Spreading Like

By Heidi Kyser and Summer Thomad

Published November 1, 2018 at 8:05 PM PDT

So far in 2018 more than a million acres of Nevada wilderness have burned in both human and lighting caused fires. That's the meet of any year since the Great Basin Coordination Center began recording statistics in 2012. That year saw the second-highest total number of acres burned, at 607,798. This year's largest Nevada wildfires were the South Sugarloaf, which burned 233,461 acres in Elko County, and the Martin, which burned 431,753 acres in Humboldt County. Could this be the new post-climate change norm? Fire officials fear so.

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Heidi Kyser

Desert Companion welcomed Heidi Kyser as staff writer in January 2014. In 2018, she was promoted to senior writer and producer, working for both DC and KNPR's State of Nevada. She produced KNPR’s first podcast, the Edward R. Murrow Regional Award-winning Native Nevada, in 2020. The following year, she returned her focus full-time to Desert Companion, becoming Deputy Editor, which meant she was next in line to take over when longtime editor Andrew Kiraly left in July 2022. In 2024, Interim CEO Favian Perez promoted Heidi to managing editor, charged with integrating the Desert Companion and State of Nevada newsroom operations.

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