. The dense network of native-surface trails, the cross-country travel into Mickey and Scotts Canyons, the unmolested sage-grouse leks, the cold spring water that sustains the streamside corridor, and the quiet pinyon-juniper benches that hold pinyon jay flocks all exist because no road network has been pushed through the interior. Adding roads would replace dispersed backcountry travel with motorized access, fragment sage-grouse habitat, sediment the spring channels, and convert a quiet hunting and birding unit into a developed recreation footprint.