(10.5.09) A Short Natural History Lesson and some Ecology too

My first four-day tour was a wonderful success. Our crew was assigned to Ash Meadows National Wildlife Refuge, a hot springs oasis in the Amargosa Valley right over the mountains from Death Valley. We were grateful for this placement mostly because the rest of the NCC crews were trail building at Lake Tahoe, which although beautiful is depressingly fridgid this time of year (in the 20s, with snow). Needless to say, we relished every bit of our short sleeves and sunburns!

Weather aside, Ash Meadows was a little bit of heaven on earth. The Refuge was formed in the 1980s in an effort to protect the five endemic pupfish species and the geothermal springs found within the valley. Since then, the National Park Service has identified almost 30 species endemic to the hot springs in this oasis. Most notable is the Devil's Hole Pupfish (Cyprinodon diabolis) whose population levels are precipitously low at the moment. The Devil's Hole Pupfish was also the first species to be granted water rights by the US Supreme Court. When developers sought to bring agriculture to the Amargosa Valley, the Nature Conservancy and other activists rallied to protect the water table of the valley and the Devil's Hole pupfish. This small fish only lives in one water-filled cavern, and spawns on one shallow shelf of this cavern. Small changes in the water table have a significant impact on this fragile ecosystem. After a drawn out debate, the Devil's Hole is now protected as part of Death Valley National Park, and Ash Meadows Wildlife Refuge surrounds the site protecting other species that affect and are affected by the pupfish (barn owls and their feces, for instance).

Although we were exposed to the history and ecology of Ash Meadows, our role at Ash Meadows did not involve anything as exciting as performing fish surveys (which I hear involves electrocution...fun). Instead, our crew was busy transplanting alkali sacaton (Sporobolus airoides), a native grass. Earlier in the year, the Park Service bulldozed fields of the invasive Russian napweed (Acroptilon repens) and now they are planting these grasses in an effort to jumpstart secondary succession and create a native ecosystem that will squelch the invasive grasses. With native vegetation in place, endemic species can thrive and native wildlife (such as the Lewis' woodpecker) may return. This is part of a long term project to restore Ash Meadows from an agricultural wasteland to a thriving wetland. It could be decades before this is achieved, but I will always be proud of the 2,000 pots of grass we gave a home in this beautiful part of the country.