Drought drying Carson River hits Nevada pastures, ranchers

RENO, Nev. (AP) — Sixth-generation rancher Devere Dressler remembers seeing the Carson River teeming with fish as it flowed out of the eastern Sierra Nevada range, where the peaks were always capped with snow. Now, as the impacts of severe drought are felt across the West, Dressler sees a river running low, with far fewer fish, and bare mountain tops. As the Carson River runs low and the land dries up, ranchers like Dressler are feeling the impacts on their lives and livelihoods. The drought has left such poor conditions on the pastures that some ranchers have stopped using federal grazing areas and are instead putting their livestock back on ranches.