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 The Great Salt Lake is the largest saltwater lake in the Western Hemisphere and the ei ...

, part of the

Great Basin The Great Basin () is the largest area of contiguous endorheic watersheds, those with no outlets to the ocean, in North America. It spans nearly all of Nevada, much of Utah, and portions of California, Idaho, Oregon, Wyoming, and Baja Californi ...

Juab County Juab County ( ) is a county in western Utah, United States. As of the 2020 United States census, the population was 11,786. Its county seat and largest city is Nephi. Juab County is part of the Provo– Orem, Utah Metropolitan Statisti ...

Utah Utah is a landlocked state in the Mountain states, Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It is one of the Four Corners states, sharing a border with Arizona, Colorado, and New Mexico. It also borders Wyoming to the northea ...

, 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 a List of federal agencies in the United States, U.S. federal government agency within the United States Department of the Interior which oversees the management of fish, wildlife, ...

. As an

oasis In ecology, an oasis (; : oases ) is a fertile area of a desert or semi-desert environment Great Basin Desert The Great Basin Desert is part of the Great Basin between the Sierra Nevada and the Wasatch Range in the western United States. The desert is a geographical region that largely overlaps the Great Basin shrub steppe defined by the World Wildlife ...

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

fish A fish (: fish or fishes) is an aquatic animal, aquatic, Anamniotes, anamniotic, gill-bearing vertebrate animal with swimming fish fin, fins and craniate, a hard skull, but lacking limb (anatomy), limbs with digit (anatomy), digits. Fish can ...

, migratory

birds Birds are a group of warm-blooded vertebrates constituting the class (biology), class Aves (), characterised by feathers, toothless beaked jaws, the Oviparity, laying of Eggshell, hard-shelled eggs, a high Metabolism, metabolic rate, a fou ...

deer A deer (: deer) or true deer is a hoofed ruminant ungulate of the family Cervidae (informally the deer family). Cervidae is divided into subfamilies Cervinae (which includes, among others, muntjac, elk (wapiti), red deer, and fallow deer) ...

coyotes The coyote (''Canis latrans''), also known as the American jackal, prairie wolf, or brush wolf, is a species of canine native to North America. It is smaller than its close relative, the gray wolf, and slightly smaller than the closely relat ...

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 ante ...

cougars The cougar (''Puma concolor'') (, '' KOO-gər''), also called puma, mountain lion, catamount and panther is a large small cat native to the Americas. It inhabits North, Central and South America, making it the most widely distributed wild ...

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 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 between Missouri and California. It was operated by the Central Overland California and Pikes Peak Express Company. During its 18 months of opera ...

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 temperatur ...

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 Pore space in soil, soil pore spaces and in the fractures of stratum, rock formations. About 30 percent of all readily available fresh water in the world is groundwater. A unit ...

, 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 s ...

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 Forest ...

area and flowing along

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

bedrock (for example,

limestone Limestone is a type of carbonate rock, carbonate sedimentary rock which is the main source of the material Lime (material), lime. It is composed mostly of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different Polymorphism (materials science) ...

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 Utah Department of Natural Resources and is an applied scientific agency, which creates, interprets, ...

. 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