I have a large ranch east of you in Nevada, and am having similar problems. A couple years ago an entire mountainside died off. One of my friends is a professional geology PhD in that area with gobs of fancy gear and access to the latest geo-data, and he checked it out for me. Large sections of the area are starting to turn strongly acid very quickly; it seems there is a new, rather large, and very active underground hydrogen sulfide gas source seeping to the surface. Furthermore, the thermal topography of the area is starting to change; the hydrothermal systems are getting warmer and the terrain is showing new and bigger hotspots.
From what I understand, this is not an isolated thing. Over the last couple years, the entire Great Basin rift zone has been showing increasing thermal and geological activity. Something is happening, though it may just be an inconsequential reshuffling. The Great Basin rift zone is one of THE most geologically active spots on the planet. That we haven't seen much activity in history is largely an artifact of our history only covering a couple hundred year lull in its very active history.
This part of the US has major volcanic disturbances on an "at least once every couple hundred years" kind of basis, including many novel forms of volcanism you don't normally see. Europeans started living in the region right around when the last known signficant volcanic activity tapered off so we don't have much eye witness history of it, but this region doesn't really go dormant.
Your report is more in keeping with what I understood even 30 years ago. I suspect it has greatly increased since then.
And, no, it won't be inconsequential. IMhO, it WILL BE OF SERIOUS CONSEQUENCE at some point in our lifetime--likely before 2015 most predictors seem to be betting.