In 02001, Long Now became the stewards of the Nevada Bristlecone Preserve, a breathtaking piece of land abutting Great Basin National Park in eastern Nevada. From the top of the Preserve’s most prominent feature, the peak of Mount Washington, you can see hundreds of miles across the basin and range, all while standing in a grove of some of the longest-lived trees in the world.
Centuries of the Bristlecone is an artwork by philosopher and conceptual artist Jonathon Keats commissioned by the Nevada Museum of Art in partnership with The Long Now Foundation. A decade in the making and launched this year, the piece has two components: a monumental arboreal clock built in collaboration with clockmakers Phil Abernethy and Brittany Nicole Cox, and a land art installation sited at Long Now’s Nevada Bristlecone Preserve, home to the world's longest-living trees.
In 02022, sculptor Alicia Eggert worked with Long Now on an ephemeral installation of This Present Moment at 11,000 feet. This massive billboard selectively illuminated a Stewart Brand epigram, bringing it to life in neon, steel, and time itself.
For the past two decades, we've been partnering with climate scientists who have installed a network of weather stations that sync the 10,000-year dendrochronological record to observed weather fluctuations. The climate and hydrological data they've amassed brings new understanding about how water is stored in the Basin and Range ecosystems, and how to best support safe aquifers for desert ecosystems and future generations.
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