The weekend of October 10-12, 1997 the Bay Area Killifish Association and the Tropical Fishkeepers Exchange, in cooperation with the Desert Springs Action Committee, held their annual conservation trip to the Ash Meadows Wildlife Refuge, Nevada. Ash Meadows is home to several endangered species of pupfish, including the Devil’s Hole Pupfish.
Under the supervision of Fish and Wildlife staff, a dozen high school students and nearly 15 adults, including two members of the Native Fishes Association, undertook four main activities: trapping and dip-netting of non-native species; seining and gill netting for large-mouth bass; thinning out dense cattail (Typha) stands; and undertaking a count of the pupfish population.
Team members removed some 7,000 non-natives, most of them Gambusia and crayfish. Smaller numbers of bullfrogs and mollies were removed, along with six bass. Although such removal programs require constant attention, the overall results are encouraging, as pupfish populations are up in nearly all the springs, with record numbers noted in some.
Ash Meadows contains a diverse group of desert springs that have a higher number of endemic species for its size than any other U.S. site. The Ash Meadows complex was the site of one of the longest environmental battles in North America (1967-1984), and long was threatened by excessive pumping for ranch use and development, diverting spring outflows and impacting native wildlife. One pupfish species is already extinct due to the falling water table; the rest are listed as Endangered by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
BAKA holds two trips to southern Nevada each year. The April trip may involve any of a number of different sites; the October trip is always to Ash Meadows.
— G.C.K.A. Newsletter, January 1998