Heart & Hope Family Violence Intervention Program targets parents and children who have experienced domestic violence. The program teaches communication, emotion identification and regulation, problem-solving, healthy relationships, social/emotional skills, and strengthening families. Since 2015, 76 adults and 160 Elko County youth have participated in the program. Staff also provide training to stakeholders, school counselors, and nonprofit organizations on how to work with adult and child survivors of domestic violence, using a trauma-informed approach.

Domestic Violence High-Risk Teams

Coordinated community responses, involving multiple systems (e.g., law enforcement, criminal justice system, victim, and child services, etc.) that are victim-centered, increase victim safety and participation in the criminal process, increase arrest and prosecution of the offender, and reduce recidivism. Law enforcement agencies that conduct victim danger risk assessments when responding to domestic violence calls prevent fatalities. However, a coordinated community response structure must be in place to support victims.

In 2025, the Domestic Violence High-Risk Team realized the following accomplishments:

• Implemented the DA-LE (Danger Assessment-Law Enforcement), a questionnaire used by an officer summoned to a domestic violence call to determine if the victim is at high risk of being killed by an intimate partner, across all law enforcement agencies in the county, ensuring standardized use and appropriate referral of cases.
• Achieved 100% completion of strangulation training for all law enforcement officers in the county.
• Facilitated the development of a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between the Committee Against Domestic Violence and the Department of Children and Family Services, improving identification and response to domestic violence cases involving families.
• Documented a measurable increase in case load, demonstrating that the DA-LE is successfully identifying more victims at risk and connecting them to critical resources.

Agriculture and Horticulture

Elko County residents look to Extension for pesticide application safety education and certification and horticulture education. Extension assists clientele in identifying plants, weeds, and insects, diagnosing plant diseases and recommending actions homeowners and agricultural producers can take to address plant, weed and insect problems. In addition, Extension works with livestock producers, state and federal agencies and other stakeholders on multiple efforts in Elko County related to effective livestock grazing management on rangelands.

The Nevada Master Gardener program has expanded to Elko County. Community members interested in volunteering to educate the public about gardening participated in the Home Horticulture Certification program and the Master Gardener Certification program. Elko County has one volunteer, Master Gardener Amber Huff. Amber co-led the Great Basin 4-H Pollinator Club in planting flowers and plants that would attract pollinators, co-organized and promoted the Elko County Compost Awareness Week, and presented educational workshops on growing indoor plants and outdoor flowers, terrariums and seed starting. 

Elko County Extension offered the following agriculture, pesticide and horticulture classes in 2024-2025:

• Agriculture Business Builder Award Program
• Bumblebee Bioblitz
• Cattlemen’s Update
• Cover Crops for Gardens and Small Farms
• Enhanced Biosecurity for Livestock Producers 
• Grasshoppers in the West
• Grow Your Own, Nevada gardening series
• Home Horticulture Certification
• Invasive Annual Grass Management
• Landscaping with Native Plants
• Master Gardener Certification
• Pesticide Application Safety Certification (Spring & Fall)
• Rangeland Monitoring (Rancher’s Monitoring Guide, Grazing Response Index)
• Rangeland Plant Identification (Grasses and Forbs)
• Soil Health for Healthy Plants
• Spring Weeds
• Virtual Fence for Rangeland Livestock Grazing Management
• Water Conservation and Integrated Pest Management: Synergies for Sustainable Agriculture

Because the University of Nevada, Reno Extension’s State Specialist for Rangeland Livestock/Wildlife Interactions (Meiman) is based in Elko County, Extension is actively involved in numerous Rangeland and Natural Resources efforts in the county, including but not limited to those described below.

Collaborative Rangeland Management for Desired Outcomes

Meiman was actively involved in at least nine different collaborative groups and efforts related to rangeland management. This involved participation in approximately 40 different meetings in the past year, providing the opportunity for Meiman to make 4 formal presentations and approximately 20 informal presentations regarding a wide variety of topics, including, but not limited to, rangeland management, rangeland plant growth and response to herbivory, rangeland monitoring, livestock grazing management, riparian area monitoring/management, and virtual fencing. These educational efforts reached over 400 individuals (unique contacts) and the majority of these occurred in Elko County. It is important to consider that even a subset of the individuals reached by these efforts are responsible for the management of millions of acres of rangeland. The primary collaborative groups include the Winecup-Gamble Ranch Outcome Based Grazing Demonstration, Shoesole Management Group, Stewardship Alliance of Northeast Elko County, Results Oriented Grazing for Ecological Resilience, the Northeastern Nevada Stewardship Group, the Deeth Allotment Working Group, and the Intermountain West Joint Venture.  

Managing Riparian Areas & Wetlands for Desired Conditions with Site-Appropriate Expectations 

Meiman also worked with individual permittees and small groups of permittees, Rangeland Management Specialists with the USDI-Bureau of Land Management (BLM) and USDA-Forest Service on questions, issues and concerns on various allotments in the past year.  Many of these efforts involved concerns and questions about the condition of riparian and wetland habitat as related to domestic livestock grazing management and some are associated with streams that do, or could support Lahontan cutthroat trout. Meiman worked as a member of a group on an environmental assessment that was being developed by the Nevada State Office of the USDI Bureau of Land Management for grazing management flexibilities for Lahontan Cutthroat Trout. In particular, Meiman focused on efforts to ensure proper application of short-term monitoring indicators (streambank alteration, stubble height and woody browse utilization) along with necessary long-term monitoring for grazing management. Through these and other efforts, Meiman was involved in over 30 meetings and made around 20 informal presentations that reached approximately 250 individuals. In addition, he made six formal presentations about livestock grazing management for the maintenance or improvement of riparian habitat conditions that reached approximately 150 individuals. Importantly, these efforts included work with a public land livestock grazing permittee and the land management agency, resulting in mitigating a potential conflict and initiating a cooperative approach to assess and monitor livestock grazing and riparian, and Lahontan cutthroat trout habitat.

Invasive Plant Management on Rangelands

In the past year, Meiman continued working on a study initiated in 2021 looking at large-scale, aerial applications of indaziflam, imazapic and the two herbicides combined, for restoration of sagebrush grasslands invaded by cheatgrass. Although none of the field sites are actually in Elko County, the majority of them are only 3-5 miles outside Elko County and the work is very applicable to much of the county.  Meiman also continues to work as a member of the core team to develop a multi-state Invasive Annual Grass Technology Transfer effort led by the University of Wyoming.  A sub-award was received by Paul Meiman and the group has been developing curricula for three different levels of workshops for invasive annual grass management. In June of 2025, Meiman and this multi-state group hosted a 2-day field workshop and tour based in Elko County with tour stops also in Eureka County.

Health and Nutrition

SNAP-Ed

The Elko County Extension Office was able to secure funding to hire a full-time Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program-Education Coordinator, Ciana Parker, who taught 161 elementary school students nutrition and physical activity lessons. Community partners included Grammar #2 Elementary, Elko Band Afterschool Program, Elko Mybrary, and Southside Elementary. Ciana attended 8 school events, health fairs, community events, promoting healthy eating and physical activity and reaching 793 youth and 121 adults.

Radon

Extension's Radon Education Program educates Nevadans about the health risks of elevated radon levels in the home. The program offers literature, maps, educational presentations and low-cost radon test kits. Radon is a naturally occurring radioactive gas with no odor, color, or taste and comes from the soil. Radon gas moves through the soil into the air, where it harmlessly spreads into outdoor air or enters buildings through the foundation and becomes trapped inside. When it enters a building and gets trapped inside, high levels can cause lung cancer. Radon is the number one cause of lung cancer in non-smokers. More than 21,000 Americans die of radon-related lung cancer each year. All homes, offices, schools and preschools should be tested for radon. Free radon test kits were offered to Elko County residents in January and February 2025. In 2024-2025, 29 radon test kits were distributed. 

Community Development

The Nevada Economic Assessment Project is a team of Extension economic and community development faculty and staff who published four reports to provide Elko County communities with research and analysis of emerging issues.

Housing Data Profile Elko County, Nevada is designed to help local and state agencies use the data for comprehensive planning. Four infographic fact sheets including Demographic and Economic Characteristics, Housing Supply, Housing Demand and Housing Affordability Analysis are included in the report.

Foundational Public Health Services in Suburban, Rural, And Frontier Needs The purpose of this report is to provide Nevada’s suburban, rural, and frontier county governments, community partners, and public health authorities with a baseline of public health services in their county and their regional counties utilizing a nationally recognized framework.

South Fork State Recreation Area Infographic Packet and  Wild Horse State Recreation Area Infographics Packet These fact sheets present the comprehensive findings from a survey across Nevada's state parks under the Nevada Division of State Parks, covering Demographics, Trip Quality, Park Performance, Visitation Patterns, Recreation Activities, and Planning Priorities.