When I wrote about the rising cost of recreating outdoors earlier this month, I focused on the increased entrance fees, reservations and permits now needed to access many of Nevada’s most popular public lands — measures that curb overcrowding but also unintentionally exclude some people from visiting certain parks and natural areas.

But there’s a cost of recreating I didn’t touch on: The increased risk of wildfires. 

The ways wildfires start are innumerable — campfires that weren’t snuffed properly, target shooting, driving through dry grass, a carelessly tossed cigarette — but they almost always have one thing in common: humans.

Nationally, approximately 85 percent of all wildfires are human-caused. In many cases, those fires are sparked by people having fun outside. 

The 2024 Davis Fire in South Reno was caused by an improperly extinguished fire at a regional park. The massive 2021 Caldor Fire, which forced evacuations of South Lake Tahoe, was determined to be caused by a bullet strike potentially tied to target shooters. Nevada’s largest wildfire, the 2018 Martin Fire outside Winnemucca that burned roughly 440,000 acres, was started by illegal fireworks. 

As of early August, people had started 200 of Nevada’s wildfires so far this year, 115 had natural causes, and 85 were undetermined. Following national trends for fire causes, most blazes with undetermined causes are started by humans, according to Kacey KC, state forester and fire warden. 

During the pandemic, the number of fires started by humans spiked. 

“You had a lot of people recreating who’d never recreated before,” KC said. 

And, as I reported in my recreation story, more people are recreating than ever in Nevada — state parks alone draw more than 4 million visitors annually. 

So it makes sense that NV Energy is seeking to double the amount of wildfire insurance it carries from $500 million to $1 billion in case its equipment starts a blaze. State energy regulators agree it’s a good idea, as I recently reported, but they weren’t as sold on the utility's request that ratepayers fund this increase over the next decade. 

The utility was hoping to charge Northern Nevada residential customers about $2.40 more per month and Southern Nevada customers about $0.50 more a month starting this fall, but utility regulators are unconvinced. The utility, they said, failed to prove it was unable to obtain commercial insurance or to prepare a draft of its new, proposed policy ratepayers would fund. 

NV Energy now has until mid-October to provide state energy regulators with details of its proposal — a month that used to signal the end of the wildfire season. But in an era of warming, drying climates and longer fire seasons, the National Interagency Fire Center is forecasting above normal fire danger across most of Nevada through the fall, and October hardly means the end of fire season anymore, KC said. Depending on snowfall and precipitation, fire season in Nevada can easily run into the new year.

That’s why she’s asking people to recreate responsibly and be mindful of fire danger. 

“Any fire that doesn’t have to be, gives our firefighters rest,” she said. And, in the long run, fewer fires could inadvertently help keep Nevadans’ power bills lower.

In the weeds: 

Throwing in the towel — Rover Critical Minerals, the company that had proposed to mine lithium at Ash Meadows National Wildlife Refuge, is walking away from the project, according to the Center for Biological Diversity, which reports that the Australian company has changed its name and refocused its efforts in South America. 

The project faced intense local opposition from conservation groups as well as tribal and local governments that sued to block the project. Ultimately, the Biden administration issued a temporary two-year withdrawal from mining claims while a longer ban was considered. However, the federal government recently approved an exploratory project just two miles from the wildlife refuge. 

Solar woes — Federal efforts to reduce solar projects are hampering energy development in Nevada, Gov. Joe Lombardo said earlier this month in a letter to the Department of Interior. The federal government has cracked down on what it has referred to as "unreliable" energy sources such as wind and solar. Shortly before Lombardo sent his letter, the department had issued a memo requiring the Secretary of Interior to sign off on almost every detail of upcoming solar projects.

New park visitor centers — Fort Churchill and Valley of Fire state parks will be unveiling new visitor centers in the fall. A grand opening for the new Valley of Fire visitor center near the park’s famed Beehive and Petrified Log formations is planned for Nov. 22. Fort Churchill’s museum will reopen as a visitor center in early October. 

Oh, Christmas tree — A 53-foot-tall red fir growing in the Humboldt-Toiyabe National Forest’s Carson Ranger District has been selected as the 2025 Capitol Christmas Tree. Characterized by distinctive blue-green needles that point upward and dense, sturdy branching, it will be cut in October and displayed before it is shipped to the capitol. 

Here’s what else I’m reading (and listening to) this month: 

Kathleen Sgamma’s nomination to head the BLM ended abruptly. Here’s how she would have approached the job. From Desert News.

Trump officials aim to divert money meant for buying wilderness land to fund maintenance at national parks and other federal land, according to The Washington Post. 

Who will benefit from melting glaciers? A long, but incredibly interesting and well-researched read from Grist.

Also from The Washington Post, research by scientists at Harvard has revealed that lithium is deeply involved in Alzheimer’s disease. 

A closer look: