Fish Springs National Wildlife Refuge is at the southern end of the

Great Salt Lake Desert The Great Salt Lake Desert (colloquially referred to as the West Desert) is a large dry lake in northern Utah, United States, between the Great Salt Lake and the Nevada border. It is a subregion of the larger Great Basin Desert, and noted for wh ...

, part of the Great Basin in

Juab County Juab County ( ) is a county in western Utah, United States. As of the 2010 United States Census, the population was 10,246. Its county seat and largest city is Nephi. Juab County is part of the Provo–Orem, Utah Metropolitan Statistical ...

Utah Utah ( , ) is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. Utah is a landlocked U.S. state bordered to its east by Colorado, to its northeast by Wyoming, to its north by Idaho, to its south by Arizona, and to it ...

, United States. The Refuge is managed by the

United States 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 ...

. As an oasis in the

Great Basin Desert The Great Basin Desert is part of the Great Basin between the Sierra Nevada (U.S.), Sierra Nevada and the Wasatch Range. The desert is a geographical region that largely overlaps the Great Basin shrub steppe defined by the World Wildlife Fund, a ...

in western Utah, Fish Springs serves a variety of species including

fish Fish are aquatic, craniate, gill-bearing animals that lack limbs with digits. Included in this definition are the living hagfish, lampreys, and cartilaginous and bony fish as well as various extinct related groups. Approximately 95% of ...

, migratory birds,

deer Deer or true deer are hoofed ruminant mammals forming the family Cervidae. The two main groups of deer are the Cervinae, including the muntjac, the elk (wapiti), the red deer, and the fallow deer; and the Capreolinae, including the re ...

coyotes The coyote (''Canis latrans'') is a species of canine native to North America. It is smaller than its close relative, the wolf, and slightly smaller than the closely related eastern wolf and red wolf. It fills much of the same ecological nich ...

pronghorn The pronghorn (, ) (''Antilocapra americana'') is a species of artiodactyl (even-toed, hoofed) mammal indigenous to interior western and central North America. Though not an antelope, it is known colloquially in North America as the American a ...

cougars The cougar (''Puma concolor'') is a large cat native to the Americas. Its range spans from the Canadian Yukon to the southern Andes in South America and is the most widespread of any large wild terrestrial mammal in the Western Hemisphere. ...

and other native species. The reserve can be reached by paved road from Lynndyl to

Topaz Mountain Topaz Mountain is a summit in the Thomas Range of Utah, east of the Thomas caldera. The summit and surrounding area are known for their abundances of semiprecious minerals including topaz, red beryl and opal. Geology and geography Topaz Mounta ...

and then by improved dirt road to the Pony Express Road/Lincoln Highway improved dirt road which runs through the Refuge. The Refuge also is a recreational area for permitted outdoor activities. The

Fish Springs Range The Fish Springs Range is a long narrow, and north-trending mountain range located in center-west Juab County, Utah. The northeast of the range borders the Fish Springs National Wildlife Refuge; the entire east of the range borders the Fish Sp ...

runs north to south and is immediately west of the Wildlife Refuge. MiddleSpring

Fish Springs started as a

Pony Express The Pony Express was an American express mail service that used relays of horse-mounted riders. It operated from April 3, 1860, to October 26, 1861, between Missouri and California. It was operated by the Central Overland California and Pi ...

and Overland Stage station, and got its name from the fish that populated the springs, which were reported to be over in length. The fish are left over from ancient

Lake Bonneville Lake Bonneville was the largest Late Pleistocene paleolake in the Great Basin of western North America. It was a pluvial lake that formed in response to an increase in precipitation and a decrease in evaporation as a result of cooler temperature ...

which receded about 14,000 years ago. Several natural springs feed the wetlands. These are along a linear path at the range front (that is, fault controlled), and include North Springs, Deadman Springs, House Springs, Middle Springs, Thomas Springs, South Springs, and Percy Springs. Fish Springs is thought to be the end of a long flowpath of

groundwater Groundwater is the water present beneath Earth's surface in rock and soil pore spaces and in the fractures of rock formations. About 30 percent of all readily available freshwater in the world is groundwater. A unit of rock or an unconsolidated ...

, starting in the

Schell Creek Range The Schell Creek Range is a linear mountain range in central White Pine County, in east-central Nevada. Its length is approximately in a north-south direction. Most of the range is contained within the Humboldt-Toiyabe National Forest, with so ...

and

Snake Range The Snake Range is a mountain range in White Pine County, Nevada, United States. The south-central portion of the range is included within Great Basin National Park, with most of the remainder included within the Humboldt-Toiyabe National Fores ...

area and flowing along

permeable Permeability, permeable, and semipermeable may refer to: Chemistry *Semipermeable membrane, a membrane which will allow certain molecules or ions to pass through it by diffusion *Vascular permeability, the movement of fluids and molecules betwe ...

bedrock (for example,

limestone Limestone ( calcium carbonate ) is a type of carbonate sedimentary rock which is the main source of the material lime. It is composed mostly of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different crystal forms of . Limestone forms whe ...

s) or faults toward Fish Springs. This comes from the fact the annual discharge of the springs is /year, and the annual recharge for the drainage area (the range front and Fish Springs Flat) is about /year, meaning over 6 times more water flows out of the springs than falls in the valley annually by precipitation. The springs and several wells in the area are monitored by Fish and Wildlife personnel and/or the

Utah Geological Survey The Utah Geological Survey is based in Salt Lake City, Utah, United States. It also has an office in Cedar City, Utah. It is a division of the

. The water of Fish Springs is not suited for human consumption, being warm (~) and highly saline.

References

External links

* {{authority control Protected areas of Juab County, Utah Great Salt Lake Desert National Wildlife Refuges in Utah Protected areas of the Great Basin Wetlands of Utah Landforms of Juab County, Utah Oases of the United States