Rodero Creek: Rising water on the high desert

Decades ago, if a person wasn't careful, he could “bog a horse” along parts of Rodero Creek. The seven miles of perennial stream in the Sheldon National Wildlife Refuge in northwestern Nevada had long stretches of wet meadow where sage grouse flocked in late summer. In this cold desert landscape with long, dry summers, wet meadow habitat is critical, far more critical than in sage grouse habitat where summer rains provide upland forbs in late summer. Cattle, too, gathered here to graze the still-green meadow vegetation.