Where Are we?
An unexpected landscape that captures the imagination, Ash Meadows is a place of continual
discovery.
Ash Meadows is a land of apparent contradiction where abundant water and an improbable diversity
of life exists alongside one of the hottest places on Earth, Death Valley.
In this isolated oasis, over 26 endemic species, plants and animals found nowhere else on the
planet have survived here through the millennia.
It was the small, charismatic pupfish that first drew attention to the extraordinary
life here.
Their habitats, once devastated by human activity, are being restored, yet demand for
water and a changing climate threaten the continued existence of these unique species.
They live on the edge of extinction.
Ash Meadows is part of the Mojave Desert, one of the driest deserts in North America.
Its extreme aridity is due in part to the Sierra Nevada, just 100 miles west of Ash Meadows.
This 400-mile-long, towering mountain range forces moisture from Pacific storms to fall
as rain and snow on its western slopes, leaving the eastern side in a rain shadow.
However, it was not always this dry.
Until about 10,000 years ago, the climate was cooler and wetter.
Large spring-fed wetlands and lakes filled the valleys.
The lakes and springs were connected by rivers that flowed from Mono Lake to Death Valley.
As the climate became hotter, rivers retreated and lakes disappeared.
The once-connected network of lakes and rivers began to separate, leaving clusters of aquatic
species isolated from each other.
Pupfish populations took refuge in what water remained.
Each isolated population adapted to its unique environment and, over time, evolved into a
distinct species.
Springs and Ash Meadows have been flowing for two to three million years.
Fed by a deep aquifer lying beneath Nevada and California, water is forced to the surface
through faults in the rock.
Nearly 11,000 gallons of water emerge from springs and seeps every minute, creating the
largest remaining oasis of the Mojave Desert.
The water is ancient, much of it having fallen as precipitation thousands of years ago.
Like the water they depend on, the animals and plants are living remnants from a prehistoric
time.
One of these relics is the pupfish, named for their lively behavior resembling puppies
at play.
But what may look like play is actually serious business.
During breeding season, male pupfish defend their territories from other males while trying
to attract females.
The most abundant of the endemic fishes, the Ash Meadows Amorgosa pupfish, can be found
in all of the larger springs, as well as streams and shallow marshes.
It's more rare cousin, the Warn Springs pupfish, is only found in six small springs, contained
within less than a half square mile.
Ash Meadows is a land of surprise and contrast.
Deep turquoise springs sparkle against arid hillsides.
Sand dunes rise from wet meadows, leaves rustle in the ash woodlands.
Each is an integral part of the living landscape.
By ordinary standards, some of this life should not exist in the desert, but Ash Meadows is
no ordinary place.
We often tell our visitors to expect the unexpected at Ash Meadows.
After working here 10 years, I'm still being surprised by the unexpected.
There are always new discoveries.
Something as simple as walking into a gallery stand of ash with four foot tall Indian paint
brush or coming across a never-before-seen spring.
To discovering a new species, Ash Meadows never ceases to amaze.
Ash Meadows supports more than 16 different botanical habitats, each nurturing its own
unique collection of life.
In the Alkalai Sea habitat, the water table remains at or near the surface throughout
the year.
Here grows the greatest concentration of endemic plants, such as the spring-loving centauri,
with pink blooms that can be seen during the extreme heat of summer.
Alkalai Meadow is another distinctive habitat that is most noticeable in spring when a white
salt crust forms on the surface as groundwater evaporates.
Ash Meadows was named for the abundance of ash trees found here.
This habitat type most often occurs in small patches near springs, but also forms larger
communities within Alkalai Meadows, providing welcome shade for many creatures.
Bakehorn sheep come to drink from the springs and rest in the shade of mesquite and ash
trees before retreating to the safety of the rocky ridgelines.
Not only wildlife has been drawn to this oasis, humans too have come for many reasons.
The southern Pleiute and western Shoshone first inhabited the region surrounding the
pools and meadows.
They call themselves Nuhuvi and Nuhu.
For them, Ash Meadows is a gathering place where trails, people, wildlife and water come
together.
I first came to Ash Meadows a long time ago as a young girl with my parents and they brought
me out here to show me what was here and they were telling me stories of a long time ago
and the people who used to come here, people who used to live here and what took place
out here.
Native people from all over used to come here for gatherings, for ceremonies.
It was a meeting place.
It was where people came from the north, south, east, west and we all converged here and
met with our relatives and met new people.
So a lot of people can say they were born here and their parents met here and I can't
think of a better place.
For Nuhuvi and Nuhu, Ash Meadows is a place of creation, a sacred land where everything
is alive, breathes and interacts with its surroundings.
But the lives of the Nuhuvi and Nuhu were dramatically altered as European settlers arrived.
The water of Ash Meadows attracted homesteading families trying to carve out a life in the
new frontier as well as moonshiners, miners and brothel owners.
In 1896, one of the first pioneers, Jack Longstreet, a prospector, rancher, saloonkeeper
and hired gun constructed a stone cabin near a spring that now bears his name.
One claims the handle of his gun had a notch for each man he killed.
The cabin and stories are all that remain of Jack Longstreet, but other inhabitants
left much more significant impacts.
As the region developed, ambitious settlers leveled and drained what was once the largest
wetland in southern Nevada, the Carson Slume.
Its top six feet of peat was mined, its dunes leveled and miles of concrete were poured.
Electric pumps drained some springs dry and drew more water from the aquifer than nature
could replenish.
Drained, mined and entombed in concrete, the wetland eventually ceased to function.
This disappearance contributed to the extinction of the Ash Meadows killy fish and Ash Meadows
montane vole.
It soon became clear that if development continued unabated, the precious ecosystems
of Ash Meadows would be lost forever.
It was the smallest and most rare of all the fish that finally brought attention to the
ongoing destruction of Ash Meadows, the Devil's Hole potfish.
They lived deep in a narrow opening into an underwater cavern called Devil's Hole.
At least 500 feet deep, the cavern's true depth is unknown.
No one has ever reached the bottom.
This portal, deep into the earth, is the only natural habitat for the Devil's Hole pupfish.
Isolated here for thousands of years, their existence hangs on a small limestone shelf
where they spawn and feed.
As development began in Ash Meadows, local groundwater pumping caused the water level
to drop, threatening to expose the limestone shelf.
Even as the Devil's Hole pupfish was listed as an endangered species in 1967, groundwater
pumping accelerated, lowering the water surface even more.
Thanks to the efforts of concerned citizens, the U.S. Supreme Court finally ruled in 1976
that groundwater pumping must be regulated to protect the pupfish.
But the battles were not over.
Threats to the entire ecosystem continued when, in 1980, a development company proposed
to build hotels, strip malls, an airport, and more than 30,000 homes.
This could have led to the extinction of many of the plants and animals that rely on this
water.
After a series of negotiations, the Nature Conservancy purchased most of the land from
the development company and sold it to the federal government to be managed by the U.S.
Fish and Wildlife Service.
In 1984, Ash Meadows National Wildlife Refuge was established and, shortly after, recognized
as a wetland of international importance, one of the first in the United States to receive
this notable designation.
Ash Meadows was established to conserve and recover the endangered and other rare plants
and animals found in this area.
But the habitat of these species was so severely altered and degraded by human activities that
it's not enough to simply put a boundary, a refuge boundary, on a map and consider these
unique species protected.
Conservation of the land is an important first step, but we are actively assisting the recovery
of this ecosystem through restoration.
We're not trying to create a copy of some past landscape.
The habitat has been altered beyond that point.
But we are trying to put it on the right path to becoming a healthy, functioning ecosystem,
one that we hope will evolve and can weather a changing climate.
At Ash Meadows, people have come together to protect and restore an ecosystem found nowhere
else on the planet.
Visitors can experience this extraordinary place on scenic boardwalks that lead to sparkling
springs filled with charismatic pupfish that mesmerize.
There is boundless natural beauty to enjoy.
The land is now healing, but the story of preservation and protection doesn't end here.
It lives on, in each of us, in our willingness to take part in this story of restoration
and hope.
Experience Ash Meadows National Wildlife Refuge.
Discovery awaits.
Welcome to Ash Meadows National Wildlife Refuge.
Welcome to Ash Meadows National Wildlife Refuge.
Welcome to Ash Meadows National Wildlife Refuge.
