The Ash Meadows National Wildlife Refuge is a protected

wildlife refuge A nature reserve (also known as a wildlife refuge, wildlife sanctuary, biosphere reserve or bioreserve, natural or nature preserve, or nature conservation area) is a protected area of importance for flora, fauna, or features of geological or ...

located in the

Amargosa Valley The Amargosa Valley is the valley through which the Amargosa River flows south, in Nye County, southwestern Nevada and Inyo County in the state of California. The south end is alternately called the "Amargosa River Valley'" or the "Tecopa Valley. ...

of southern

Nye County Nye County is a county in the U.S. state of Nevada. As of the 2020 census, the population was 51,591. Its county seat is Tonopah. At , Nye is Nevada's largest county by area and the third-largest county in the contiguous United States, behi ...

, in southwestern

Nevada Nevada ( ; ) is a state in the Western region of the United States. It is bordered by Oregon to the northwest, Idaho to the northeast, California to the west, Arizona to the southeast, and Utah to the east. Nevada is the 7th-most extensive, ...

. It is directly east of Death Valley National Park, and is west-northwest of

Las Vegas Las Vegas (; Spanish for "The Meadows"), often known simply as Vegas, is the 25th-most populous city in the United States, the most populous city in the state of Nevada, and the county seat of Clark County. The city anchors the Las Vegas ...

.Ash Meadows National Wildlife Refuge
The refuge was created on June 18, 1984, to protect an extremely rare desert oasis in the Southwestern United States. It is administered by the

U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service The United States Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS or FWS) is an agency within the United States Department of the Interior dedicated to the management of fish, wildlife, and natural habitats. The mission of the agency is "working with othe ...

Geography

The Ash Meadows National Wildlife Refuge is part of the larger

Desert National Wildlife Refuge Complex The Desert National Wildlife Refuge is a protected wildlife refuge, administered by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, located north of Las Vegas, Nevada, in northwestern Clark and southwestern Lincoln counties, with much of its land area lying w ...

, which also includes the

Desert National Wildlife Refuge The Desert National Wildlife Refuge is a protected wildlife refuge, administered by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, located north of Las Vegas, Nevada, in northwestern Clark and southwestern Lincoln counties, with much of its land area lying ...

, the

Moapa Valley National Wildlife Refuge The Moapa Valley National Wildlife Refuge (MVNWR) is a protected wildlife refuge administered by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, located in the Warm Springs Natural Area in the Moapa Valley of Clark County, Nevada. The refuge is east of Death ...

, and the

Pahranagat National Wildlife Refuge The Pahranagat National Wildlife Refuge is a protected wildlife refuge, at the southern end of the Pahranagat Valley and administered by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. It is north of Las Vegas, Nevada, Las Vegas, Nevada, in Lincoln County, ...

. Inside Ash Meadows is

Devils Hole Devils Hole is a geologic formation located in a detached unit of Death Valley National Park and surrounded by the Ash Meadows National Wildlife Refuge, in Nye County, Nevada, in the Southwestern United States. Devils Hole is habitat for the onl ...

, a detached unit of Death Valley National Park. Ash Meadows is within the

Amargosa Desert The Amargosa Desert is located in Nye County in western Nevada, United States, along the California–Nevada border, comprising the northeastern portion of the geographic Amargosa Valley, north of the Ash Meadows National Wildlife Refuge. Th ...

, of the

Mojave Desert The Mojave Desert ( ; mov, Hayikwiir Mat'aar; es, Desierto de Mojave) is a desert in the rain shadow of the Sierra Nevada mountains in the Southwestern United States. It is named for the indigenous Mojave people. It is located primarily ...

ecoregion. The Amargosa River is a visible part of the valley hydrology, and has seasonal surface flow passing southwards adjacent to the preserve, to later enter

Death Valley Death Valley is a desert valley in Eastern California, in the northern Mojave Desert, bordering the Great Basin Desert. During summer, it is the Highest temperature recorded on Earth, hottest place on Earth. Death Valley's Badwater Basin is the ...

Natural history

Ash Meadows provides a valuable and unprecedented example of desert oases habitats, that have become extremely uncommon in the southwestern deserts. The refuge is a major discharge point for a vast underground

aquifer An aquifer is an underground layer of water-bearing, permeable rock, rock fractures, or unconsolidated materials ( gravel, sand, or silt). Groundwater from aquifers can be extracted using a water well. Aquifers vary greatly in their characteris ...

water system, reaching more than to the northeast. Water-bearing strata come to the surface in more than thirty seeps and springs, providing a rich, complex variety of mesic

habitat In ecology, the term habitat summarises the array of resources, physical and biotic factors that are present in an area, such as to support the survival and reproduction of a particular species. A species habitat can be seen as the physical ...

s. Virtually all of the water at Ash Meadows is

fossil water Fossil water or paleowater is an ancient body of water that has been contained in some undisturbed space, typically groundwater in an aquifer, for millennia. Other types of fossil water can include subglacial lakes, such as Antarctica's Lake Vos ...

, believed to have entered the ground water system tens of thousands of years ago. Numerous stream channels and

wetland A wetland is a distinct ecosystem that is flooded or saturated by water, either permanently (for years or decades) or seasonally (for weeks or months). Flooding results in oxygen-free (anoxic) processes prevailing, especially in the soils. The p ...

s are scattered throughout the refuge. To the north and west are the remnants of Carson Slough, which was drained and mined for its

peat Peat (), also known as turf (), is an accumulation of partially decayed vegetation or organic matter. It is unique to natural areas called peatlands, bogs, mires, moors, or muskegs. The peatland ecosystem covers and is the most efficient ...

in the 1960s. Sand dunes occur in the western and southern parts of the refuge.

Endemic plants and animals

Ash Meadows National Wildlife Refuge was established to provide and protect habitat for at least twenty-six

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also found else ...

plants and animals, meaning they are found nowhere else in the world. Four fish and one plant are currently listed as endangered species. The concentration of locally exclusive flora and fauna that distinguishes Ash Meadows is the greatest concentration of endemic biota in any local area within the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

. It has the second greatest local endemism concentration in all of North America. File:Ash Meadows NWR Amargosa Pupfish (5120919575).jpg, The endangered

Amargosa pupfish ''Cyprinodon nevadensis'' is a species of pupfish in the genus ''Cyprinodon''. The species is also known as the Amargosa pupfish, but that name may also refer to one subspecies, ''Cyprinodon nevadensis amargosae''. All six subspecies are or wer ...

in Kings Pool File:Enceliopsis nudicaulis var corrugata 6.jpg, Ash Meadows sunray File:Crystal Spring in Ash Meadow.jpg, Crystal Spring in Ash Meadow File:Ash Meadows NWR entry sign 2017-05-14 002.jpg, Ash Meadows NWR entry sign 2017-05-14

Endemic flora

There are many plants

to Ash Meadows, including: * Ash Meadows sunray (''Enceliopsis nudicaulis'' var. ''corrugata'') * Ash Meadows blazingstar (''Mentzelia leucophylla'') * Ash Meadows gumplant (''Grindelia fraxino-pratensis'') * Ash Meadows milkvetch (''Astragalus phoenix'') * Amargosa niterwort (''Nitrophila mohavensis'') * Spring-loving centaury (''Zeltnera namophila'')

Discoveries

In 2010,

Utah State University Utah State University (USU or Utah State) is a public land-grant research university in Logan, Utah. It is accredited by the Northwest Commission on Colleges and Universities. With nearly 20,000 students living on or near campus, USU is Utah ...

announced that a team from the school had discovered two new bee species in the genus '' Perdita'' at Ash Meadows.

References

External links

U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service: official Ash Meadows National Wildlife Refuge website

U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service: Desert National Wildlife Refuge Complex website

{{authority control Desert National Wildlife Refuge Complex Amargosa Desert National Wildlife Refuges in Nevada Protected areas of Nye County, Nevada Ramsar sites in the United States Wetlands of Nevada Protected areas established in 1984 1984 establishments in Nevada Landforms of Nye County, Nevada Meadows in the United States