This will make your blood BOIL! $10 million for pupfish

[Fishrdan]

It's bad enough that the USFWS closed Willow Beach's trout hatchery November of 2013, "CLAIMING" that they didn't have funds to repair the hatchery. But at the same exact time they were wasting $10 million on building a pupfish sanctuary out in Pahrump.

http://www.reviewjournal.com/news/water-environment/new-visitor-center-focuses-rarest-fish-earth

New visitor center focuses on the rarest fish on Earth

Proceeds from federal land auctions paid for the $10 million visitor center that opened Friday at Ash Meadows National Wildlife Refuge, but it’s the humble desert pupfish — a group of rare and endangered fish species native to the ancient hot springs 90 miles west of Las Vegas — that keep the place humming. (Review-Journal File Photo)
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By JAMES DEHAVEN
LAS VEGAS REVIEW-JOURNAL

Think of it as the house the pupfish built.

Proceeds from federal land auctions paid for the $10 million visitor center that opened Friday at Ash Meadows National Wildlife Refuge, but it’s the humble desert pupfish — a group of rare and endangered fish species native to the ancient hot springs 90 miles west of Las Vegas — that keep the place humming.

As many as 75,000 tourists come to Ash Meadows for a glimpse of the pupfish in an average year.

At least a dozen of those visitors paid a visit to the new visitors center on its opening day, where they crowded around a prominently placed interactive exhibit on Devil’s Hole — the 10- by 30-foot water-filled cavern northeast of the center that is the sole home of the rarest fish in the world.

Scientists counted only 35 Devil’s Hole pupfish in the cavern in April 2013, down from a peak of 544 in 1990. The fish, which measure less than an inch in length, experienced a modest rebound in 2014 and now number around 100.

Researchers take rigorous tallies of the species twice a year and even built an off-site scale replica of Devil’s Hole in an attempt to better understand the pupfish’s murky habitat.

They still have no idea what’s caused the recent decline of the species.

Six miles from Devil’s Hole, only a 5-minute walk from the new visitors center, dozens of Amargosa pupfish — the Devil’s Hole pupfish’s slightly larger, heartier cousin — dart in and around Crystal Spring — an ancient natural oasis fed by the same 100-mile underground aquifer that sustains Devil’s Hole.

The bright blue and green Amargosa also experienced a slight comeback in 2014, though they number in the thousands.

Keeping both species alive and in the public eye is the ultimate goal of Ash Meadow staffers, one they say can only be helped by the refuge’s new visitor center.

“This is a big upgrade,� center manager Ben Jurand said. “We’ve had lots of visitors already, lots of positive feedback. We’ve also seen a lot of interest from volunteers.

“The more people we can bring in here, the more we can share some of the special features that make this place unique.�

Ash Meadows encompasses 30 aquifer-fed springs pumping 10,000 gallons per minute, making the refuge one of the most water-rich resources in Nevada.

It is also home to 26 endemic plant and animal species, the highest concentration of native species in the continental United States.

Fourteen of those species are classified as endangered, having narrowly averted the threat of extinction at the hands of peat harvesters, cotton farmers, ranchers or housing developers.

In an ecosystem as old and frail as the refuge, every non-native species counts as a threat. Volunteers can spend days and weeks trimming down cattails along an aquifer-feed stream or pulling predatory crayfish out of a 40,000-year-old hot spring.

Like gila monsters on the Galapagos Islands, the desert pupfish has spent a long time adapting to its unique environment. Newcomers to the system are almost always unwelcome.

“I’ve heard (the pupfish) described as castaways on an island ecosystem, surrounded by a sea of desert,� Jurand said. “They’ve been here a long time and they’re kind of just stuck here.�

Even without the pupfish, Ash Meadows’ new visitor center might draw a crowd.

A two-story facade of rust-covered cortene marks front and back entrances near the center of the building. The rest is encased in double-walled steel-and-brick to help keep 11,000 square-feet of exhibit, office and bookstore space cool in the summer and warm in the winter.

There is also a staff wet lab for testing water samples and a library for recording them.

A new boardwalk added as part of the center’s construction helps guide visitors from the back of the building toward Crystal Spring and other ancient water formations that support the area’s fragile habitat.

A 20-minute, self-guided loop trail helps bring them back to a small amphitheater and picnic space near the center’s back entrance, which staffers hope to use as an outdoor classroom for visiting students once the building officially opens in February.

Those additions are nothing to sneeze at, considering the previous center was a double-wide trailer.

Special shade structures and solar panels on an employee parking structure help ensure the new visitor center uses no more energy than that old trailer, a fact that had refuge manager Annji Bagozzi beaming a week after the center’s soft opening.

“We had to put up a sign telling people not to come in, because they were trying to get in before we opened.� Bagozzi said. “I’ve never seen so many visitors come through here in a week.�

Ash Meadows National Wildlife Refuge is open daily from sunrise to sunset. The refuge visitor center is open daily from 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Admission is free.

Government corruption at it's finest!

[Allan C.]

These people are crazy!


I don't care about stupid pupfish, or nutty suckers or frogs.....or the lot and especially those psychos who spend our money on them and raise them! I don't like those green (black inside) people (tree hugging idiots!)

They are wacko's who stole our trout away on purpose!